Don’t Mug Yourself Off – Get The Right Cup To Enjoy Your Coffee To The Max

You’ve got the grinder, you’ve selected your favourite coffee, and you’re ready to sit back and enjoy your favourite brew. Just one problem remains – which cup should you drink it out of?

Does it really matter? Yes – it makes all the difference in the world. Pick the wrong drinking receptacle, and you run the risk of impairing the full effect of your coffee. Worse still, you may even be missing out on an opportunity to make it taste better. 

The shape, capacity and material of your drinking vessel can all make a difference to how your coffee smells, tastes and drinks. At Coffee Hit, we know that the right cup allows you to appreciate your drink properly. 

Your cup is critical to your coffee experience 

There’s a lot of research out there showing that your cup’s texture, shape and volume have a bearing on your enjoyment of your coffee. Even the colour of your mug can make a difference to how your brain reacts to your drink. 

Your cup of coffee will smell different – or at least your sense of its aroma will appear to be different – the more space you have between the top of your drink and the top of your mug. This is because headspace creates room for your nose. And if your nose gets involved, your perception of the taste of your coffee is altered. Think about the last time you had a head cold and your nose was blocked – your sense of enjoyment from eating and drinking is blunted, one of your senses is not contributing, and your brain knows something is wrong. 

When it comes to drinking coffee, size matters

Therefore it follows that a larger coffee vessel, such as a classic American diner mug, gives you a better chance of appreciating a coffee’s often complex aromatics.

The size of your cup doesn’t just affect the aroma – a wide surface area exposes the coffee to more air and therefore speeds up the rate at which it oxidises. This can soften the tannins in coffee, making for a sweeter brew with no loss of body.

A smaller receptacle, such as the Ancap Verona Espresso cup, is perfect for locking in the espresso’s trademark intensity – the layer of crema, or foam, on top, would dissipate in a larger mug, and the effect would not be the same. 

Cool it – get your coffee to the right temperature

Coffee has to be served at the right temperature. Otherwise, there can be serious problems.

Simple physics dictates that the more coffee you can fit into your cup, the slower the cooling rate. Whatever your mug is made of also dictates how long it will take before your piping hot coffee becomes a tepid, undrinkable brew. 

Whether your drinking vessel is ceramic, glass or plastic, coffee starts to taste different as it cools down and as distinct flavours are consequently revealed. 

Enjoying your coffee on the go

With more and more of us enjoying our coffee on the go, getting the right cup can be tricky. We’ve all tried to drink scalding liquid through a tiny hole in the top of a plastic cup and regretted it for days afterwards. The Fellow Carter Travel Mug is a great solution. It’s got a wide mouth to drink through and a ceramic inner coating to keep your brew fresh and odour free. It retains heat for an impressive 12 hours and has a leak-proof seal.

So don’t compromise on your coffee – get the right cup and enjoy it to the max.