Coffee review

Why do people drink ice water before drinking coffee? Why does espresso go with a cup of ice water? How to better drink coffee flavor?

Published: 2025-10-16 Author:
Last Updated: 2025/10/16, "By using ice water to gargle, we can better taste a cup of coffee and more easily capture its delicate flavor. "This is a saying that has always been circulating in the circle. So we can often see some customers in cafes asking for a cup of ice water from the barista after ordering coffee. The main purpose is

"By using ice water to gargle, we can better taste a cup of coffee and more easily capture its delicate flavor. "This is a saying that has always been circulating in the circle. Therefore, we can often see some customers in cafes asking for a cup of ice water from the barista after ordering coffee. The main purpose is to better taste the cup of coffee.

So the question arises: Can ice water really have such an effect? I believe many friends on Qianjie are curious about this. So today, Qianjie came to share with you whether ice water can help us better taste a cup of coffee ~

The answer is? Let's start with the conclusion, it can indeed help us better taste a cup of coffee. Why? Because it can give our mouth a "cleaning" effect.

In many cases, the reason why we cannot feel the delicate flavor in the barista's mouth is not necessarily because such flavor does not exist, nor is it because the barista has not brewed the coffee well (this situation cannot be ruled out), but because there are too many "elements" in the mouth that disrupt the tasting. After we eat and drink food, there is basically a small amount of residue left in our mouth. These residues will continue to emit odors and fill our mouths, reducing our sensory ability to taste. It's like we can still feel the aroma in our mouths for a short period of time after drinking coffee. This is the role played by the residue of coffee in our mouths.

No matter what the taste is, their existence will affect our taste of coffee, even the taste of coffee itself is no exception. So if we want to feel a cup of coffee better, we need to remove "foreign objects" in our mouths. Ice water serves as such a cleaner! Qian Jie believes that after drinking ice water, everyone can obviously feel that their mouths are much fresher and cleaner. This is not only because the ice water washes away these residues, but also because the low temperature of the ice water stimulates the mucous membranes of the mouth and throat, causing us to secrete more saliva.

Saliva itself contains lysozyme and other bacterial components, which can more thoroughly decompose and remove the "residue" in the mouth, preventing them from continuing to emit odors and disturb the senses. Not only that, the low temperature of ice water will temporarily paralyze the nerve endings in the mouth, bringing a coolness that can cover the smell. Under the combination of these factors, our oral cavity is temporarily "cleaned"(the effect will decrease after warming up). At this time, when we drink the coffee again, we can taste the delicate flavor of the coffee well.

But do you want to know that the earliest coffee to put this practice into coffee was not hand-brewed coffee, but espresso! As we all know, espresso is a very strong coffee extracted by an espresso machine. However, due to the high concentration, the flavor and taste of the coffee will be relatively concentrated, making it difficult for us to easily taste its delicacy.

Then some people thought of improving the espresso tasting experience by drinking ice water in advance. As a result, as Qianjie introduced, the intervention of ice water can indeed help the taste of coffee. Especially for espresso coffee, the large amount of saliva secreted causes a certain dilution of the concentration at the mouth of the drink, which gives more room for display of the flavors and flavors that were originally concentrated in one place and could not "use their fists". So that's why when you order an espresso at a cafe, the barista brings you a cup of ice water in addition to a cup of espresso. It does not allow you to pour the concentrate into ice water to make ice American (except in some areas), but to allow you to "gargle" with ice water before drinking the concentrate to better taste the delicious espresso.

Later, this method was gradually introduced to the tasting of hand-brewed coffee by some friends, and then there was the scene mentioned at the beginning of the street that we can often see in cafes nowadays. But Qianjie actually does not recommend this because it will easily bring a certain burden to the stomach, especially for friends with poor stomach and hot hands. If you want to clean your mouth before drinking coffee and better taste a cup of coffee, in fact, room temperature water is completely enough. Although its effect is not as good as ice water, the gap is not very big. The most important thing is that it will not cause too much burden on the stomach. This is the most important thing ~

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