Add This to Your Coffee to Keep It Hot Longer

It beats black coffee because…

Black coffee is a darker color than coffee with a splash of cream. You know that dark colors absorb heat faster than light colors, but they also emit heat faster than their lighter counterparts. This means your coworker’s coffee, which they ordered black, leaks its heat faster than your coffee with cream, which is a milky camel color.

It beats adding cream later because…

Though the cream added immediately to hot coffee initially cools off your cup, it also slows the rate at which your coffee loses heat. Cooler objects lose heat more slowly than hot objects. So your coffee, which you added cream to right away, is holding pretty steady at its temperature while your coworker’s coffee, which they ordered black and brought back to the office, cooled drastically in transit. If they now add cold cream, the temperature will drop drastically, making it colder than yours.

It beats milk because…

Cream is thicker than milk; while that might not be great calorie-wise, it does wonders for keeping your mug warm. Though adding either to your coffee makes it thicker, cream gives you the most bang for your buck; this slows how quickly your coffee evaporates, a process that carries heat away with the liquid. (Popping a lid on your cup immediately will also help slow this process.)

So never settle for cold coffee again. Keep cream on-hand at home and ask for room at the coffee shop to slip in some of this heat-saver immediately.