Reheating Coffee Be careful with this Practice!
Are you one of those people who usually reheats coffee? And it is inevitable that sometimes the need arises reheat a cup of coffee that could not be taken when planned for whatever reason. Rather than waste it by throwing it away, it is normal to think, with the best intentions, of reheating the coffee. Is it safe to do so?
Any coffee lover would immediately advise you to quickly get rid of that idea, Even the most purists may be offended just by hearing the proposal. What is the reason for this bad reputation of reheated coffee? In Incapto we tell you.
How to reheat coffee
Everything said is true, but it is also true that there are nuances. Reheating a coffee is always not recommended, but there are ways to do it without causing a problem for our digestion and spoiling its aroma and flavor as little as possible, that is, its organoleptic properties.
To begin with, the most important thing is that when you reheat it, you never raise the temperature of the coffee above 60º C. This is much lower than what is usually used in its preparation, but it is done precisely to avoid triggering again the chemical reactions that should only occur in its first preparation.
Thus, the keys are uniform and slow heating, for which the ideal is to use the stove or hob, or the microwave.
If you use the microwave, be sure to first reduce the microwave power to at most 80%. Put the coffee in the microwave in a suitable cup, and always heat it in small intervals of 30 seconds until achieving that uniform temperature of approximately 60 degrees. Stir it gently after each heating and add another 30 seconds if it is still cold. Depending on the temperature, you may need between 1 and 3 intervals.
If you use fire it is easier, because you just have to heat it on very low heat in a small saucepan or pot, until it reaches a suitable temperature to drink it.
It is easier to reheat cold brewed coffee, whose different preparation allows it to be heated with fewer problems. To do this, preheat the cup by adding a little boiling water to it, passing it over the entire cup and then throwing it away. Add the cold coffee to half the cup, and then add a little boiling water that you have let sit for 5 minutes or steamed milk. Drink it as soon as you can without letting it cool.
How NOT to do it
How not to overheat the coffee then? Taking into account what has been said, Never reheat coffee above 60º C. You should also not reheat it using a coffee maker of those that keep it warm by resistance, since prolonged exposure to heat will end up greatly bittering it and making it indigestible. Furthermore, if the coffee is very bitter, you are more likely to overindulge in sugar or snack on sweet things, which is not advisable for your health.
You should also not reheat the coffee if this one has milk or any other dairy additive, since these components tend to begin to transform as soon as they leave the cold of the refrigerator, and reheating them will profoundly alter the flavor and texture of your coffee.
Lastly, do not reheat coffee that has long time away, especially if it contains dairy products of any kind, as its properties may have been spoiled. As a general rule, you should not reheat any coffee that has been brewed for more than two hours.
The importance of coffee bean roasting
We cannot finish this article without talking a little about science, and that is why our favorite drink hides a long and complex process, closely linked to chemistry. To begin with, coffee differs from tea in that, when we make an infusion with its beans, these They are toasted. If you chewed some green coffee beans, you would be struck by their markedly bitter taste, as happened to the monks who tried them in the mythical story of the shepherd Kaldi, who tells us an imaginative origin of the drink.
It is the grain roasting which causes some of the acids present in coffee to degrade and transform into sugars, which give it the flavor we know. A good coffee preparation means that, by adding water at the appropriate temperature, we extract from the roasted and ground grain the components that give the coffee its best aroma and flavor, leaving out other unwanted acids and oils.
Excess heat will ruin the delicate reaction, causing the grain release more components which will give the coffee a bitter and unpleasant taste, while the more volatile aromas are lost. Exactly the same thing that will happen, even more markedly, if you reheat your coffee.
We recommend you choose a good coffee like the ones we offer at Incapto using the super automatic coffee makers best on the market.
