James Hoffmann vs My Impossible Hot & Cold Coffee

Summary

In this video, Chris revisits his innovative hot and cold drink concept, initially developed during his time at Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck restaurant. Inspired by molecular gastronomy, the concept combines hot and cold coffee in a single cup, creating a unique sensory experience. After several trials and collaboration with coffee expert James Hoffmann, they refine the recipe using gellan gum and coffee concentrate. Hoffmann enjoys the final result, describing the split sensations as fun and novel. The video concludes with real customers trying the drink, offering mixed but intrigued reactions.

Takeaways

• ☕ Heston Blumenthal's hot and cold coffee experiment is inspired by his previous dish, hot and iced tea, which he developed at the Fat Duck restaurant in 2004.
• 🧬 The key to creating the dual temperature drink is thixotropy, a property of liquids that thickens when undisturbed and thins when stirred.
• 🔬 Gellan gum, an obscure thickener with extreme sheer-thinning behavior, is used to create the fluid gel for the hot and cold sides.
• 🧪 The recipe requires precision in pH, mineral content, temperature, and stirring to ensure the gellan gum hydrates properly and forms a smooth fluid gel.
• 📅 After months of trial and error, Chris figured out how to create a drink that allows both hot and cold liquids to coexist in the same cup without mixing.
• 🥶 The experiment was adapted from tea to coffee, with Cometeer frozen coffee concentrate helping overcome consistency issues.
• 🎨 This technique creates a strange sensory experience, as the mouth perceives hot and cold simultaneously with the same sip.
• 🌍 The experiment faced challenges due to differing mineral content in water between locations, but adjusting the recipe improved consistency.
• 🎥 Coffee expert James Hoffmann was brought in to try the recipe, and after initial challenges, he successfully created a version he enjoyed.
• 🎉 Customers at a Seattle coffee shop were invited to try the hot and cold coffee, leading to mixed reactions, with many finding the experience surprising and unusual.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video?

The video focuses on creating a hot and cold coffee inspired by a recipe for hot and iced tea developed at Heston Blumenthal's experimental kitchen. The process involves using gellan gum to create a fluid gel that allows both hot and cold coffee to be experienced in the same sip.

What is thixotropy, and how does it relate to the recipe?

Thixotropy is a property of certain liquids that are thick and viscous when left undisturbed but become thin and flow when agitated. This concept is essential in the creation of the hot and cold coffee recipe, where gellan gum helps maintain the separation of hot and cold layers while allowing them to flow smoothly when consumed.

How did the hot and cold coffee idea originate?

The idea for hot and cold coffee came from a similar concept used in creating a hot and iced tea dish at Heston Blumenthal's restaurant, inspired by a meal Heston had at El Bulli, where a pea soup dish was served with both hot and cold layers.

What were the main challenges faced during the development of the hot and cold tea?

The main challenges included getting the right pH and mineral content in the tea, properly hydrating the gellan gum, heating it to the right temperature, and ensuring the tea mixture was stirred continuously as it cooled. Any misstep would result in failure.

How was gellan gum used to create the hot and cold effect?

Gellan gum, a sheer-thinning thickener, was used to create fluid gels that maintain the separation of hot and cold liquids in the same glass. It allows the liquids to remain separate until consumed, where they blend in the mouth, creating a unique sensory experience.

Why did James Hoffmann’s initial attempt at making the recipe fail?

James Hoffmann's initial attempt failed because the gellan gum did not hydrate properly, likely due to the mineral content in his hard water. Additionally, boiling the coffee to hydrate the gellan gum resulted in an unpleasant flavor.

What solution did James Hoffmann suggest to improve the recipe?

James suggested using coffee concentrate, such as Cometeer, which would allow the gellan gum to hydrate properly in water before adding the coffee. This method would preserve the flavor of the coffee and make the process more consistent.

What adjustments were made to the recipe after James’ feedback?

After James' feedback, Chris adjusted the recipe by using bottled water with lower mineral content and incorporating Cometeer coffee concentrate into the fluid gels after the gellan gum had been properly hydrated and cooled. This solved the consistency and flavor issues.

How did customers at the local coffee shop react to the hot and cold coffee?

Customers at the local coffee shop found the experience unique and surprising. They described the sensation as feeling like one side of their mouth was cold while the other was hot. While some found it fun and interesting, others preferred the hot and cold elements to be separate.

What is the purpose of using a divider in the cup during preparation?

The divider is used to keep the hot and cold fluid gels separate while pouring them into the cup. Once the gels are in place, the divider is removed, allowing the drinker to experience both hot and cold in a single sip.

Outlines

00:00

☕ The Origins of Hot and Cold Coffee

The narrator begins by describing the surprising sensation of drinking a cup of coffee that is simultaneously hot and cold, prompting questions about its origin and preparation. The video explores the process of making this innovative coffee and whether it can impress coffee critic James Hoffmann. The journey starts in 2004 at Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck Restaurant, where the narrator developed his first 'hot and iced tea' recipe. The key to this creation lies in thixotropy, a property of certain liquids, including the ability to transition from thick to fluid states when agitated. The narrator then discusses how this principle led to the creation of the hot and iced tea, inspired by molecular gastronomy and dishes from El Bulli. It sets the stage for exploring the idea of contrasting temperatures in beverages, starting with tea and moving towards the novel hot and cold coffee concept.

05:02

🔬 Experimenting with Gellan Gum and Fluid Gels

The process of perfecting the hot and iced tea involved several failures due to the complexities of working with gellan gum, a key ingredient. The tea’s pH, mineral content, and gellan gum ratio had to be precisely controlled to create the fluid gel. The gel is designed to maintain the separation of hot and cold temperatures within the same cup without mixing. Stirring the solution as it cools is essential to keeping the particles small enough to remain undetectable while ensuring the tea remains fluid and not too thick. After months of experimentation, the narrator finally succeeds in creating the hot and iced tea with distinct layers that maintain their temperature, offering a fleeting but magical sensory experience.

10:02

🔥 Adapting the Recipe for Coffee

The narrator shifts focus from tea to coffee, attempting to adapt the hot and cold concept using coffee as the base. He reaches out to coffee expert James Hoffmann for feedback, but Hoffmann reports that his initial experiment failed. The gellan gum did not properly hydrate, and the coffee’s flavor suffered from the heating process. Differences in water quality and brewing methods between the UK and the US were identified as key variables affecting the outcome. James suggests a more standardized method using coffee concentrate instead of freshly brewed coffee, as this would reduce variability and improve the flavor. This leads to the development of a more reliable recipe that standardizes both the coffee and water components.

15:03

💡 Refining the Hot and Cold Coffee Recipe

Building on James Hoffmann's suggestions, the narrator revises the recipe by using Cometeer, a frozen coffee concentrate, to eliminate inconsistencies caused by varying coffee types and brewing methods. The new recipe involves hydrating the gellan gum in water before adding the coffee concentrate. This results in a more flavorful and stable fluid gel, which is easier to reproduce. The recipe includes detailed steps for preparing both the hot and cold coffee fluid gels, maintaining the temperature differences while serving. With the adjustments made, the narrator prepares to send the improved recipe to James Hoffmann for further testing.

☕ James Hoffmann's Review of the Final Recipe

James Hoffmann tries the updated hot and cold coffee recipe, and this time the experiment is a success. The coffee fluid gels set properly, and the flavor of the coffee is preserved. James describes the sensation as novel and fun, likening it to having the mouth split in half, with one side experiencing hot and the other cold. He praises the consistency of the coffee’s taste and notes how unique the experience is compared to traditional coffee drinks, such as Irish coffee. This positive review is a huge relief for the narrator, validating the new recipe after extensive experimentation.

👥 Real People Try the Hot and Cold Coffee

The narrator takes the hot and cold coffee to a local coffee shop, Santo in Seattle, to let everyday customers experience the drink. The reactions vary from surprise to fascination, as people describe the strange feeling of having hot and cold coffee in the same sip. Some enjoy the novelty, while others express a preference for the temperatures to remain separate. Overall, the experiment is a success, as customers find the experience fun and intriguing, if not something they would drink every day. The video concludes with a sense of accomplishment as the narrator successfully brings this unique beverage to life.

Keywords

💡Thixotropy

Thixotropy is a property of certain liquids that become thinner and more fluid when agitated, and then return to a thicker consistency upon standing still. In the video, thixotropy is the key principle behind creating the hot and cold tea and coffee. The script mentions how fluid gels, which exhibit thixotropic behavior, were used to thicken sauces at the Fat Duck restaurant, and how this property keeps flavored beads suspended in a beverage until slightly agitated.

💡Fluid Gel

A fluid gel is a substance that has properties of both liquids and solids. It can be solid at rest but flows like a liquid when agitated. In the context of the video, fluid gels are used to create the hot and cold tea and coffee. The script describes how vanilla and chocolate puddings stay apart due to being fluid gels that are solid in the cup but become smooth and fluid in the mouth.

💡Molecular Gastronomy

Molecular gastronomy is a subdiscipline of food science that explores the physical and chemical processes that occur in cooking. The video references El Bulli's pioneering dish from 1999, which played with contrasting hot and cold temperatures of the same fresh pea soup, exemplifying molecular gastronomy's focus on sensory experiences.

💡Gellan Gum

Gellan gum is a gelling agent derived from a bacterium found in lily plants. It is used in the video to create the fluid gel for the hot and cold tea and coffee. The script describes how gellan gum has the most extreme shear-thinning behavior of any thickener, which is crucial for the recipe's success.

💡Shear-Thinning

Shear-thinning is a non-Newtonian fluid property where the fluid's viscosity decreases under stress or agitation. This is related to thixotropy and is essential for the video's recipe, as the fluid gel needs to be thick enough to hold its form but thin enough to pour and mix in the mouth.

💡Convection Currents

Convection currents are the flow of fluid due to temperature differences. In the video, it is mentioned that the tea cannot be too thin to avoid convection currents flipping the hot tea on top of the cold tea, which would ruin the effect of the hot and cold tea.

💡Heston Blumenthal

Heston Blumenthal is a renowned British chef known for his experimental approach to cooking. In the video, he is credited with the idea of creating a hot and cold tea, inspired by a dish he had at El Bulli, which the script describes as a pivotal moment in the development of the recipe.

💡El Bulli

El Bulli was a restaurant considered the world's best during its operation and was known for its avant-garde cuisine. The video references El Bulli's dish that played with contrasting temperatures, which served as inspiration for the hot and cold tea recipe.

💡James Hoffmann

James Hoffmann is a renowned coffee expert and YouTuber. In the video, he provides critical feedback on the hot and cold coffee recipe, highlighting the importance of testing and refining culinary creations.

💡Cometeer

Cometeer is a brand that produces frozen coffee concentrate. In the video, it is used as a solution to standardize the coffee and water for the hot and cold coffee recipe, ensuring consistency and ease of preparation.

💡Sensory Experience

Sensory experience refers to the engagement of the senses in perceiving and enjoying food or drink. The video emphasizes the unique sensory experience of the hot and cold tea and coffee, where the contrasting temperatures create a novel and memorable sensation.

Highlights

Introduction of Heston Blumenthal's hot and cold coffee experiment inspired by molecular gastronomy.

Explanation of thixotropy – the phenomenon behind the hot and iced tea recipe, making it possible to experience different temperatures simultaneously.

A deep dive into the molecular gastronomy movement, with references to dishes from El Bulli that contrast hot and cold sensations.

Heston Blumenthal’s innovative use of gellan gum to separate hot and cold layers in a cup without a physical divider.

Challenges of using gellan gum in beverages, including the necessity of precise pH, mineral content, and temperature control for successful gelling.

Discussion of the fluid gel process used to create a smooth texture without affecting the flavor of the tea.

Chris's struggle to recreate the hot and cold tea after several failed attempts before finally achieving success.

Introduction of coffee into the experiment: trying to adapt the hot and cold tea concept to create a dual-temperature coffee.

James Hoffmann’s initial failed attempt at replicating the coffee recipe, highlighting the issues with water mineral content and gellan gum consistency.

The realization that using coffee concentrate, like Cometeer, allows for better control of consistency and flavor when making hot and cold coffee.

Detailed step-by-step process for creating the hot and cold coffee, including specific measurements and methods for achieving the dual-temperature effect.

James Hoffmann’s successful attempt at tasting the hot and cold coffee, describing it as a fun and strange sensation of split-temperature drinking.

The quirky sensation of having one side of the mouth feel hot and the other side cold, a unique experience never had before.

Final test of the hot and cold coffee on real customers at a Seattle coffee shop, receiving mixed but generally positive reactions.

Chris’s reflection on the artistic and whimsical nature of molecular gastronomy, showing how these culinary experiments challenge conventional dining experiences.

Transcripts

(customers chattering) (gentle music)

(sipping sound effect)

(zooming sound effect)

(upbeat music)

(Heston faintly speaking)

- he'll do a side by side comparison.

Chris is just knocking up a simple batter.

(gentle music) (zooming sound effect)

(dramatic music)

- I can't remember the last time

I felt such a familiar and unfamiliar sensation.

A cup of coffee

that's both hot and cold in the same sip, it's magical.

But where did this come from?

How is it possible and how do you make it?

And can this cup of hot and cold coffee surprise

and delight the ultimate coffee critic, James Hoffmann?

I am absolutely terrified to find out.

And that is today's video,

which starts by traveling back in time 20 years to 2004

when I was a young chef

running Heston Blumenthal's experimental kitchen

at the Fat Duck Restaurant.

It's when I developed my first three-star recipe,

the hot and iced tea,

and thixotropy is the secret to how it works.

You might not know the word,

but you're familiar with the phenomenon,

if you've ever smacked a bottle of ketchup

to get it to flow.

It's a strange property of certain liquids

that they're thick and viscous when left undisturbed,

but thin in flow when shaken or stirred.

(theragun humming)

The more they're agitated, the more they liquefy.

(theragun humming)

Less messy is the swirl pudding cup,

a staple of school lunches.

The vanilla and chocolate pudding stay apart,

because they're a fluid gel that's solid in the cup

and becomes smooth and fluid in your mouth.

Hmm.

Enjoying the sensation of juxtaposed contrasting flavors

is common in cooking,

but enjoying the sensation

of juxtaposed contrasting temperatures,

that's far less common.

(dramatic music)

This was the idea

behind a pioneering dish created in 1999

at ground zero of the molecular gastronomy movement,

El Bulli's (speaks in foreign language)

(dramatic music)

The sensation of this dish is based on contrasting hot

and cold temperatures of the same fresh pea soup.

(dramatic music)

It's a clear example of how our mind perceives flavor

and texture as being different

when the only real difference is the serving temperature.

(dramatic music)

The flavor and thickness change as you sip it down

and go from the hot to the cold layer.

(dramatic music)

It's no hot fudge sundae,

but the contrast of temperatures

is as delicious as it is memorable.

It certainly stood out in Heston's memory

from his meal at El Bulli,

and it would be part of the inspiration

for the hot and cold tea

that we'd create a few years later at the Fat Duck.

As a young chef back in 2003, I had become enamored

with fluid gels, which were widely used

to thicken our sauces at the Fat Duck,

because of their clean, crisp flavor release,

compared to the dull stodginess of starch, thickened sauces.

And as a '90s kid, I was familiar with Orbitz.

For those of you younger than me,

this was kind of like boba tea for Gen X,

a novelty beverage that was secretly a fluid gel.

Unlike boba tea where the tapioca pearls

all sink to the bottom, the thixotropic nature

of this fluid gel

keeps the flavored beads suspended in the drink.

But with just the slightest agitation of the bottle,

the solid gel becomes water-thin and the beads swirl.

This was the lava lamp of beverages, the ultimate fluid gel.

I thought we could create something like this

for the menu at the Fat Duck, but it was Heston

who took the idea much further by connecting it

to his memory of that dish from El Bulli

and giving me a doodle he'd made.

Depicting a glass of English tea with a twist,

it would be divided in half vertically

with the hot tea on one side

and iced tea on the other, with no divider in the cup.

My job, to figure out how the (beep) to make this possible.

The doodle was the easy part.

The only thing that I knew for sure is that I would need

to use the relatively obscure gellan gum

isolated from a bacterium

found in lily plants in a pond in Pennsylvania.

Yes, gellan gum is pond's gum,

but pond's gum with the most extreme sheer-thinning behavior

of any thickener.

But from here, it was months of failure after failure.

The tea itself needed to be adjusted

to just the right pH and mineral content,

or it wouldn't work.

The gellan gum needed to be carefully blended into cold tea,

so that it didn't form lumps, or it wouldn't work.

The mixture needed to be heated

to just the right temperature

to rehydrate the gellan gum, or it wouldn't work.

Before adding just enough calcium salt

to get the gellan gum to gel, or it wouldn't work.

If you don't get these steps right,

and it is easy not to, nothing works.

After this, it's best

if the solution is stirred continuously

as it cools, so that it becomes a fluid gel.

Stirring keeps the particles of gel so small

that you cannot perceive that the fluid is actually made up

of a countless number of tiny pieces of solid gel.

Of course, the tea needs to be thickened

as little as possible, because tea isn't thick.

But the tea cannot be so thin

that the convection currents

from the temperature differences between the two sides

flips the hot tea on top of the cold tea.

And if you can feel the temperature difference

between the sides when you hold the cup,

the spell is broken.

After months of experimentation,

I'd finally figured out

how to make Heston's hot and cold tea.

(zooming sound effect)

Eureka.

It tastes, well, like tea,

but this side is Earl Gray hot, and this side is iced tea.

And you taste and feel

both at the same time in the same sip.

It's really difficult to describe how strange this feels.

You can rotate the cup 180 degrees

and the hot and the cold side flip.

You can sip from the hot side or the cold side.

And there's no divider in the cup.

Eventually, the temperatures

between the two sides will equilibrate and it's over.

It's a fleeting moment of magic.

This dish is a party trick, of course,

and not something you'll end up craving every day.

But it's also whimsical and fun

at a time when fine dining was stuffy and too serious.

This kind of cooking isn't just about nourishment,

it's about the art of what's possible.

And like modern art, it's not everyone's cup of tea.

This video was the first time that I'd made the hot

and iced tea recipe since 2006 or so.

I'm no longer living and cooking in England.

I haven't cooked professionally in about a decade.

I live in Seattle now and make YouTube videos like this,

and design cooking tools

like the combustion predictive thermometer

in Giant Grill Gauge.

More about those at my website, Combustion.inc,

if you're interested.

That's the day job that pays to make these videos.

But for today's video, I thought it would be interesting

to see if we could adapt the recipe to coffee.

But critical feedback

is really important when developing a recipe like this.

So, for my cup of hot and cold coffee,

I know the perfect person for that feedback.

My longtime London friend

and famous coffee YouTuber, James Hoffmann.

Good morning, James. It's great to see you.

- Hey, Chris, how you doing?

- I am just waking up. How are you doing?

- I am done with coffee for the day, but not bad. Not bad.

- Did you get my package of white powders?

- Yes.

You'd think I'd be used

to receiving random white powders in the mail,

but it's still always like, okay, thanks.

But yes, I have received the white powders

and the instructions therein, and have run the experiment.

- So, tell me what you got, what happened?

How'd it work?

- It didn't work.

Couple things, couple things.

The major and the minor, we'll go with that.

The major is, I don't really know why,

but it's almost like the, it just didn't gel.

It's like it didn't hydrate properly.

It didn't dissolve properly.

And I'm definitely hitting temperatures required

for that to hydrate.

And that's my other kind of eh on this one where,

I'm cooking coffee to get this done

and it does not smell good.

- Yeah. - Like it doesn't.

You know what I mean? The results.

So, there's this other thing didn't set up,

didn't gel, and then tasted bad.

- Hmm.

- So, (laughs) not quite a success.

- But not totally unexpected.

This was what I was worried about.

I'm in Seattle, you're in England.

I used to live in England,

so your water's quite hard compared to ours.

There's a lot more mineral content.

You're a country built on chalk.

- Yeah. - And-

- In every way.

- You almost certainly have more mineral

in your water than I do.

We have relatively soft water

and that can keep gellan gum from hydrating.

But the other problem - Right.

- is everybody's coffee is going to be a bit different.

How they brew it is going to be a bit different.

It's strength, it's acidity. - Yeah.

- So, what would be ideal is if we could get the gums

into the water first, and then make the coffee.

- Right.

Ultimately, it feels like what you wanna do

is just add some very strong coffee to that.

And so, the first thought would be something like espresso,

but espresso is gonna be just like violently unpredictable

in terms of how people make it at home.

It might be the right kind of concentration

and strength for this,

but it's just a massive, it's a massive variable.

And also, it's hard to make. It's expensive to make.

So, I guess a solution would probably be something

like a good coffee extract, ultimately,

like a finished extraction.

At the cheapest end, I suppose you could use something

like just straight instant coffee.

Though I don't think that would be particularly delicious.

And then, I guess at the other end,

you've got something like Cometeer

who are doing specialty coffee extracts.

And so, you could use the little,

you just melt the frozen puck of Cometeer,

which is finished extracted coffee

and use that, 'cause that's about 13% strength.

So, it's very strong. It's stronger than normal espresso.

So, diluting that would be relatively easy

and it would at least be between you

and I at least, extremely reliable, consistent.

I guess we'd have the same experience

for testing and development.

- Let me do that.

I'll send you a new recipe and let's try this again.

- Sounds good.

- Fantastic. - Speak in a bit.

- After my call with James,

I went back to the drawing board.

The problem was consistency.

Different coffee beans, different roast, different brews,

different mineral content in the water.

All of these factors

were affecting the gellan gum's ability

to create a fluid gel.

Not to mention we were having to abuse good coffee

by boiling it to get the gellan in the solution.

But James' suggestion to use a coffee concentrate

was a good way of overcoming these problems.

What if we could standardize both the coffee and the water?

Enter Cometeer, frozen coffee concentrate.

This solution allows us to hydrate the gellan gum first,

and then add the coffee later once the fluid gel has cooled.

It's much more reliable,

much better for the coffee flavor,

and frankly, much easier for anyone to make.

Here are the steps.

First, measure out ice cold water.

If you have hard water, use bottled water

that doesn't have a really high mineral content.

Then, weigh out the gellan gum for two solutions,

one with 0.1% gellan gum

by weight of water for the iced coffee,

and one with 0.15% gellan gum

by weight of water for the hot coffee.

Disperse the gellan gum into the cold water.

Cold water and a small electric whisk helps prevent lumps.

Heat the mixture to a boil.

It should go completely clear,

indicating the gellan gum has rehydrated.

Thaw some Cometeer coffee.

Then, pour the Cometeer coffee concentrate

into the fluid gels.

Then, cool the mixture.

I have the equipment to stir continuously,

but assuming you don't,

you can just cool it over an ice bath

and then pass the solid gel

through a fine sieve to break it up.

While the fluid gel is cooling,

you'll also need a divider

to split your cup in half

while you're pouring the fluid gels.

I fill my glass with a 1% gellan solution in water,

and then demold and slice it

to create a template, which I can trace onto some cardboard

to create a very snug-fitting divider for my cups.

Finally, to serve it, heat the hot coffee fluid gel

to 150 Fahrenheit, about 65 Celsius,

and keep the cold coffee fluid gel on ice,

so that it's just above freezing.

To serve, pour the hot and cold coffee fluid gels

under either side (dramatic music)

of a divided cup, remove the divider, and then enjoy.

(dramatic music)

(Chris exhales sharply)

Hmm.

(cup thuds)

That is much better.

And the coffee flavor is a lot better too.

I think this recipe is ready for James to try again.

And I really hope it works,

because if this doesn't work,

it might be hopeless and you will never see this video.

Hey, James. Thanks for giving this another go.

- I'm just about to pour it.

I've not tasted this yet. - Yeah.

- Okay. I've not messed it up.

(canisters clink)

That looks right. Here we go.

All right. Out comes the divider.

I've not tried this yet.

This will be my first taste,

because I wanted to taste it with you.

Okay. Are you ready?

- I'm officially nervous. - So, it gelled.

It looked good. It looks good.

It looked gelled nicely. Smells good.

Ooh.

It's almost like one nostril gets to the hot side.

All right. Cheers.

Wait, you want me to drink down the split, right?

Half, half? - Yeah.

Down the split is what I recommend.

(James chuckles)

- Oh, that's weird.

Oh, that's fun though.

No, no, that's fun.

That's like,

it's so abnormal that,

but it's just the novelty of, it's huge fun.

Because you can drink like an Irish coffee,

which is hot coffee and cold cream on top,

and you get - Yeah.

- the two things at once.

But this does not, does not feel like that.

This feels like - No.

- the size of your mouth is split in half.

And so, this cheek got the cold side. It's so weird.

(James chuckles)

(cup thuds)

It's like cold on my teeth and hot in my...

It's weird. It's so weird.

It's tasty. The coffee tastes nice.

It's...

Oh, God, the coffee tastes good,

because we brought it up to just up like 60, 65.

And generally,

I found that if you bring coffee

just the way you wanna drink it, it's great.

And if you take it hotter than that

and bring it back there, it sucks.

So, that worked really well. The cold side tastes nice.

That's just genuinely,

that's just a ton of fun.

That's just...

You've not had that before. Here's a new thing.

- No. - Here's a cup of coffee

you've never had before.

- In a sentence,

how would you succinctly describe what you just had?

- It's slicing your head in half

and giving them two different drinks.

- Well, there's something you don't get to try every day.

- That's true.

I'm gonna just go and make this now for the team here,

'cause I think they're gonna really enjoy it.

- Fantastic.

And so, James, thank you again.

Thanks for being - Thank you.

- a good sport about this.

And I look forward to catching up

hopefully next time in London.

It's good to see you. - You too.

All right. Thanks, Chris.

- Okay.

(AirPods clinks)

(Chris sighs)

He liked it, which is a huge relief.

I was genuinely nervous

about having James Hoffmann try my hot and cold coffee.

Especially since he had to prepare the recipe.

I couldn't make it for him.

But if he liked it, what do real people think?

And that's the final thing we need to do.

We need to let the people speak.

So, I've arranged with my local coffee shop,

Santo, in Seattle,

to have their customers try my hot and cold coffee.

Let's go.

(traffic whooshing) (passersby chattering)

(customers chattering)

(ceramic clinks) (customers chattering)

- Oh. (laughs)

It shocked me.

Like I saw the separation,

- Yeah. - but didn't think

it was going to be hot and cold,

'cause I just grabbed it. - Yeah.

- 'Cause it's not in a glass where I can really feel it.

- Sensory confusion.

I have cold on this side of my face

and hot on this side of my face.

- You get cold iced coffee on one side

(customers chattering)

- and hot on the other.

What is this,

this magic that you created? - It's hot and cold coffee.

(customers chattering)

- That is so fascinating.

That's a weird experience in my mouth.

- But I don't like them together.

- You don't like them together?

- No, I like them separate.

- That's really interesting.

Like one side of my mouth, it's fully hot,

and then the other, it's like cold.

It's really good. It's really trippy though.

- Yeah. - Can you say

thank you so very much for watching

and see you next time.

- Yes, thank you so much for watching.

See you next time.

(customers chattering) (customer chuckles)