I usually take a morning walk with a cup of coffee. When I am just taking a walk and not going to a specific destination, I tend to put my coffee in a paper cup instead of a reusable mug. Hot coffee stays hot, or at least warm, long enough to drink it from a paper cup.
However, it obviously cools more quickly when temperatures are low, especially as the amount of coffee in the cup decreases. One day while well into one of my summer morning walks with a half-full hot paper cup of coffee, I had an epiphany about one of the nice things about summer.
Your hot coffee stays hot longer when it is hot outside.
I like iced coffeeg. While I am usually too lazy to make ice coffee properly, it is good. Cold drinks are nice in hot weather. But hot weather also melts the ice that forms the critical part of cold drinks. When you have a hot drink, you want it to stay hot. What keeps a hot drink hot better than hot weather?
I am not the only person to see the benefits of zagging while others zig on the subject of hot vs cold drinks.
In January 2019, I was on an evening walk in slightly sub-freezing temperatures. I saw a young lady with a cold Starbucks drink which likely consisted of copious amounts of milk, sugar, and syrup, and a dallop of aged, burnt coffee. Ice cold drink. Ice cold temperatures. Was she just committed to the ice cold “coffee” lifestyle? Or did she realize that cold weather ensures that cold drinks stay cold?
I wonder.
Hot and cold are states of mind for people, but not not for drinks.