[marcosdumay]

Normally coffee is not brewed on boiling water, and losses a lot of heat during the brewing process. So, McDonalds' coffee (and the ones on many more stores) is significantly hotter than normal coffee.

But recently brewed coffee is dangerous anyway, it's quite stupid to hold it with one's legs. Still, I don't know about the details, and even the defamation she suffered might be enough for the punishment.

[crdrost]

I don’t know how fast food companies brew it, but frequently coffee shops who do drips and care about the flavor more insist that the most important thing in drip coffee is a temperature that’s only around 10°F/5°C under boiling.

Of course if they do brew that, they won’t give it to you before either adding a bit of cool water (most places prefer to brew strong and then dilute) or letting it cool down (if they just insist on a strong-taste brand).

Coffee nuts are a fan of really high temperature in my experience. They just know that you can’t taste the difference if your first sip burns off your taste buds.

[fencepost]

The grounds and equipment are not at similarly high temperatures, so the coffee going into the cup is significantly cooler than the water being poured.

IIRC at the time the McDonald's stated rationale was that by serving at that temperature it would be at a good drinking temperature when people arrived at their offices. These days that seems ludicrous to me.