Coffee tastes different in ceramic mugs. It's a truth. Paper and foam cups are commonplace as your standard coffee shops, 7-11, and McDonald's offer those as receptacles. And, they work; but they are not ceramic. A glass container can be used in a pinch or if you are in a place that has an unhealthy affinity for items made of hardened, super-heated sand. Plastic is unthinkable. I would be inclined to turn down coffee (even in the most dire circumstances) if it would be offered in some plastic container.
It is in inalienable truth — coffee tastes better in ceramic mugs. I am a rational person, and I understand that, at a scientific level, the molecules in the cup and the components of the coffee do not intermingle in any signifigant manner. It is not the case that, upon entering a cup, there is an orgy of atomic exchange that occurs causing the coffee to take on a distinctly different taste. I know that that does not happen. But, I also know coffee tastes better in ceramic mugs.
A clot of blood on a piece of paper is thrown into the nearest trash designated area. But, if it is nicely framed, firmly affixed to a museum's wall, titled Miscarriage, and has 4 odd looking yet interestingly attractive people staring at it and jotting things in notebooks; it's art.
My shoes fit better if they are tied in a fashion such that the loops of the laces are of the same size and perfectly symetrical (no Möbius shapes). Shoes tied in a haphazard manner are uncomfortable, and coffee tastes better in ceramic mugs.
Comments
it's still roasted bean soup to me, but now I'm curious.
In my gov'vie days, I knew several staff sergeants who would personally disembowel anyone who cleaned their coffee mugs, (other than sterilizing it in a microwave or by using a blast of steam). They claimed that ceramic mugs became "seasoned" the more they were used and added subtle complexity to the coffee making even the occasional aged, liquefied squirrel drippings someone made tolerable. Possibly this is related.
Do you find that coffee tastes better in older mugs vs. newer ones? Does the level of glaze make a difference? (e.g. polished shiny mugs don't have the same flavor as rougher, duller looking mugs?
I smell Doctorate!
(No, wait, someone left the pot on the burner again.)
For some reason, coffee and soap react in terrible ways. Even the slightest soapy residue will taint coffee and cause it to turn into bitter swill (though, from your "roasted bean soup" comment, you may already consider it so).
Wash a cup, dry it, pour some OJ into it; no ill effects. Do the same with coffee, and you end up with a horrid concoction.
So, yes, I am protective of washing my coffee mugs. I fear the soap-coffee reaction.
Forgive my delayed reaction, for I have traveled to the land of much snow and wild polar bears.
Coffee should only be had from a ceramic mug. Plastic mugs, i.e. travel mugs, are a necessary evil. If one can find one of those wide-bottomed "no spill" ceramic mugs for car use, they're preferable. While it may not be an orgy of atom swapping, you can't tell me that paper and polymer containers don't change the flavor.
I used to be a proponent of the seasoned mug as well. A good rinsing with hot water and air-drying was all that I would use to clean my favorite mug. The coffee had actually stained the surface of the ceramic, as on the rare occasion that it was washed, it still wouldn't be white. One day, my mom bleached it. Jesus wept. Now, however, I wash my mugs at least once a week. I'm extremely carefully to rinse repeatedly and dry them completely; as J$ said, any amount of soap will ruin a cup of Joe. The smallest amount can be seen, fouling the surface as oil would water.
Coffee is good. Shoes, by the way, should be tied properly, tied only once, and worn until water finds ways through the sole to your foot.
Sleep,
gryhrt
I found your site on blogwise, and it seems as though you are a rad fellow, and I am glad of your concern for matters of coffee.
Uh, carry on then.
My theory as to why coffee in a ceramic mug tastes better is as follows.
As can be seen by anyone that drinks coffee made in a coffee pot that doesn't use a paper filter or a press pot and served in a ceramic mug, there is a thin layer of oil floating on the top of the coffee. These are the essential oils. This is where most of the flavor of the coffee comes from. This oil needs to be extracted at a temperature around 200F. I personally use a press pot.
Plastics are polyers, and very closely related to fats/oils. Plastic mugs attract these flavor giving oils and they stick to the mugs and not in your mouth. Paper and foam do similiar things.
This is why soap is bad. Soap breaks up oil and washes it away and takes seasoning with it. It also sticks to surfaces. Thus giving unwanted flavors to your favorite cup of coffee.
Glass should be very similar to ceramic, but it just might be too smooth. Thus it is unable to be seasoned.
What about stainless steel?