It's a hot summer day, you've spent the last few hours soaking up the sun on St. Augustine Beach, and you are craving an ice-cold Kenyan coffee from Growers Alliance. So, you do what anyone else would do and pack your friends into the car to head over to Growers Alliance for that delicious iced coffee to cool you off, right? Well, you may want to swap that iced coffee for a hot coffee if you're looking to cool yourself down on a hot summer day. It may sound counterproductive, but let us explain!
Scientists and several coffee drinkers have agreed, drinking a hot cup of coffee on a hot sunny day can actually help you cool off. Sweating is your body's way of cooling you off, but more specifically the sweat evaporating from your skin is really what does the cooling. When you consume hot liquids, the thermosensors in your stomach send a message to your brain that the body needs to be cooled off, and the body's sweat mechanisms "overact" from the rise in internal temperature. Anthony Bain Ph.D., explains, "So, when this sweat evaporates from our skin, the heat energy we lose due to evaporation exceeds the heat energy gained by drinking the hot drink. In other words, it is because our body overacted to the hot drink that we end up cooler in the end." In comparison, sipping on a cold beverage could make you feel hot, because while your body cools down internally, the hot summer air around you may feel increasingly warmer.
There you have it, a hot cup of coffee is now the coolest summer beverage. Ditch those frozen and iced drinks and swap it for a hot cup of pesticide-free fairtrade coffee. Next time you need to cool off visit Growers Alliance Cafe and Gift Shop and enjoy a delicious hot latte, coffee, or tea!