Preheat Your Mug for Better Tasting Coffee

Preheat Your Mug for Better Tasting Coffee

For many years I drank coffee without preheating my mug. I’d pour in the coffee into a room temperature mug (which actually tends to be a little cold by touch at room temperature), add some cold creamer, then would be really dissatisfied at the lukewarm brew I’d start sipping. Then I’d have to compensate by sipping a little coffee out and adding more of the brew to my mug (which would only marginally bring up the brew temp.) or, worse, I’d stick my mug in the microwave to make it hotter (hey, I know this is heresy… this was a long time ago!). Just like leaving coffee sitting on a warmer for 20 or 30 minutes, microwaving coffee actually changes the physical chemistry of the brew and degrades the quality of the resulting cup.

The fact is, I didn’t really understand too much about coffee back then or know anything about optimal brew temps. or what I could do to make better tasting coffee at home. Warm coffee can taste a lot different than hot coffee, as the flavors seem to change as coffee cools. The problem was, most drip-brew coffee makers, including the one I was using at the time, can only get up to about 190 degrees Fahrenheit at best, when optimal coffee extraction really takes place between 195-205. So, the coffee wasn’t brewing at the correct temperature in the first place, and the brew wasn’t making it into my cup at a decent temperature, either.

Besides my usual rant on how you can brew coffee at a more optimal temperature by using a french press, or our favorite pour-over method, the Clever Coffee Dripper, another suggestion on how to keep your coffee hotter is to preheat your mug before brewing your coffee.

This obviously doesn’t really work too well when pouring coffee into a paper cup, but when using a ceramic or travel mug, by preheating the mug, we can prevent the dramatic heat loss that happens when pouring a fresh brew of coffee into an otherwise cold mug.

Hot water from the tap isn’t hot enough. We need boiling or near boiling water for preheating. If you’re using a pour-over dripper, you can do this by placing your dripper on top of the mug and pouring some hot water through. This not only preheats your mug, but also the dripper, which can help maintain heat while brewing. If making coffee with a regular drip-brew coffee maker, you can also run some hot water through but since the brewer itself won’t usually get past 190 degrees, it may be better to put some water in your mug from the tap and microwave it for about 1:30 or boil water using a kettle… using a microwave is probably more convenient.

Leave the hot water in the mug until you’re ready to either start your dripping if using a pour-over method, or right before pouring in the brew from your drip-brew coffeemaker. Dump the hot water right before you start, and you’ll notice that the coffee in your mug will be a lot hotter than before…  you’ll likely taste flavors you may have never picked up on previously.

And, hopefully, you’ll never consider microwaving your cup of coffee again.

Give preheating your mug a try and let me know in the comments if you can taste a difference.