I used to brew coffee like a normal person, but then I started storing the last half-cup left over in my French Press in the fridge to drink later as iced coffee.
But I found that I was impatient the next morning waiting for my fresh coffee to brew, so while I prepared it (maybe 10 minutes beginning to end) I would nuke the previous day’s leftover coffee. Since I couldn’t tell the difference between one cup and the other, I started routinely brewing coffee specifically to keep cold in the fridge, so now I very rarely need to wait more than a minute for the microwave to do its thing. Honestly, I can’t tell the difference between fresh-brewed and nuked coffee.
Can you?
If you were my guest, and couldn’t see (or hear) what I was doing in the kitchen, would you notice anything off in the first cup of (nuked) coffee I served you?
I know I couldn’t. If you’re a “yes” would you be confident enough to wager a lot of money that you could consistently distinguish the echt coffee from the ecch coffee?
I’ve microwaved coffee when the coffee pot has turned itself off for awhile and it’s gone room temp. I swear it gives the coffee an ‘off’ flavor, but I’ve never done a blind taste test, and no, I wouldn’t want to wager a lot of money on it without having done my own blind test first.
My point being is it your knowledge that it is reheated coffee (my dad used to say ‘re-hated coffee’) or are your taste buds sensitive enough to tell the difference? Mine definitely are not.
There are some days that I nuke the last cup of coffee after the pot has turned off and the coffee got cold. And sometimes I’ll let that cup sit too long and it gets cold and I have to nuke it again. And I can definitely tell a difference in the twice-nuked cup.
If I have never tasted your coffee before, then no I am not going to be able to tell from just a single cup. What might taste like “nuked” to me could just be the way you normally make your coffee.
If it was a side-by-side taste test, where one cup was fresh brewed and one was reheated day old refrigerated coffee, then I am guessing that yes, I could tell the difference.
I most assuredly could not. Indeed, I frequently purchase a travel mug of coffee from a local gas station on day 1 so the next morning I can heat it up in a saucepan. (No microwave.) It tastes the same.
Purists might disapprove, but I’m like Jack Reacher, all I want is coffee, hot.
I doubt it. But that is partially because I don’t expect anything in particular from a cup of coffee someone else made besides that it contains black liquid that contains caffeine.
I would be curious doing an experiment at home with coffee I’m used to having every day.
We occasionally forget to empty residual brewed coffee out of the pot from the day before, make a new pot on top of it and have to reheat the final product. Seems fine.
I make a big pot and leave it for a couple of days. And reheat, add water, have it over ice, etc. till it’s all gone. Coffee is basically oil and water. I don’t refrigerate mine.
@Roger_That , you don’t even have to refrigerate the coffee if you don’t want.
I make 10-12 cups at a time in a drip coffeemaker. Then whatever my wife and I don’t drink right away (normally 6-8 cups) gets left in the reseated pot until the next morning. Tastes A-OK after 90 seconds in the microwave.
Caveat: I drink coffee with plenty of artificial sweetener and half-&-half. I dislike black coffee … but if I did drink it black regularly, I would expect fresh-brewed to taste better than day-old microwave coffee.
EDIT: What tullsterx ust wrote. Although IME refrigerating leftover coffee yields a better cold coffee drink than adding ice cubes to room temperature joe. Up to individual preference.
If it started out as French press coffee, I would not be able to tell. In my experience, I don’t mind reheated good coffee at all.
Starting with coffee that has sat in a drip coffee maker carafe, on the burner, until it turned itself off, I doubt I could tell if it was microwaved, but it would almost certainly taste “burnt” to me. I can’t stand that taste. But the problem would not come from the microwaving.
ETA: I may sound like a coffee snob in some way, but it’s just that I don’t like coffee enough to drink bad coffee.
I forgot to mention: If you want to drink drip coffee the next day from the same pot it was brewed in … you can’t leave the burner on very long after the pot’s finished brewing. I consistently turn off the burner after I pour my wife’s and my first cup. Even with the burner turned off, the carafe remains hot enough so that our second cups are plenty hot.
Then the next morning, the coffee doesn’t taste burnt.
I own one which I’ve had for at least 15 years . I’ve used it twice. Pain in the ass to clean. Great coffee though and looks cool as hell. It’s in our basement storage area.
I detest instant - always tastes like burnt rubber, even the freeze dried - the old school pre-freeze dried coffee I can see why it would taste burnt - it was heated [hopefully gently] until all the water evaporated, but freeze dried shouldn’t taste burnt because it lacks added heating. So I would taste if he were subbing in instant.
I dislike decaf, it is lacking something - even if it is just the underlying bitter taste of chemical caffeine. Doesn’t matter, I can make it and add cardamon or cinnamon to make up for the deficiency, but again, using splenda, half and half and a spice to add flavor.
I dislike percolator coffee, it tastes burnt from the extended exposure to boiling coffee, and probably scorch from contact with the heating element. Nothing can make it palatable - I avoided coffee at certain places until universal huge drip coffee makers because those 64 cup perk monstrosities made IMHO horrible horrible coffee. Going cold and reheating would probably make a hell brew.
Good french press or drip can actually take a lot of abuse, I have a french press, a good drip coffee maker, and a Chemex pour over that all make equally good coffee. The only difference between them is that the drip maker is the only one you can not control the water temperature with. Given good quality beans, good water [not hyper chlorinated or well water that has high mineral/iron or sulphur content, and that I like it light and sweet, I probably wouldn’t be able to taste the difference.
I’m certain I could tell the difference in a blind taste test. The real question is not “could I tell the difference?” but “would it really matter to me?” Yes, I can definitely tell the difference. Does it offend me to drink the lesser coffee? Not really.
As I’ve posted on the SDMB, Covid lockdowns/price increases pushed me to change from “I must grind high-end fresh beans each day to make my coffee” to “eh, a can of Kirkland or Signature ground coffee is fine, not sure why I fussed so much in the past.”
Then a few weeks ago, my partner’s birthday present included a consultation with a professional coffee bean consultant who has been working for the past several years with agricultural specialists on Hawaii Island (home of Kona coffee). As directed by the consultant, I was gifted a French press, a grinder, and a selection of high-end whole beans.
The specialist did not approve of any burr grinder, but gamely made do, measuring the water and grinding the beans with exact precision (no volume measurements, weight only), using a thermometer to measure the temperature of the water, and timing the precise amount of time the freshly ground beans were in contact with the water (and skimming a few minutes in). He did this weird slurping/sniffing test, and actually varied the amount of coffee beans by just a few grams - we started with 37 grams and he did a second batch with 40 grams.
The lesson, for me, was that I can absolutely taste a significant difference between the low-class pre-ground Kirkland coffee made in a Mr. Coffee machine, and the elegant preparations he made (although I can’t tell the difference between 37 gms v. 40 gms of beans).
But do I feel a need to replicate the high end stuff every day? No, not at all. The sophisticated stuff is delightful, but so is dressing up in fancy clothes and going to a gourmet restaurant once in a while. That doesn’t mean I can’t be perfectly content wearing ordinary clothes and eating ordinary home-cooked food most of the time.
