Freezing brewed coffee

Question

The other day, I had stupid idea:

What if I made my coffee in big batch and freeze what I did not manage to drink?

Let's put away why would I even want to do it. And for sake of argument, I know it is probably bad idea, but still:

Why is it bad idea?

Freezing the coffee in an ice cube tray makes for a non-diluted cup of iced coffee later. — Peter H, Mar 27 '15 at 20:52

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 11 '15 at 13:19

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This is a perfectly good idea, if you freeze the coffee as cubes and plan to use them to chill your iced coffee without watering it down.

If you plan to simply freeze the coffee for drinking later I can imagine it being a bad idea, because you will lose some of the flavor. If you even poured milk or cream into the coffee you're planning to freeze, I would even recommend less freezing it, because no kind of milk products can be safely frozen and those are always better used fresh.

answered Mar 11 '15 at 13:19

Alex

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There are no safety issues or even necessarily quality issues about freezing milk products (beyond the typical frozen-food freshness dates), so that is not correct. And saying the coffee will "lose some of the flavor" I thought was implied by the question. The author I assumed wanted to know why and perhaps to what effect. – Robert Cartaino Mar 11 '15 at 14:00
@RobertCartaino There are various sites claiming that thawed milk is not quite as desirable for drinking as fresh milk, the texture will become grainy and you may not be satisfied with the end result. This article states, that also the flavor of the milk my be affected. I guess flavor-loss through freezing is a common problem with any product. This question on cooking SE may provide an answer. – Alex Mar 11 '15 at 14:22
@Alex No health risks though, right? (And is there any product which does not suffer from being frozen?) – bye Mar 11 '15 at 17:30
@Poldie If it's still good when freezing it (check best before: xyz, there's no health issue. I don't know about a product that does not suffer quality when freezing, but in the linked question there are some points on how to freeze correctly to keep quality issues at a minimum. – Alex Mar 11 '15 at 18:16
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Iced cream seems like a good exemple of iced milk product – Rolexel Mar 26 '18 at 06:58
The frozen milk being unsafe part of this answer is rubbish. – Peter K. Feb 21 '20 at 07:30

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 24 '18 at 22:58

I make my own ice coffee at home I freeze the coffee into cubes so I don't dilute my coffee. I actually love the flavor of the coffee in the fridge more on day 3 and 4. It "ages" and the flavor is more deep then on the day I make it. I don't mix creamer in it until I am ready to drink it.

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 20 '20 at 19:06

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I freeze very concentrated homemade cold brew coffee for months at a time in closed bottles in the freezer and detect no loss of flavor or quality.

I don't know about regular coffee but I suspect it will last if kept in closed storage containers.

answered Feb 20 '20 at 19:06

Paul L Sailer

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score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Sep 15 '17 at 07:23

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Water dissolve the coffee powder, and as the water gets cooler it's capability to dissolve diminishes. This means that the slower you cool the coffee the more coffee-grounds you'll get at the bottom.

edited Sep 15 '17 at 07:23

MTSan

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answered Sep 15 '17 at 05:44

Gustav Blomqvist

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 04 '20 at 14:52

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I'm extremely caffeine sensitive, so when I buy a 12oz coffee, I drink 2oz and save the rest. Often I freeze it. Every type of coffee I have bought (mostly frappucinos and Starbucks dark roast) tastes awful and burned after a freeze and thaw.

answered Jan 04 '20 at 14:52

eric_kernfeld

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I think the burnt taste may be due to the roast, not the freeze and thaw. In fact, if you cool it down a bit you might be able to taste burn already. ^^ – JJJ Jan 04 '20 at 15:09
The frappucino is already cold off the shelf though, and the hot coffee tastes fine refrigerated the next day. – eric_kernfeld Jan 04 '20 at 15:54

Freezing brewed coffee

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