So, you make someone a tea or coffee using boiling water.
You hand them the cup, but they make no attempt to grab it by the handle, even though the cup is (figuratively) red hot. Then, before you can say “Wait!” they put the cup to their mouth and take the kind of generous sip that would burn my tongue and annoy me for the rest of the day.
Instead of saying “ow!” though, they say something like “Ahh, that’s refreshing”.
AFAIK these people aren’t dragonborn, but I’m still too afraid to ask them how / why. Any insight on this?
Firstly, the water has cooled considerably in the time it took the tea to brew. Adding cold milk or sugar will cool the fluid further. Secondly, there will be a generous amount of air to cool the fluid as it is drunk (think cooling fan). Thirdly, they likely have a higher heat tolerance than you. My sister-in-law has her hot chocolate at a temperature I consider tepid.
This isn’t really an answer though. A subjective thing like variable pain tolerance is one thing but it always surprises me that seemingly a temperature that will actually cause tissue damage ie burns to me is tolerable if not pleasurable to others.
There is evidence that those who continually drink beverages very hot cause constant minor damage that increases cancer risk however.
My Mom will do this, and then after four sips, complain that her coffee’s gotten cold. Shouldn’t be possible but it is. She is not otherwise unbreakable but hot liquids don’t faze her.
I sympathize - I’ve always figured I have a really low heat tolerance or something, because when everyone else is sipping at their teas poured simultaneously, I have to wait 15 minutes or even longer until it reaches a non-painful point. Usually I stir a couple of ice cubes into mine. My mother, especially, seems to be able to drink boiling water without blinking.
I’m with you. I have to wait at least 15 minutes or so for my tea to cool. I’ve given up on using insulated mugs - they make carrying tea much easier when you are in a wheelchair, but then I have to wait even longer for it to cool.
My SO waits at least 15 minutes - or more - for his coffee to cool. Within 15 minutes, I’ve usually drank all of mine. But that still doesn’t match my aunts, who, within two minutes of handing me my tea, are asking me, “Don’t you like it? Isn’t it good?” If I haven’t already started drinking it.
And Indian tea is boiled with the milk, like the British, so it is pretty damn hot. But they start drinking it right away.
On my way to work I stop off at Dunkin Donuts and get a large tea with only lemon. No milk to cool it off. 30 minutes later when I get to work it might be cool enough to drink.
I’ve noticed that the morning’s first cup of coffee has to cool more before I can drink it. Cup 2 goes down quicker. I guess because my mouth is desensitized a bit.
I’ve never been able to drink really hot coffee straight from the carafe. I let it cool a couple minutes before the first cautious sip. Test it on my lips before letting it into my mouth.
I was hitch hiking in Japan and the trucker that gave me a ride got off the highway to get some noodles for lunch. The owner of the shop poured some boiling broth and noodles in a couple of bowls for us. I couldn’t believe that the driver immediately started slurping the noodles down. I knew for sure that I’d have to wait far longer than this driver wanted to wait for mine to cool. Fortunately, I had a drink with ice in it and drank it quickly and then poured the ice in the bowl. Managed to just barely get it down without burning a hole in my throat.
if they’re drinking “noisily” (slurping) then that’s cooling the drink off substantially. It’s why I can’t eat udon noodles correctly; I don’t have the correct “slurping” technique down, combined with the Western disapproval of eating noisily.
It’s really just what individuals have gotten used to over time. Even as a barista, I had to take my drinks at 140F, the 160F we aimed for steaming milk was (is) too hot for me to drink right away. Some customers asked for extra hot (180F - also the temp of brewed coffee), some asked for not so hot (140F), and kids got 110.
Just like people who cook for a living can often use their fingers to move food around in a hot pan, or to pull things out of hot bakeware just out of the oven. I see them do stuff like that on cooking shows all the time, things that would have me howling and running my hand under cold water.
My mother has a number of health problems, including nerve issues, that cause her to not feel temperatures very much at all. The interesting thing about “scalding” hot temperatures is that they won’t actually cause any long term damage, but our body is programmed to experience those temperatures as very painful because if it gets too much hotter, it will actually start to burn/melt your skin and cause legitimate health problems.
Water that has been brought to a boil, then poured through the air and into a room temperature mug, is going to be several degrees cooler than boiling at that point. Then it’s taken in small sips where the temperature is brought down very rapidly because the liquid enters the mouth in small amounts (so a lot of the heat transfers out of the small amount of water very quickly). So someone like my mom can easily tolerate that, on her bad days.
I’ve noticed whenever I cook with friends who don’t cook as much as me that we have radically different heat tolerance in our hands. I’m so used to picking up and flipping things with my fingers I don’t even notice it anymore but I can casually put a warm bowl down and then my friend goes to pick it up and immediately flinches from the heat. I think it’s just a matter of acclimation, everyone I know who cooks professionally develops asbestos hands at some point.
The Japanese way of slurping noodles cools them down significantly between the bowl and the mouth. If you’ve never done it before, it can often be surprising how much of a difference it can make. Ramen is eaten quickly because the noodles continue to cook in the broth and there’s a short window where they’re at their optimum texture. Pretty much every ramen restaurant I’ve been to in the US serves their noodles undercooked IMHO because they expect diners to wait 3 or 4 minutes before starting to eat.
I used to work with someone who ordered her lattes extra-hot. :eek: The inside of her mouth must be lined with cast iron. I have to wait a while to drink espresso at the normal temperature. I don’t even know how hot extra-hot is, but my mouth cringes at the thought.
