Do Coffee Cups Really Need to Be Heated? Would Espresso and Pour-Over Coffee Taste Better Made with Chilled Cups?

Understanding Coffee Cup Temperature and Its Impact on Flavor

Until now, regardless of the coffee type, people have always preheated the containers before preparing coffee through various methods! For example, rinsing with hot water, placing them on coffee machines to "cook," and so on.

These actions increase the container's temperature, reducing the heat loss of coffee due to temperature differences, thus preventing the coffee from cooling too quickly. However, since people recognized that temperature affects coffee tasting, an increasing number of people have stopped preheating coffee cups, opting instead to use room temperature cups for serving coffee. Especially in summer, this prevents guests from drinking scalding coffee while allowing them to more clearly perceive the coffee's flavors.

Originating from this principle, Mr. Sasa Sestic invented the Paragon ice ball for coffee cooling. This ice ball can instantly cool coffee upon extraction, and coffee at lower temperatures allows people to better perceive its aroma. Thus, some netizens have proposed: if we refrigerate the cups that receive coffee, wouldn't the low-temperature cups provide similar effects?

FrontStreet Coffee was also very curious, so why don't we try it! Using refrigerated cups to serve coffee to see if it can produce similar effects~

Brewing Experiment

For this experiment, we divided into two groups: espresso and pour-over coffee. Since temperature changes occur after extraction is complete, this won't affect the coffee extraction rate, only change the coffee's temperature. The specific temperature and the coffee's performance are exactly what we aim to explore in this experiment!

Let's start with espresso. The coffee beans used for espresso extraction are still FrontStreet Coffee's Warm Sun Blend, with 20g of grounds, 1:2 coffee-to-liquid ratio, and an extraction time of 30 seconds. We used both room temperature and iced cups to receive the espresso.

(Iced cup) The espresso received in a room temperature cup was 74°C, and its taste represents the normal performance of Warm Sun Blend: whiskey aroma, butter cookies, and a slight berry acidity. The espresso received in an iced cup dropped to 54°C, and while it still had rich whiskey aroma and creamy sweetness, it was easier to drink. Although the acidity was enhanced, it remained very gentle, creating an overall full and rounded experience.

(The espresso had cooled during filming; refer to the temperatures mentioned above) Now let's try pour-over coffee~ The beans used for pour-over were 90+ Estate's Eleta Geisha, which exists quite differently from conventional Geishas. Because this Geisha underwent 90+ Company's proprietary special processing method, it doesn't have the traditional floral and fruity notes of classic Geishas, but rather rare flavors of spices and longan.

The extraction parameters were: 15g of grounds, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, 92°C water temperature, EK43 grind setting of 9.5, 85% passing through a #20 sieve, and three-stage pour-over method using a V60 dripper.

(We've seen enough regular brewing, so this shows iced cup brewing) Both brewing methods were controlled at around 1 minute 50 seconds. The pour-over coffee received in a room temperature sharing pot had a final temperature of 68°C, featuring exotic flavors of longan, spices, grapes, and cocoa. The pour-over received in an iced cup had a final temperature of 60°C, and aside from a slight increase in acidity, there weren't significant changes in taste.

Experiment Conclusion

From the above experiments, we can see that espresso preparation is indeed affected by cup temperature, leading to significant changes in taste experience. For pour-over coffee, while there are changes, they are minimal. The reason is that there's too much coffee liquid, and the refrigerated cup cannot cause major changes, resulting in only about 8°C temperature reduction, with minimal taste changes. However, if we don't mind the trouble, using multiple iced cups for pour-over isn't out of the question~

But it's important to know that not all coffees are suitable for the cooling effects provided by iced cups. Lower coffee temperature makes us more sensitive to sour and bitter flavors, which isn't friendly for coffees with prominent sour or bitter notes. Additionally, if friends want to try this experiment, it's absolutely crucial that the iced cups used must be very thick! Otherwise, there's a high risk of杯子 cracking due to excessive temperature differences.

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