Have you ever wondered if heating cold brew coffee make it acidic? Well, the answer is yes and no. The short answer is that heating cold brew coffee does make it acidic, but the long answer is a bit more complicated. There are so many people who love cold brew coffee. But we don’t always want to make cold coffee. So if we have some in our fridge, then can we heat up cold brew coffee? Or does heating cold brew coffee make it acidic?

Generally speaking, yes, you can heat up cold brew coffee. But the better idea to drink cold brew coffee hot is to add hot water or creamer to it rather than heating the cold brew itself. This can help you to keep the acidity lower and make your cold coffee less bitter.

Now, if you’re after the details, then you need to keep reading this useful post on “Does heating cold brew coffee make it acidic”? There’s a lot fact to know about heating cold brew than just sticking it in a microwave.

What happens when you heat cold brew coffee?

Does heating cold brew coffee make it acidic? The answer is “yes” the heating cold brew coffee make it acidic? When your cold brew coffee is heated, then chemical reactions happen as chlorogenic acid and quinic acid which are naturally found in the coffee, become altered and extract some of their properties into the coffee that can easily lead it to a more bitter, sour, and acidic taste.

Basically, there are over thirty types of acid in one cup of coffee, and especially, these two come into play as you heat your cold brew: chlorogenic acid and quinic acid. They can easily increase the acidity of the finished product. Besides these two acids, others are much less affected by the heating process and lend themselves to boldness and rounded flavors.

 The best way to heat cold brew coffee is to add hot water to it rather than heating your cup of coffee itself. Otherwise, there is a chance of changing the flavor of the beverage. Basically, these acids are naturally occurring compounds in every kind of coffee, but their increasing levels happen when the coffee becomes more acidic flavor.

That’s why heating the water instead of the coffee and then adding it to the cold brew is less of an acidic flavor. Another way to get the best-flavored coffee, whether it is hot or iced, is by using a French Press. That’s true, it’s a time-consuming method and doesn’t make big enough batches.

Can I heat cold-brew coffee in the microwave?

Yes, you can heat cold brew coffee in the microwave, but still, it is not recommended as it will significantly change the flavor of your cold brew. It is much better to heat it on the stovetop and also the best way is to add hot water to the cold brew because reheating your cold brew on a stovetop is also a good alternative to warm up your drink, and any vessel would do. Basically, Microwaves are a very popular way to heat leftovers. But it is not, much helpful for coffee lovers.

But if you are going to add hot water to your cold brew and you are using the microwave to heat that water, then go for it. Basically, Heating or reheating coffee always impacts the flavor and can easily alter it. We must say that, you can use the microwave to heat your cold brew coffee but also the microwave has the worst results on the flavor of the coffee.

If you still want to heat cold brew coffee in the microwave, then you have to do something like that, heating up cold brew coffee in the microwave can only take one or two minutes to make your coffee hot but instead of it, you should try heat it at the lowest power setting at first to avoid cold brew flavor degradation. It will be helpful to you.

Conclusion

In this article, we put an in-depth look into the world of cold brew coffee. We explained how it differs from iced coffee, and also give you the answer to the question can I heat up cold brew coffee? Or does heating cold brew coffee make it acidic? We have also mentioned the easy way to heat up cold brew while keeping the flavor and acidity intact the best method for doing that is to add hot water to unheated cold brew concentrate. So yeah, if you can enjoy the regular coffee taste if you try this out when you’ve got some cold brew leftover, and you want to mix it up.