Some like it hot

Some not so much. Nothing burns me (pun intended) more than being served any hot beverage that removes the taste buds from my tongue upon first sip. You would think that after the lawsuit McDonald's suffered that companies/baristas would learn to keep the temp at a reasonable level. Unfortunately that's not always the case, especially when it comes to coffee drinks. Aside from the obvious problem most folks have with their tongues being scalded, you run into taste issues. At around 160 degrees the protein in milk starts to break down and it looses its sweetness. You can actually smell the difference once you've hit that 160 degree mark. It smells...well...scalded. I won't get into the whole chemical component of frothing milk, but suffice it to say that over-heated milk is not only bad for your tongue, it's bad for your espresso or coffee. The two won't compliment each other and that's just sad. Harmony is what we're going for here. Harmony that doesn't make you run screaming for a faucet so you can dowse your mouth with cold water.

Personally, when I'm making cappuccinos I like to keep the temp of the frothed milk to around 140 degrees. I can drink it straight away with no taste bud removal and hand-holding the cup is not a problem. Anytime I order coffee and have to get an extra cup plus a coffee sleeve, I know I'm in for huge disappointment. The same can be said about tea. A few weeks ago "he" and I went up to Portland and stopped in at a kickass tea place called Teavana. After sampling a few of the already brewed teas they had as tasters, we decided to each order a cup to go. Now you would think that "he," being an educated and smart man, would have known that since the cup he was holding was incredibly hot that the contents inside said cup would be incredibly hot as well. Course being a man he probably thought his tongue was immune to temperatures that matched the sun. One sip was all it took. Later that night he was lamenting about how he couldn't taste his food very well due to half the skin on his tongue being removed. I, being of the female and logical persuasion (stop laughing), waited before even attempting to taste mine. It took much restraint as the tea smelled oh so good, yet I had no desire to deal with the aftermath of indulging too soon. I had to wait a long time. A very long time...about 30 minutes, which is a long time when you are talking about enjoying a drink that smells like heaven. But I was rewarded later at dinner when "he" was complaining and I was happily enjoying my Steak Gorgonzola Alfredo from Olive Garden. Of course even with all that patience it sucked. No one wants to wait 30 minutes to take their first sip of anything. Plus, my hands seriously hated me despite constantly switching the cup back and forth between the two of them. While I don't know a ton about tea I do know that it too has temperature sensitivities. Black teas can tolerate higher temps than green, and green more than white, yet all of them have a brew no higher than "x" temp recommendations. I can only imagine that the taste of the tea was altered because of the high temp it was brewed at.

So if you're ever handed a cup of coffee, or cappuccino, or latte, or what have you, and it's horribly hot then realize that the taste will definitely not be nearly as good as one prepared at the proper temp. The point of having a cappuccino (or any coffee drink) is to be able to consume it right away and to enjoy it. I like certain things hot, some hotter than others, but not my cappuccinos. Neither should you.