Here’s Everything You Need To Know About Reheating 1-Day-Old Coffee
A common dilemma for coffee lovers arises when they make too much coffee at once. It would be rather disappointing to pour it down the drain so some people keep it away in the fresh for the next day or a late night topper. Yet, the practice of reheating coffee seems unheard of. So, here we are with all the answers you may have about reheating coffee.
Coffee is best enjoyed fresh but if you've ever had to keep some in your fridge to be enjoyed later then you've most likely had some reheated at least once before. If that isn't you and you're wondering about the safety of doing so, then you should know that reheating coffee is perfectly safe to do.
How Does One-Day-Old Coffee Taste?
If you keep the coffee in an airtight container before transferring it to the fridge, then you can rest assured that its taste won't be compromised. If you forgot to do this, then reheating the coffee will make it taste bad and it would have lost all its flavor.
If you totally forgot to refrigerate the leftover coffee then you shouldn't even bother reheating; it would have become unsafe for consumption.
Is It Really Right To Reheat Coffee?
For us, it's a NO.
Very little else beats the refreshing taste of fresh coffee — definitely not one that has been reheated! The greater fraction of the coffee flavor seeps out during brewing and after about 30 minutes, the flavor starts to dissipate due to a process called oxidation. Simply put, exposing the coffee to air causes its flavour to deteriorate quickly.
Although refrigeration will keep the coffee safe for consumption later, it won't stop the oxidation process. So, the coffee would have lost all its flavor and sometimes even become slightly bitter.
Reheating such coffee won't restore its original taste. Instead, it gets worse; the bitterness becomes more pronounced and sometimes becomes sour.
So, no, reheating coffee is absolutely not right, especially when the coffee is already a day old. Next time, you're making coffee, try to stick to a known quantity and never make too much to stash away for later.
What If I Have To Reheat The Coffee
When you absolutely have to reheat coffee, perhaps to avoid wastage, make sure:
- It's in an airtight container before placing it in your refrigerator. This limits exposure to air and therefore, staves off the oxidation process as much as possible.
- You reheat it over a stove top and never a microwave as the latter causes the flavors to break down even faster.
- Reheat it at a low temperature.
- It's cold brewed coffee. You can reheat certain kinds of coffee like a cold brew coffee without losing flavor.
Does Reheating Coffee Destroy Caffeine?
Caffeine is a very stable compound and it raoms that way even when you reheat your coffee. The only issue with reheating is how the other compounds in the coffee would react.
The phenolic compounds present in your coffee will react with air and make it sour and in many cases bitter. Thus, the importnace of keepinvn it in an airtight container.
BOTTOMLINE
- Reheated coffee is perfectly safe to drink but that is not the case when it has lasted a whole day out on your kitchen countertop.
- Reheated coffee doesn't taste any great, even less so when it's a day old, but if you have to keep brewed coffee away, make sure the coffee is in an airtight container and refrigerated for best results.
