Science Finds The Most Acceptable Coffee Drinking Temperature
What temperature do you like your coffee to be? It changes from person to person, and can be somewhat difficult for cafes to decide how hot to serve their brews. A new study by researchers from the UC Davis Coffee Center examines coffee temperature as it relates to customer acceptance and it has nothing to do with flavor perception.
Published November 30, 2024 in Nature, researchers William D. Ristenpart, Andrew R. Cotter and Jean-Xavier Guinard sought to find what, if any, coffee drinking temperature had the greatest mass acceptance. To do this, they asked 118 participants to each taste 27 different coffee samples — giving them a total of 3,186 data points. For each coffee participants were asked to rate the enjoyability of the temperature on a five-point Just About Right (JAR) scale, where they had to select between much too cold, somewhat too cold, just about right, somewhat too hot and much too hot.
For the purposes of the test, researchers were looking for the coldest temperature that had the greatest percentage of participants rating it as just about right or somewhat too hot. Their reasoning for this is the general one-way nature of coffee’s drinkable temperatures. If a coffee is too hot, a person can simply wait a minute or two to let it cool. Whereas once a coffee has cooled beyond the ideal, consumers have less recourse to correct it. Thus, slightly overshooting the perfect temp on the hot side is preferred.
They found that, while tasting temperatures at 60 – 62°C (140 – 144°F) and 62 – 64°C (144 – 147°F ) had the largest percentage of participants stating they were just about right with 65%. Trialing closely behind at 64% was 56 – 58°C (133 -136°F) and 58 – 60°C (136 -140°F) as a significant portion (4% to 12%) rating it somewhat too cold.
A higher temperature between 68 – 70°C (154 – 158°F) may better serve a larger swath of people. While only 51% found it just about right, another 39% rated it as somewhat too hot and most importantly, only 1% found it somewhat too cold. Any higher, such as in the 70 – 72°C (158 – 162°F) range, and the just about rights dipped well below half to 40%, making it less than ideal even with a 0% somewhat too cold response rate.
Researchers did note temperature had little effect on the perceived adequacy of flavor intensity, mouthfeel and acidity, each of which had a far greater impact on participants’ assessments of a coffee’s quality. Temperature did, however, appear to have a slight effect on a customer’s intent to purchase, with the data showing a slightly increasing trend as coffee went from 56°C to 64°C and a small decrease appearing when the temperature went above that point before making a larger drop-off at 71°C.
Researchers are quick to point out their study is focused specifically on drinking and brewing temperatures which actually do vary based on the environment. There are a lot of steps between heating the water to brew with and a customer tasting it, and they all contribute to temperature loss.
According to the study, however, the goal temperature which appeals to the largest percentage of the population is between 68 – 70°C (154 – 158°F).