When sugar is poured in hot coffee and not stirred, should the sugar fully absorb the hot liquid? Why does the coffee taste sweeter when the sugar is physically stirred into the liquid?
In: Chemistry
Compounds dissolve because the water’s molecules are moving about and knocking against the sugar molecules. But a granule of sugar has lots of molecules and the water only knocks on the outside of the crystal.
Dissolving also depends on the water’s capacity to hold the sugar. But if the water isn’t moving, then the water touching the crystal very quickly gets saturated with sugar and can’t hold anymore. Given time, the dissolved sugar will diffuse into the rest of the cup.
But since you want hot coffee, you need to speed the process up. Stirring causes everything to move around, so more water molecules knock against the granule. It also moves the sugar around, so it doesn’t stop the granule from dissolving further.
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