Should the ice cup for making Dirty be refrigerated or frozen? - What's so special about 86°CDirty? What is dirty coffee?

With its extremely high appearance and unique drinking methods and experience, Dirty successfully stood out in the year when dirty culture was prevalent and was promoted to become a popular star in the coffee industry! Even today in 2025, its popularity will not diminish as much as it was then, and it is still the top brand product in many coffee shops.

As we all know, we usually use ice cups when making Dirty. This is not only because Dirty is a type of iced coffee, but also because the use of ice cups can effectively extend the layering effect of coffee and milk. You know, Dirty's unique drinking method and extremely high appearance all come from the mutual exclusion of concentrate and milk. It is precisely because concentration fails to blend with milk that we can feel the collision of two completely different manifestations of hot concentration and iced milk in the mouth in one gulp.

To this end, we will use various methods to separate milk and concentrate more thoroughly in the cup. For example, increasing the concentration of milk, shortening the distance when the concentrate is poured into the milk, increasing the temperature difference between the two, and using an ice cup to slow down the temperature of the milk as mentioned above on Qianjie, so as to make the layering effect Longer. Under normal circumstances, most of the ice cups used in coffee shops are refrigerated cups rather than frozen cups, so this raises the question of many friends: "Since the colder the cup, the longer the coffee layer, is it that a frozen cup makes Dirty better than a refrigerated cup? "

Not to mention, it is indeed popular recently to use frozen cups to make Dirty, and they are still frozen to-86 ° C. So today, Qianjie came to experience whether Dirty made from frozen cups would really taste better than those made from refrigerated cups.

Experimental comparison Although there is no refrigerator on Qianjie that can freeze cups to-86 ° C, the freezing effect of conventional refrigerators is actually sufficient (-15 ° C ~-20 ° C). In this experiment, two cups of Dirty will be made using the same milk, the same concentration, and the same method. The only difference between them lies in the cups used. One cup uses a refrigerated cup, and the other cup uses a frozen cup. Other aspects are the same. (Frozen on the left, refrigerated on the right)

Without saying much, let's start our experiment next! We first took out the ice cups from the refrigerator that had been refrigerated/frozen one day in advance, and then poured in 180ml of refrigerated milk. Then immediately enter the extraction of espresso coffee. The parameter used in Qianjie here is 20g of powder, and it takes 30 seconds to extract a liquid weight of 40ml.

Hold the cup filled with milk to the outlet of the powder bowl. When the coffee is about to reach the target amount of liquid, you can finish the extraction, and then you can start tasting! (It is not recommended to drink it immediately when it is first made, because it is easy to be scalded.) The results are as follows: Dirty made from refrigerated ice cups: The first bite is half a minute after the coffee is made. Because the layering is very perfect, so With this bite, you can clearly feel the collision of cold and heat in your mouth. It is concentrated, rich and mellow, and the milk is silky and sweet. It is two independent experiences that "bounce" in the mouth.

Immediately afterwards, Qianjie tasted the coffee 1 minute, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes after it was prepared. Except for the gradual decrease in the proportion of espresso coffee in the mouth, there was not much change in the rest. The stratification is still obvious, but the contrast experience in temperature will gradually decrease due to the decrease in concentration temperature. By the fifth minute, you can still see the obvious stratification of concentrate and milk from the appearance, but the temperature difference is almost gone. So that's the end of the experience of Dirty in a refrigerated cup. Next, it's the turn of Dirty made in a refrigerated cup ~ Dirty made in a refrigerated ice cup: Similarly, the first sip is half a minute after the coffee is made. Compared with Dirty made from refrigerated cups, Dirty in the first mouth of refrigerated cups has a greater temperature difference because the temperature of milk will be lower. However, the taste and taste of milk will be slightly inferior, and it will not be as fragrant or smooth.

Then Qianjie tasted the coffee at the same time, i.e., 1 minute, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes after it was made. It was found that because the temperature of the frozen cup was lower, the temperature of the concentration dropped faster, which made the two The temperature difference between the two is rapidly shrinking. At the same time, the concentration and milk will merge faster than in a refrigerated cup, and the layering effect lasts relatively short.

From the above, we can know that although the use of frozen cups can further widen the contrast between concentrate and milk in the initial stage, better showing the characteristics of Dirty, it cannot maintain the layering effect well. The reason is that the temperature of the milk is too low. The reason why we use refrigerated milk when making Dirty is because the temperature of refrigerated milk is lower than room temperature milk. This will increase the density of the milk, which will support espresso and produce excellent layering effects.

However, when the temperature of milk drops to a certain level (below 4°C), the density will gradually decrease. At the same time, the aroma and richness of milk will further decrease with the temperature. Here, two other ice cups (refrigerated and frozen) were used to pour milk in front of the street for temperature measurement. The results showed that the temperature of the milk was about 5°C after being poured into the refrigerated cup, while the temperature after being poured into the frozen cup. Drop to 1°C. It can be seen that the cup is too cold to some extent is not a good thing. However, this does not mean that frozen cups are not suitable for making Dirty. Just as-86 ° Dirty will explode across the network. As long as we control the details well, the Dirty made from frozen cups will be equally outstanding! (And the difference between it and the refrigerated cup is actually difficult to tell the difference without comparison)

What should I pay attention to when making Dirty with a frozen cup? The first one is to use purified milk! Since the concentration of purified milk is higher, it can completely ignore the negative impact of extremely low temperatures on density and taste. Even this is a good thing for purified milk with extremely high concentrations! Because some purified milk has always received negative comments such as "too greasy" and "too thick" because its concentration is too high, the reduction of the temperature can instead properly restrain its taste and taste, so that it is rich and not too prominent. So when we use frozen cups to make Dirty, it is best to use it with purified milk.

The second thing to pay attention to is the speed of drinking! Because the cup is cooler, this will allow the espresso to cool down faster. As the previous street experiment shared, compared to the refrigerated cup Dirty, the refrigerated cup Dirty loses its temperature contrast faster, and the concentration and milk merge faster. Therefore, when drinking a Frozen Cup Dirty, it is best to finish it quickly in a short time, so as to ensure that you can enjoy Dirty's extreme contrast experience throughout the entire process.

If everyone can really drink it quickly in a short period of time, they will also find a small surprise brought by the frozen cup-frozen milk at the bottom of the cup. Although it's not delicious, it's not a unique experience. So, that's all the content Qianjie shared today! Finally, answer a few questions that my friends must be very curious: "Will the cup stick to the mouth"-"No";"Will the Qianjie store produce it? "--" No "(only regular Dirty)~~~ By the way, when freezing the cup, be sure to seal and fully dry it, and choose a stronger cup, otherwise it will be easily contaminated with bacteria, and... You will lose a cup...

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