Did someone mess with my coffee?

May 1, 2007 2:37 PM

I bought a small skim mocha this morning (8 hours ago) from a local coffee place. It didn't taste right so I set it aside. Now, I took the lid off to dump it and there seem to be lumps of grease floating in it. What's that about?

There are 4 or 5 pea-sized, yellow lumps floating in the cup and clinging to the sides. I had asked for no whipped cream, but I've had ones where the whipped cream has melted and it might leave a slight greasy film, nothing like this. Does anyone know of a natural reason why my skim mocha would do this? Or did the coffee guy do something gross to my drink?

posted by cabingirl to Food & Drink (18 answers total)

maybe the milk was sour?
posted by Tacos Are Pretty Great at 2:45 PM on May 1, 2007

Response by poster: Here's a bad cameraphone photo of the coffee in question.
posted by cabingirl at 2:47 PM on May 1, 2007

I'd guess the milk was bad. I've had the same effect when getting milk in my coffee that should have been pulled a day or two previous.
posted by lekvar at 2:48 PM on May 1, 2007

Response by poster: No, it was from Caribou coffee, although a location I had never been to before.
posted by cabingirl at 2:50 PM on May 1, 2007

Sounds like curdled milk to me.

Here's a picture of curdled milk that looks similar.
posted by chrisamiller at 3:18 PM on May 1, 2007

Eyedrops as purgative via Snopes.
Short version, it'll really mess a person up.
posted by lekvar at 3:19 PM on May 1, 2007

Your milk was spoiled. The lumps (called curds) have to do with protein breakdown in milk (from here)

When milk is fermented by bacteria, the bacteria grow by metabolizing (or eating) the sugar and the protein in the milk. The bacteria produce lactic acid as one byproduct of their metabolism. The lactic acid drops the pH of the milk, making it more acidic. This effect, in turn, denatures or changes proteins in the milk, and in a very complex process curd is formed. The curd or lumps represent complexes of protein complexes. One can achieve a similar result by adding specific enzymes such as rennet to milk. Some dairy products can be produced with the addition of acid alone.
posted by jourman2 at 3:20 PM on May 1, 2007

Response by poster: I agree that curdled milk is the most plausible answer. However, it looked so much like congealed fat in person, that I went and microwaved it to see what would happen. The lumps all melted and formed what looked like a layer of oil on the top of the coffee. I don't think that's what curdled milk would do, if heated.

Maybe there was something wrong with the chocolate sauce?
posted by cabingirl at 3:41 PM on May 1, 2007

I'm Nth-ing that the milk's curdled.
posted by miss lynnster at 3:44 PM on May 1, 2007

You are right cabingirl, microwaving would only harden curds. It must have been fat. Did you walk far enough or otherwise shake it sufficiently to turn cream into butter?

You say you asked for no whipped cream. I would guess, then, that your server prepared it with whipped cream, then realized you had ordered without, and removed the whipped cream with a spoon-- but not all of it.
posted by jamjam at 4:01 PM on May 1, 2007

However, it looked so much like congealed fat

I've had a similar reaction happen when pouring slightly-off coffee cream into hot coffee... chunks of curdy-looking butterfat floating around. The cream itself looks OK, but adding it to the hot coffee makes it curdle almost instantly.

Maybe they didn't use skim milk in your order, and you got borderline expired >0 % milk.
posted by CKmtl at 4:04 PM on May 1, 2007

The folks over at Caribou coffee have several specialty drinks that involve toppings usually reserved for ice cream. Perhaps some crushed Heath bar made it into your not-so-tasty beverage.
posted by itchylick at 4:38 PM on May 1, 2007

jamjam might be on to something. i've seen the same thing happen with leftover whipped cream, especially if it's the kind you make in a canister with a whippit cartridge. it's made with heavy cream, so you'd see a lot of fat in it.
posted by sonofslim at 4:58 PM on May 1, 2007

If you over-whip cream, you end up with butter i.e. lumps of fat. It even tastes different, which would account for your coffee not tasting right. And the lumps would be yellowish and composed of fat, obviously. And spherical.
posted by tiny crocodile at 5:05 PM on May 1, 2007

Alternatively, if they were using a whipped cream substitute like hydrogenated soy or palm, you would end up with clumps of fat that would dissolve when heated into liquid fat. You might ask to see the list of ingrediants in their mocha mix and confirm whether is hydrogenated oil, coconut or palm solids. They might use it to make the mix more "creamy".
posted by zia at 6:24 PM on May 1, 2007

Buy your coffee somewhere else. Tell your friends.
posted by caddis at 6:58 PM on May 1, 2007

Go to the coffee place, show them the photo, ask for a replacement.
posted by theora55 at 8:21 PM on May 1, 2007

I know for a fact that Caribou Coffee uses real whipping cream, the kind you whip with nitrous cartridges. So it's not due to any kind of weird fake whipped cream issue.

I think I'd probably go with the "milk on the verge of spoiling" theory.

If you go in and complain, they will do whatever they can to make it right, I'm sure.
posted by slenderloris at 9:43 AM on May 2, 2007