Coffee is one of the most preferred beverages as it helps you stay alert for a long period. Regular coffee consumption essentially helps boost your performance, lose weight, burn fat, reduce cancer risk, lower premature death, protect your brain, reduce instances of stroke, and protect the body. Have you ever drank coffee and noted the tremendous mood change you get? Well, that’s among the many advantages that coffee breeds. In this article, I will compare the hotplate and thermal carafe to make you more decisive. Also, I will share other methods you can use to ensure your coffee remains hot after serving.
Comparison: Hotplate vs. Thermal carafe
1. Mechanism used to keep the coffee warm.
A thermal carafe essential helps to keep coffee hot through its insulation. The structure of the carafe ensures the coffee remains hot for a while without having to reheat. Thus, the coffee can stay up to 1 hour while retaining the hotness. The amount of time it can retain the heat varies on the build and the brand you own. Therefore, for a fresh-tasting drink, getting a carafe is the best option!
A hotplate is also ideal for keeping coffee hot. However, it would be best not to allow coffee to sit on the hotplate for more than 15 mins. This is because it can cause the coffee to become bitter and unpleasant to drink. Ever drank a coffee that had been heated for long? That’s exactly the taste you will get! We give it a heads up for retaining hotness but increases bitterness.
2. Portability
Hotplates are ordinarily portable and used with glass carafes. They help prepare and keep the coffee warm by losing temperature in small amounts. Moreover, a hotplate can quickly decrease or increase by 2.5° F after 1 hour. Hence, it provides continuous heating.
The thermal flask insulation also helps to keep the coffee warm. It tends to lose the temperature much faster than a hotplate by about 4° F within an hour.
3. Maintenance and materials used for construction
A hotplate helps keep coffee warm for a long time; thus, you can easily get burnt when it’s on. While at home, try to keep the hotplate away from your children as much as possible. If there is liquid spillage over the hotplate, try to clean it off to prevent others from getting hurt.
On the other side, the carafe is heavier but may not have adverse external effects such as carafes on hotplates. They are safe to touch and won’t cause any unnecessary burns. The heaviness makes it hard to pour coffee into your cup if you are not familiar with using it. Also, you need to find the best cleaning methods to ensure you clean the carafe well. We do have glass carafes that can be dish-washed, so they are quite easy to clean.
Related: Thermal vs. glass carafe – Pros and cons for each of them
4. Functioning
Many people use hotplates in restaurants and busy areas where coffee needs to be hot at all times. That’s why at a restaurant, you may easily find the waitress or waiter just gripping the carafe from the hotplate to fill your cup with coffee. All thanks to how it ensures the coffee remains warm for long. However, they tend to be careful to ensure it doesn’t heat up too much and lose its amazing taste. As a coffee brewer, you need to be careful to ensure you don’t damage the coffee’s original flavor. What use would coffee be without its natural taste?
For a thermal carafe, you don’t need another tool to ensure the coffee remains warm. The carafe uses its original heat to keep it warm. It would be best if you were careful while choosing a carafe by finding a well-insulated one that will help keep the coffee hot for a fair amount of time.
5. Safety
In terms of safety, a thermal carafe is much better to use than a hotplate. This is because for a hotplate, you will require to insert it into a power source to ensure the coffee in your glass carafe on top of the hotplate remains heated.
Thus, with a thermal flask, you won’t have a fear of unintentionally placing your hand on the hotplate unexpectedly. On the other hand, a hotplate being fully exposed poses a significant risk than a well-insulated thermal coffee carafe.
6. Power consumption
Even if having a hotplate helps prevent the coffee from heat, it consumes a lot of power. If you are using a hotplate during breakfast, you will need to serve it from the kitchen because removing the glass carafe from the hotplate to the dining table may become cold.
For a thermal carafe, you need to prepare the coffee, then remove it from the power source, and the coffee will remain warm for a while. Also, you can place your carafe on the table during breakfast for people to serve. Thus, find an aesthetic, thermal decanter that will blend with your cutlery.
7. Heat maintenance
I have mentioned that you need to leave it in a hotplate while on power to keep the coffee warm. While on a thermal coffee carafe after it is hot enough, you can now take the coffee.
For the utmost efficiency of the thermal carafe, you need to preheat it first. This will help maintain the coffee hot for more extended periods. You can do this by merely preheating some water before brewing your coffee.
Alternate ways of keeping your coffee warm that you can consider
Both thermal and glass carafes on a hot plate effectively keep your coffee warm for a short duration. However, there are other alternatives present as well, which you can consider.
1. Coffee warmer
You can use a coffee warmer to preheat your coffee mug. It is not once or twice that we find our coffee has already become cold because of a distraction by something or someone. Coffee warmers came to our rescue to prevent you from having to drink cold coffee. Once you start drinking the coffee, it is unethical to return it to the thermal carafe to preheat.
If your cup is cold, the coffee will quickly get cold by losing some of the heat to the mug. Thus, you can preheat your cup by putting it in warm water and removing it when you want to serve your coffee. This will help keep your coffee warm for a longer time. However, it also depends on the material of your cup.
2. Coffee sleeve
Do you know the purpose of a coffee sleeve? Although it sounds like it may be useful for carrying around the cup, it even doubles out as an insulator to prevent heat from getting out of the cup.
They are made of different materials, and you need to have at least one for effectiveness. Also, having a coffee cup lid is significant to ensure your coffee doesn’t easily get cold. Alternatively, if you are a scarf lover, prevent heat loss by wrapping the cup in your scarf.
3. Thermal mug
You can also decide to have a thermal mug that will help insulate the coffee. Though this option is mainly recommended for those traveling, you can still use it to keep your coffee warm at home or in the office.
Also, please choose the best variety to ensure it doesn’t let you down.
Final Thoughts
Fresh hot coffee is so tasty and delicious and will always boost your mood. However, if you over-prepare coffee, it will lose its taste. That’s why you need to be careful about how you brew your coffee. Here are some of the best coffee makers that come along with thermal decanters that will make your coffee remain tasty for a long time. Also, check the best hotplates that will help continuously make your coffee to stay cool. Both the hotplate and thermal carafes are efficient.
To get an ideal one, consider your budget, use, environment, and durability. I hope you will now be in a better position to keep your coffee warmer.