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What is the purpose of a coffee warmer? What is the appropriate temperature? What are the milk temperature requirements for lattes?

Published: 2026-08-26 Author:

Last Updated: 2026/08/26, Just as Cantonese people iron bowls before eating outside, or use boiling water to iron cups before making tea, coffee makers also preheat cups before making coffee. This is a default "tradition" that the coffee industry has always maintained! But in recent years, there have been many objections to whether this "tradition" is practical

Just as Cantonese will iron bowls before eating out and hot cups with boiling water before making tea, coffee makers will preheat the cup before making coffee, which has always been a "tradition" in the coffee industry. But in recent years, there has been a lot of opposition to whether this "tradition" is practical or not. Many friends think that it is not necessary to warm the cup, and the taste of the coffee will not change because of the warm cup.

So, the surprise question from Qianjie: "warm cup", is it necessary for coffee?

Is it necessary to warm the coffee? Qianjie thinks, it depends! Because the main function of the "warm cup" is to keep warm, so that the coffee will not be absorbed and cooled after it is poured into the cup. Although coffee does not change its taste because of temperature, it is important to know that our ability to perceive different flavors will change with the change of temperature.

For example, hand-brewed coffee, in the case of preheating the container, the temperature of the extracted coffee will be kept at about 70 °C. It will be a little hot, and the perceived flavor is not very obvious; in the absence of a warm cup, the temperature of our extracted coffee will be around 65 °C. It not only tastes at the right temperature, but also has a rich taste. Although there is little difference in temperature between the two, we feel completely different when we taste coffee for the first time. So does that mean it's better to make a tepid cup of coffee by hand?

Of course not ~ although the former is hot, we can have more time to feel the temperature change of hand-brewed coffee. Although the latter allows us to get a good taste experience directly at the beginning, the temperature loss rate of coffee varies according to the capacity and material of the cup. Generally speaking, coffee without a warm cup will lose temperature faster than a warm cup of coffee. If you use a large capacity, open cup, then the temperature will drop faster. This is very unfriendly to friends who drink slowly, and when the temperature drops to a certain extent, the sour and bitter taste of the coffee will become more obvious. That's why Qianjie says, it depends.

However, Qianjie believes that for espresso, warm cups are necessary. Because coffee like latte, concentrated and cappuccino doesn't taste so good when it's cold. Qianjie has done several experiments before, trying to use different cups (warm cup and lukewarm cup) to hold a hot latte and then compare it. It turns out that the latte filled with an unpreheated cup not only cools down, but also defoams faster than another cup! Not only does it taste less mellow, but the coffee is not so hot.

It can be seen that it will be more affected than hand-brewed coffee. The reason for this is that lattes generally use thicker ceramic cups by default. The ceramic cup will absorb more heat, so it will absorb more calories of coffee without preheating. Secondly, in order to activate the lactose sweetness of milk, and to prevent milk from overheating and deteriorating, we specially control the drying temperature of milk in the range of 55 °C ~ 65 °C. The temperature in this range is already warm, and then absorbed by the cup (about 6 °C) will lower the temperature, so the difference between coffee will be more obvious.

That's why Qianjie said, whether the cup should be warm or not depends on the situation! When the coffee is not hot, the weather is too cold, or when the cup is large and absorbs much heat, we'd better preheat the cup in order to get a better coffee experience.

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FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou China, selling freshly roasted beans from its own farm in Yunnan as well as dozens of carefully selected single-origin beans from around the world for both pour-over and espresso. The products deliver consistently excellent quality and great value, with shipping within 24 hours. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers, and the beans are now available online at the Tmall 。