Whether you do not have access to a nearby coffee shop or you don’t want to pay the high prices at your local cafe, homemade coffee and a thermos are always suitable. As a result, you’ll have more control over the quality, the price, and the taste of your coffee, but is it practical?
It is good for six hours in a low-quality thermos, and it can keep its taste and temperature for up to 12 hours in a premium flask. A flask must keep coffee at a constant temperature so that it is still drinkable even several hours later.
As you read on, you’ll discover how to ensure your coffee lasts longer in a thermos no matter where you are. By the end of this post, you will be able to make your coffee at home and bring it to work, the gym, or a picnic in a different city, town, or neighborhood without a problem.
Does Old Coffee Make You Sick?
“Bad coffee” and “expired coffee” must be distinguished. If you aren’t concerned with taste, then coffee brewed and poured into a glass bottle can be microwaved and consumed days later. However, many coffee connoisseurs would be horrified by the idea since the taste of the coffee would be entirely different from what one would expect from freshly brewed coffee.
While you can get sick from drinking coffee made with expired or rancid grounds, a well-stored serving of coffee, despite going bad due to temperature change, will not harm you. There will be no flavor, and if you are desperate for caffeine, you can chug it and keep going.
Since expired coffee has to do more with the actual beans and whether there’s mold or other impurities in the grounds, you can separate it from “bad coffee,” which is simply well-made coffee that doesn’t taste as good because it has lost its temperature and has overoxidized. Although it can fool an uneducated palate, microwaving such coffee won’t restore its original taste.
Therefore, I emphasize the importance of a good thermos when transporting a drink. The quality of your coffee depends on the thermos in which it is served. As long as the flash doesn’t lose heart, your coffee will be fine. If a flask keeps its temperature for a week, your coffee should also stay fresh, but this isn’t practical. In the real world, flasks lose heat, and your thermos won’t keep your coffee hot and tasty forever.
After 12 Hours, Is Coffee Still Good?
Since coffee only stays good in a vacuum if the temperature is kept stable, and thermoses gradually lose heat, the most obvious question is how long can a thermos keep food hot. If some flasks lose temperature after just four hours, is there a thermos that can retain heat for more than 12 hours?
The coffee is good after 12 hours only if it is stored in a thermos for 18 hours after brewing. In addition to losing taste over time, coffee sitting in a coffee mug may have accumulated impurities from the surroundings. You can drink it if it is covered, but it won’t taste good.
With a high-quality thermos, you can realistically expect coffee to stay hot for up to 12 hours. Any claim further than 18 hours is highly suspect since the leading manufacturers can’t go beyond that heat-retention mark (which means that coffee goes bad after 12 hours). As long as your thermos has retained heat for 18 hours, you can store surplus coffee in it for later use.
Checking the Thermos’s Effectiveness for Coffee
The majority of households already have an insulated flask, so it might not be necessary to purchase a new one if they already have a good one. This is how you can check how long your respective thermos can hold coffee.
Check the Manual or Manufacturer’s Website
You can simply check the product page if you know the make and model of the thermos or flash in your home. In general, the “keeps hot things hot for” section is pretty accurate and tells how long the liquid in the flask will remain hot.
However, you must realize that this assumes the falk will be full. Even if you only fill it halfway with coffee, the trapped air will absorb some of the heat. Furthermore, the temperature loss becomes significant 6 hours before the “keeps hot things hot” hour-mark.
In the case of a manufacturer’s site stating that their thermostat will keep hot liquids hot for 18 hours, your coffee will technically be hot at 18 hours, but enough heat will have been lost for it to become stale.
By subtracting 6 hours from the 18-hour deadline, you can conclude that said coffee will remain good for 12 hours, after which it will start losing significant heat and therefore its taste.
Do a Manual Temperature Check
You will need to manually check how long the coffee you pour in your thermos can last if the thermos is generic or the label has faded, or if you have thrown away the packaging.
- Fill your flask with a hot liquid. You should experiment with your regular coffee. Fill the thermos to the brim.
- The temperature can be determined by dipping a thermometer in.
- Make sure the lid is tightly closed.
- Use the thermometer to note the temperature after six hours.
- The flask can’t keep heat if it has lost more heat in six hours than your coffee does in six minutes in the open air.
Alternatively, if you dip a thermometer in a hot cup of freshly brewed coffee and then do it again 6 minutes later, you can determine the acceptable temperature drop threshold. Your thermos or flask will not keep your coffee fresh for long if the temperature drops below that since it has a wide air gap.
Perform a Manual Taste Test
You can always do a simple taste test if the experiment above sounds too complicated. To conduct this much simpler “experiment,” simply pour hot coffee into your thermos, fill it to the brim, and close the lid. At the desired hour, open your thermos and enjoy. The coffee is good for consumption if it tastes good. Your thermos might need to be upgraded if it tastes unusually bitter.
What Is the Best Thermos for Coffee?
We have covered the specifics of coffee temperature and oxidation, and now we can select the best thermos for your coffee. It should have an 18-hour heat retention period, be portable, and have a decent look, so you don’t look odd carrying it in professional settings.
With the FLSK Original Drinking Bottle, your coffee won’t just stay hot for 18 hours. It will stay cold for 24 hours even if you drink cold brew or iced coffee. Most importantly, it does not look like a bulky flask, but rather looks like an opaque bottle. We also have compiled a guide that will help you choose coffee thermos for work, if you are looking for the best one.
The completed cup is used to determine the temperature of the coffee kept in the thermos. After the cup has been cleaned, then hang it using the cabinet shelf mug holder. Keep your coffee clean and tidy with this handy under shelf mug holder!
Was this helpful?
Hi there! I’m a food enthusiast and journalist, and I have a real passion for food that goes beyond the kitchen. I love my dream job and I’m lucky enough to be able to share my knowledge with readers of several large media outlets. My specialty is writing engaging food-related content, and I take pride in being able to connect with my audience. I’m known for my creativity in the kitchen, and I’m confident that I can be the perfect guide for anyone looking to take their culinary journey to the next level.
