On a busy morning, it’s easy to forget about the piping hot drink you made for yourself. Heck, even on a low-key morning or sleepy weekend afternoon, you might brew yourself a fresh cup of coffee or tea, only to find it an hour later, cold, sad and tasting pretty awful. This phenomenon is so ubiquitous that it’s inspired plenty of online humor — and it’s if an internet joke that you’re the butt of, read on.

shout out to the cup of coffee I brewed 4 hours ago and immediately forgot about Electric Coffee Pot Warmer

While you could throw your cup of joe in the microwave or heat it up over the stove, Emily Rosenberg, director of education and training operations at Stumptown Coffee, says reheating brewed coffee stimulates the production of different acids, making your drink have a “even more bitter, astringent, gnarly flavor,” she previously explained to HuffPost.

So what’s the best way to ensure your coffee or tea doesn’t get too cold before you get to drink it? Short of setting a phone timer for yourself to remind yourself to drink it, it’s better protect and maintain its original heat, instead of letting it get cold and then trying to reheat it.

drinking cold brew (hot coffee i bought at 10 am and forgot about till now)

To help you keep your morning beverage toasty and to save you from becoming a meme (or tweet) of someone who forgot they made some coffee/tea, here are eights tips on keeping your hot drinks hot for as long as possible.

Realising you’ve forgotten a cup of tea you made and finding it cold and undrinkable is a thing you think might get less painful as you get older and more hardened to disappointment but it doesn’t.

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