During the trial it was revealed that McDonald’s knew that heating their coffee to this temperature would be dangerous, but they did it anyways because it would save them money. When you serve coffee that is too hot to drink, it will take much longer for a person to drink their coffee, which means that McDonald’s will not have to give out as many free refills of coffee. This policy by the fast food chain is the reason the jury awarded $2.7 million dollars in punitive damages in the McDonald’s hot coffee case. Punitive damages are meant to punish the defendant for their inappropriate business practice.
I still have trouble understanding this. The last time I saw this discussed, someone said they super heated the coffee, but this articke says it was 180-190 °F, which is still quite a ways below what it would be when you make it (92-96 °C = 197-205 °F). Would coffee normally lose a lot of heat when being poured and this was somehow poured differently so that didn’t happen? Because when I make coffee and it’s near boiling, I pour it and drink it almost immediately.
You likely make coffee by boiling some water… then let it fall into a cold container that soaks up much of the heat, and maybe even pour it into another cold container afterwards, which is where you drink it from.
They brew the coffee the same, but then keep it in a heated container, and pour it into another disposable container (paper cup, styrofoam) that doesn’t soak out barely any of the heat.
If you’re serious about making coffee then you’re preheating everything that the coffee will contact.
Preheating, but to what temperature? You still want the end result “drinkable”, not “scalding your insides” hot. They’re usually many degrees colder than the coffee gets brewed at.
They don’t make it fresh for every customer, it’s heated up to almost boiling temperature.