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Because consumers expect their coffee to be hot, but not too hot, operators of coffeehouses, coffee shops, and cafés must make important decisions regarding the serving temperatures for their coffees. Clearly a key consideration is the preferred temperature range expected by consumers, but another important consideration is the risk of scald burns, which can cause tremendous injuries and occasionally result in high-profile litigation. Accordingly, several groups have investigated consumer preferences for coffee versus serving temperature. Borchgrevink et al. examined coffee at seven distinct temperatures evenly spaced between 57.2 and 90.6 °C and collected data on adequacy of serving temperature on a 5-point just-about-right (JAR) scale. They found that of those tested a serving temperature of 68.3 °C yielded an average numerical score closest to JAR. Pipatsattayanuwong et al. examined coffee served at six distinct temperatures over a broader range from 39.2 to 82.1 °C, using pairwise R-index values derived from ranking data, and found that 72.1 °C was the most preferred temperature of those tested. Lee and O’Mahony used a different approach by letting consumers freely mix hot and cold coffee until they obtained a preferred temperature. With this method, they found a much lower preferred temperature of 59.8 ± 8.1 °C, which they hypothesized was due to consumers adjusting the temperature to be suitable for drinking whole mouthfuls of coffee rather than smaller sips. Similar results were obtained more recently by Dirler et al., who also used a free-mixing method and found an average preferred temperature of 63 °C.
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