Project Zomboid – How to Make Coffee

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In Project Zomboid, food and beverages significantly impact your thirst, hunger, and moodles. Among them, coffee stands out as the most common beverage in-game thanks to its easy recipe and effects.

However, not all players know how to make coffee. This post will show you how to make coffee in Project Zomboid.

Recommended Read: When Does Winter Start in Project Zomboid

You need a combination of coffee, water, and a mug to make the coffee beverage. A mixture of heat source and tea boosts the effects to the next level, while sugar eliminates boredom.

To make the coffee beverage in Project Zomboid, you need to fill the mug with water, then right-click on the mug and select “Create Beverage” => “From Coffee”. After that, choose “Beverage” => “Add <any type of sugar or tea>” to add an additional ingredient. Finally, place your coffee mug on the heat source, wait for it to be cooked, and then enjoy it.


Table of Contents


How to Make Coffee in Project Zomboid

Although raw coffee can be eaten by right-clicking on it and selecting “Eat”, it increases Unhappiness and Thirst. Moreover, who else likes enjoying coffee that way, right?

Instead, we’ll gather the necessary tools and items and make the tastiest beverage ever!

Preparation

To make coffee, you need to collect the following ingredients:

1. Coffee

As a primary ingredient in this recipe, you can get coffee on kitchen counters in residential houses, warehouses, or restaurants.

2. An Empty Mug

An empty mug is vital in making coffee, and you can’t replace it with other similar containers such as plastic cups or bowls. It can be found in kitchen cabinets or grocery stores.

3. Water Source

You need water from any water source to make coffee. You can get water from lakes or rain, but it’s marked as “Tainted”, so you must purify it first to ensure safety. Ideally, water from sinks or bathtubs is clean and easy to take.

If you get water from polluted sources, you need a kettle or saucepan to purify it by placing it on the heat source. Otherwise, it’s unnecessary. Both can be found on kitchen counters.

4. Heat Source, Sugar, and Tea (Optional)

You need a heat source to make coffee hot, and our recommendation is an oven. Most residential houses have one, so no worries if you’re making coffee inside houses!

Sugar and tea help reduce negative moodles when they participate in recipes. You can add any type of sugar, such as brown sugar, sugar packs, or sugar, to your coffee mug.

Additionally, sugar or tea is found primarily on kitchen cabinets.

Let’s Make Coffee!

The basic coffee recipe requires 1 unit of water (filled in the mug), at least 17% unit of coffee, and 1 unit of sugar or tea (optional).

Assume that you’re making coffee inside, with an oven as a heat source and a sink as a water source. First, stay next to the sink, right-click on it, and select “Fill” => “Empty Mug”. The Mug’s name now is changed to “Mug of Water”.

Uncooked Coffee

Next, right-click on the mug in your inventory and select “Create Beverage” => ”From Coffee”. You can add coffee to the mug 3 times, each time weighing 0.17 (17% of the coffee’s encumbrance), and they provide different effects:

Number of Coffee Added (Uncooked)FatigueHungerThirstUnhappiness
1-8-5-10-5
2-8-100-5
3-8-15+100

Depending on your current negative moodles, you need to choose the ideal amount of coffee.

Now you already have an uncooked coffee cup in your pocket. We suggest taking more steps, such as adding flavors or cooking, to make the most of it.

Uncooked Coffee (With Tea)

If there’s no heat source nearby and you already have tea or sugar in your pocket, you can make a more impactful beverage.

Right-click on the coffee mug in your inventory once again, then select “Beverage” => “Add Tea Bag”.

Suppose you want a combination of coffee and tea. In that case, the maximum number of ingredients you can add is only 3, which is shown explicitly in the table below:

RatioFatigueHungerThirstUnhappiness
Uncooked Coffee (1 coffee:1 tea)-15-100-10
Uncooked Coffee (1 coffee:2 tea)-15-15+10-10
Uncooked Coffee (2 coffee:1 tea)-8-15+10-10

Clearly, a 1 coffee and 1 tea ratio offers more effects and is optimal than the rest. Unless you want to trade some hunger for thirst, go for a 1 coffee and 2 tea ratio.

Uncooked Coffee (With Sugar)

To add sugar, right-click on the coffee mug in your inventory, then select “Beverage” => “<Sugar Type>”. 

Each type of sugar can be added only once in a mug, so if you have 3 types of sugar, you can add them up to 3 times (3 spices). Each one helps decrease 2 Boredom and 2 Unhappiness.

You can add sugars on top of any coffee beverage, regardless of the coffee and tea ratio.

Cooked Coffee

To boil coffee, find the heat source (oven), right-click on it, and select “Settings”. Setting the temperature between 100 – 150 °C is advisable, while the ideal timer is 10 minutes.

Right-click on your coffee mug and select “Put in Container (Oven)”. Or simply open the oven’s inventory and drag your coffee mugs to it.

Here’s a comparison of cooked coffee with different amounts of coffee added:

Number of Coffee Added (Cooked)FatigueHungerThirstUnhappiness
1-8-6-5-5
2-8-130-5
3-8-19+50

That said, drinking cooked coffee is more effective than drinking uncooked one at decreasing negative moodles. However, you should take a look at your beverage while it’s on the heat source. As it’s burned, the effects will be reduced.

Furthermore, you can add coffee to a mug once, heat it, and then add more coffee to achieve the same result.

Finally, right-click on your coffee mug, select “Drink” => “All”, and enjoy it.

Cooked Coffee (With Tea)

Assume you got a tea and coffee drink. Is it better to make it hot rather than drink the uncooked one?

The table below will show the results:

RatioFatigueHungerThirstUnhappiness
Uncooked Coffee (1 coffee:1 tea)-15-130-10
Uncooked Coffee (1 coffee:2 tea)-15-19+5-10
Uncooked Coffee (2 coffee:1 tea)-15-19+5-10

As you can see, there’s no difference between the ratio of 1 coffee: 2 tea versus 2 coffee: 1 tea. This is also the best coffee recipe (plus sugar, if possible) to get the most benefits after drinking.

If thirst is your biggest problem, we’d recommend only using 1 coffee and 1 tea ratio.


That’s how to make coffee in Project Zomboid!

Have any suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.

Binh Tran

As a game writer, my goal is to craft engaging, informative, and concise articles. Whether it's diving into the latest gaming trends or writing game guides, I'm always excited to share my insights with others.

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