That's a myth within a myth. The coffee was industry standard temperature, they still serve coffee that hot today (Wikipedia says as much.) The lawsuit was justified though, because the cup design was defective. It shouldn't have collapsed like it did.
> Liebeck's attorneys argued that coffee should never be served hotter than 140 °F (60 °C), and that a number of other establishments served coffee at a substantially lower temperature than McDonald's. The attorneys presented evidence that coffee they had tested all over the city was served at a temperature at least 20 °F (11 °C) lower than McDonald's coffee.
Reading through wikipedia's discussion of the trial and verdict, it sounds like the case hinged entirely on the temperature of the coffee being unusually high, and not the cup design.
It's strange that despite the research showing that most customers intend to consume the coffee immediately and despite this lawsuit and, apparently, others, McDonald's and other establishments continue to serve coffee at such a high temperature. Every time I buy a hot drink (admittedly, not that often) I can't actually drink it for several minutes.
> Since Liebeck, McDonald's has not reduced the service temperature of its coffee. McDonald's current policy is to serve coffee at 176–194 °F (80–90 °C) [...] Similarly, as of 2004, Starbucks sells coffee at 175–185 °F (79–85 °C), and the executive director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America reported that the standard serving temperature is 160–185 °F (71–85 °C).[citation needed]
Any of this coffee can give you life changing injuries. That's why it is important that it be served in sturdy cups with safety warnings.
Of course the plaintiffs attorney argued coffee should be lower temperature - it literally was their case.
And no, there is no coffee professional (organization, individual, whatever) brewing coffee at 140*F.
Additionally - 140*F water is still going to burn if you spill it all over your clothing. Lastly, the customer removed the lid of the coffee while between her legs, which is how the cup was crushed and coffee ran all over her.
The case was not absurd. Even if you think they should be fine to serve it at such a high temperature, she just wanted them to pay $20,000 for her medical bills, but McDonald's used it as a way to cast absurdity onto supposed tort abuse and it worked with most of the population still saying things like "you can even sue someone if you spill your own coffee".
That's not an industry standard either though. With a lot of equipment it would be technically impossible, because the pre-heated brew water is what's keeping the standing coffee hot.
Why? All this debate on how hot you like to drink your coffee etc. is completely irrelevant.
You don't chug your coffee on your way from the counter. You probably have some other items that you consume before you even start sipping on the coffee.
If someone serves me coffee at the perfect consumption temperature I'm going to be annoyed that it is way too cold and it is for sure going to be disgustingly cold at the time I actually consume it.
The correct temperature is supposed to be way too warm for consumption. Then you can sip at it while it is still too warm to drink comfortably while you "wait" until it is at your preferred consumption temperature (which varies wildly due to personal preference).
> You don't chug your coffee on your way from the counter. You probably have some other items that you consume before you even start sipping on the coffee.
See Table 5, which includes "After dilution or cooling".
> You don't chug your coffee on your way from the counter. You probably have some other items that you consume before you even start sipping on the coffee.
The same article says McDonald's own research showed the opposite.
> McDonald's claimed that the reason for serving such hot coffee in its drive-through windows was that those who purchased the coffee typically were commuters who wanted to drive a distance with the coffee; the high initial temperature would keep the coffee hot during the trip.[12] However, it came to light that McDonald's had carried out research finding that customers intend to consume the coffee immediately while driving.[22]
The [22] source doesn't say anything about that research. But a commuter is a very specific customer and hardly represents all customers.
Further, I'm guessing but doubt that commuters wouldn't go to mcd just for coffee, whatever breakfast(?) maybe didn't last long enough for it to cool down. Sure, but that all depends.
And apparently, commuters didn't mind enough to find something else.
Part from safety issues I haven't really seen any convincing argument against "too hot" coffee.
Do you apply this standard to tea, which is generally prepared and served much hotter than 140 F (with the understanding that you wait until it cools down to drink)?
In any case, here's the facts: when I make coffee at home, it is brewed at 200ish F. That is true. When I make tea tho it's like 170ishf. By the time I am ready to consume (post brewing) both are still not, but consumable, so I think it is safe to say that they won't burn me, at least very badly, if spilled on me.
And if you served them to a guest, right after preparing for yourself, it will be before it’s cooled down enough to drink. That doesn’t make it your fault if they spill it on themselves and fuse their labia.
And it doesn’t make the grossness of the accident into prima facia evidence of the culpability of any one party up the line, as it’s always presented in these discussions.
I can’t speak for the other guy but I don’t pour tea for myself or others until it’s cooled down considerably, and also in this scenario we’re not giving the guest the beverage in a paper cup they’re meant to consume in their car.
We're not talking about idiosyncratic special cases here, we're talking about the norm. That's why I provided a citation rather than building a case off of a particular individual's routine. From the link:
"Black and oolong teas are generally steeped in hot or boiling water (about 210º F) and brewed for about 4-5 minutes. Green tea is steeped at a slightly lower temperature 180º F from 4-15 minutes. The longer tea steeps, the stronger the flavor with bitter notes."
And I don't think anyone recommends you put hot beverages in your crotch area.
OK but that tells me nothing about serving? Do you expect a plate of pasta to be served in boiling water?
It also seems clear to me that one should take into account that someone is having the drink in the car and not at the table if you’re operating a drive-through restaurant.
For reference, your Keurig pours coffee into your cup at 192*F. McDonald's coffee wasn't even this hot when that lawsuit happen.
Additionally - the detail often left out of all the armchair analysis is the customer placed the fresh cup of coffee between her legs while in her car, and removed the lid. Her legs crushed the now-unstable cup... and she was unsurprisingly burned.
Yes, the kitchen has many hazards that are not expected in a drive-through restaurant, and your point about how she held the coffee is presumably why the jury found the plaintiff 20% liable rather than 0%.
I think I agree with you on principle, but temps higher than 100 are totally fine in a lot of cases. Hot tubs are at 102-106. 120°F takes you like 10 minutes to suffer serious burns. But 140° will cause burns in seconds. I've seen cooks handle stuff waaay hotter than 140 for a half secondish (grab a noodle from a pot of boiling water, poke a 160+° burger on a grill, etc). Obviously makes a big difference if you splash yourself a bit vs get a whole cup on you too.
The warning was made more prominent and, probably more importantly, they switched to rigid styrofoam cups that are less likely to buckle as happened in that incident. Furthermore, the Wikipedia article shared in the thread elsewhere details how such burns take substantially more contact with skin to happen if the coffee is not served so hot.
