I like my morning coffee strong (and sweet). And normally I like it right now. So here I am sitting in front of my desk, "ckecking my emails" as it were, waiting for my coffee (black of course) to cool down enough to be consumed.

Old mate here to my right has just suggested that I water it down with a little cold water, or even ice. From experience, I can tell you that this seriously alters the flavour of the coffee. I don't understand why, but watering down already brewed coffee spoils it. So, of course, I have a complicated and expensive solution. I'm thinking a stainless steel "dipper" heatsink, with a large fin area, and two thin pipes leading in/out. These pipes will go to/from a vessel containing iced water. You dunk the heatsink into your brew, hit the switch, and icy water is cycled through the heatsink, rapidly chilling it to a more moderate temperature.

Bonus deluxe version is of course designed with no pump, using convection as the motive force to move the coolant in/out of the heatsink. It is callibrated such that once the coffee (or soup - the possibilities are, well, um, limited. hmm.) - has reached the callibrated temperature, the convection process stalls and the cooling effect ceases, with your coffee at *exactly* the right temperature.
-- Custardguts, Sep 11 2008

How about a Stirling engine powered stirrer? Use that spare thermal energy to thoroughly mix in the milk and sugar.
-- Wrongfellow, Sep 11 2008


pre-chilled coffee mug ?
-- FlyingToaster, Sep 12 2008


Heat pipes should do it.

Mix in inert gas with the liquid filling it so that it ceases to boil once the calibrated temperature is reached.

No moving parts, no electronics!
-- neelandan, Sep 12 2008


An interim solution for you to try:

Pre-freeze some coffee into cubes. (make the coffee to your normal specification of course) and then dump the 'coffee-cubes' in to your fresh brew to get the desired cooling effect.

Your idea is better of course as it is vastly over-complicated and costly.

A bun from me: I hate over-hot coffee too..
-- monojohnny, Sep 12 2008


How about filling up a sink (or some kind of container) with cold water of the correct height, and put your cup in it to transfer heat to the surrounding water?
-- doanviettrung, Sep 14 2008


Pour it into your saucer, as tea drinkers have done for centuries.
-- Spacecoyote, Sep 14 2008



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