We've all been there. (Well, some of us have.)
You take a sip of your coffee, expecting the rich, earthy flavor of roasted beans. But instead, you get a mouthful of… plastic? It's a bit disconcerting, to say the least.
And while some of us actually enjoy the taste of plastic—goats, mushroom corals, dianogas—most of us would prefer our coffee to taste like, well, coffee.
If you've been making your coffee at home for any amount of time, you know that there are a lot of variables that go into making a great cup of coffee. But sometimes, even when you think you have everything dialed in perfectly, shit still happens.
One particularly frustrating shit that can happen is when your coffee maker suddenly starts making coffee that smells and tastes like a Ziploc bag factory. This can be pretty off-putting when you’re expecting the best smelling and tasting beverage in the world, and it can make your morning cup of joe feel like a morning cup of plastic.
So what causes this problem? Well, in general, coffee that tastes like plastic is going to be caused by one of three things:
- A coffee maker with a water reservoir made of low-grade plastic.
- Normal "Outgassing" of internal plastic components.
- You accidentally put Folger's Classic Roast in your coffee maker.*
*J/k, it doesn’t taste like plastic—It tastes like how the motel from No Country For Old Men probably smelled. (Don't blame me, I stole this joke from a review of it.)
Whatever's causing the PVC blues, don't fret—you already may be at your wits' end, but I have three possible fixes for the problem.
Note: These methods should be perfectly safe for any standard coffee maker, but attempt them at your own risk. If your coffee maker breaks irreparably as a result of running diluted vinegar through it—good riddance, it must have sucked anyway.
Solution #1 – Wipe Down Internal Plastic Components with Alcohol
One way to try and fix the problem is to use alcohol to gently wipe down the inside of your coffee maker. This can help to remove any residue that may be causing your unwelcome plastic flavoring, and it’s worth a try.
Solution #2 – Like Every Other DIY Solution in the World, Try Using Vinegar on the Problem
You can also try running highly diluted vinegar and water through your coffee maker. Besides the natural odor-fighting properties of vinegar, this can also help to clean out any build-up that may be causing the issue. You’ll just want to run a good amount of water through it afterward to remove any lingering vinegar.
Solution #3 – Air That Thing Out
You can try just opening up your coffee maker and leaving it open, allowing the internal plastics to air out. This is most likely to work on brand new coffee makers, but it can help to dissipate any smells or tastes that may be coming from the internal components on slightly older machines as well.
If it's not enough, you can actually try leaving a handful of whole coffee beans inside your machine's filter basket to absorb the internal smell—just make sure they don't spill and end up inside the machine. (If they do, you'll need to consult your owner's manual or contact the manufacturer's support line to get them out before you can use it again.)
Hopefully one of these solutions will help to solve your problem. But if not, you just may need to invest in a coffee maker without plastic components.
Ironically, while the AeroPress is totally made of plastic, no one ever seems to complain about it having a plastic taste. It's probably due to being made out of a higher-grade type of plastic, as opposed to the cheap internal plastics typically used in other coffee makers.
So, if you're tired of your morning coffee tasting like a vinyl siding warehouse—consider switching to something like the AeroPress, or a coffee maker made of metal and glass, like the Espro French Press.
