Can I Drink This? - Iced Coffee Edition

June 5, 2019 6:44 AM

My Yeti tumbler kept the ice cubes frozen in my iced coffee over night. Can I enjoy my iced coffee this morning?

I have one of these Yeti tumblers. I made a nice cold brew iced coffee yesterday afternoon around 3 PM. I added 4 creams and 5 large ice cubes. I was unable to finish the whole thing before leaving work and left the half full tumbler with the cover on at 5 PM. This morning at 9 AM I went to clean the tumbler and, lo and behold, there were two ice cubes clinking around in there! I took a sip and it was still ice cold.

I think I should be fine drinking this, but it feels weird. Taking into account food safety, and not, you know, the quality of day-old coffee, should I drink this?

posted by stripesandplaid to Food & Drink (14 answers total)

Best answer: You put cream in the fridge and it's fine. Is the cream what you're concerned about? I would drink this. Day old coffee is fine by itself. That the ice cubes were still cold means the air inside the cup was also cold as well as the liquid. Yeti products are top notch!
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 6:49 AM on June 5, 2019 [8 favorites]

Ice cubes would have melted in the fridge, so it's been colder than that this whole time, and yet you'd still drink the cream and/or coffee without qualms if it had been stored in the fridge, yes?
posted by teremala at 6:50 AM on June 5, 2019 [3 favorites]

I would. (Also, when you say "4 creams" I'm guessing that means those little cream containers, which are often UHT processed and shelf-stable, which makes this seem even more OK.)
posted by needs more cowbell at 6:52 AM on June 5, 2019 [5 favorites]

ice cubes unmelted means it's been near-freezing. You're good.
posted by zippy at 6:52 AM on June 5, 2019

If a drink has had iceblocks in it for several hours, and has any degree of thermal isolation from the outside world, you can be quite confident that all of the liquid has been sitting at the melting point of ice i.e. 0°C for most of that time.

That's colder than it would be if it had been kept in a typical fridge at 4 - 5°C.

I can see no reason why your iced coffee should have significantly more microbial life in it now than it did when you made it.
posted by flabdablet at 6:56 AM on June 5, 2019

It was effectively in a cooler. If it tastes good enjoy it.
posted by theora55 at 6:58 AM on June 5, 2019 [3 favorites]

I'd drink it, if dairy has gone off you can usually taste it in a sip or 2. But basically your iced coffee has sat in a place cooler than a fridge overnight.
posted by wwax at 7:08 AM on June 5, 2019

Yeah, this was plenty cold enough to be safe. Go forth and caffeinate yourself without fear.
posted by Making You Bored For Science at 7:23 AM on June 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

I would. (Also, when you say "4 creams" I'm guessing that means those little cream containers, which are often UHT processed and shelf-stable, which makes this seem even more OK.)

I agree that this coffee is fine to drink because of the ice, but this isn't really accurate- once you open a shelf-stable milk, it's pretty much just milk.
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:49 AM on June 5, 2019 [4 favorites]

I leave a Yeti in my car all day, there's ice when I get back, and I drink the rest of the iced coffee. You're good. :)
posted by mccxxiii at 9:12 AM on June 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

dairy will tell you if there's anything wrong with it. tastes fine = is fine.
posted by fingersandtoes at 9:13 AM on June 5, 2019

I would drink this without a second thought, and I tend to be toward the cautious end of the food worrier spectrum.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 11:57 AM on June 5, 2019

Best answer: I recently bought a yeti knockoff and confronted this phenomenon, so did a subsequent experiment with water and then iced coffee and a thermometer, and the strained-off liquid was indeed under 40 degrees.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:19 PM on June 5, 2019

I guess the only remotely-plausible thing I would worry about would be if it was outside, did a wasp fall into it or if it was inside, did the cats drink out of it? And plus three to the "Yeti knockoffs." They are exactly like a Yeti with a different name but half the price, so I can actually bring myself to buy one.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 2:22 PM on June 5, 2019