Burn Baby Burn - NOT!

I took one of our cars in for an oil change today, and saw something interesting.

  

The guy behind the desk pointed me to their small waiting room, cheerfully telling me to help myself to free coffee.  As I walked down the hall, I thought to myself -- right, free four hour old coffee I bet.  Well, when I got to the coffee service, I saw a half filled pot, and not knowing how long it had been sitting there, I picked up the pot to give it the smell test.  I thought that if I didn't keel over from strong coffee smell, I might try a cup.

Lo and behold, there was change sitting on the burner.  Three pennies actually.  Did someone leave the coins there as a joke?  Then it dawned on me.  They were placed there to keep the pot off the burner.

What a good idea, I thought.  But would it work?   

The taste test:  Hot, no overpowering coffee smell, no burnt coffee taste.  Not bad, at least for that cup.

The unknown:  How long had it been sitting there?  Unfortunately, there was no one to ask.  

So school is still out on this idea, and it is up to you to check into it. (we no longer have this type of pot, or we would try it)   If you still have a coffee maker that drips the coffee, and leaves it on a warming burner...  give this a try for yourself.  Let us all know how it turns out in the comments below. Or if you have already tried this, again, give us your comments.  If it makes a significant difference as to how long coffee can stay on your warmer before it turns to yuck...   we will begin to discuss patenting the idea.  :-)