Summertime is upon us! In anticipation of some warm days we have been experimenting with different methods of making coldbrew coffee.
Drinking coffee cold will be an acquired taste to many, but trust us; it’s exciting to venture into this possibility.
Read about the how-tos.
Summertime is upon us! In anticipation of some warm days we have been experimenting with different methods of making coldbrew coffee. Drinking coffee cold will be an acquired taste to many, but trust me; it’s exciting to venture into this possibility. Let’s start by discussing what coldbrew coffee is. Most coffee is brewed hot - so as to extract as much flavour as possible from the coffee grounds within a short a space of time. This leaves you with a warm drink, which most people, especially in wintertime, find most satisfying. When summer comes though, warm drinks are sometimes undesirable. This is where coldbrew comes in.
Before we proceed, a distinction must be made between coldbrew coffee and iced coffee. Iced coffee is usually an espresso-based drink, brewed hot then blended with ice-cream and milk, or sometimes even just ice and milk.
Coldbrew coffee is ground coffee steeped in or dripped through cold water or brewed as normal, but over ice. Ice, milk or sugar could be added to taste.
Three methods of preparing coldbrew that I will touch on very briefly are Aeropress, Chemex and French-press (Plunger).
As we have already emphasized in the different brewing techniques on the website, always use filtered water when brewing coffee. Water is usually the main component in coffee and affects your overall cup quality in a BIG way.
Aeropress: Here I am going to refer you to a great article on the topic from a very reputable coffee website called CoffeeGeek. One thing I will add is that the measurements of ground coffee that they use produce quite a strong cup, so you might want dilute your coffee further with some milk or water. (Extraction Process = Pressure)
Chemex: Coldbrew coffee on the Chemex is a pretty simple method. The main difference between classic Chemex brewing and this method is the addition of ice to the bottom of the Chemex brewer before starting the normal process. The only other thing I will suggest is that you maybe throw in a little more ground coffee than 44g, maybe even up to 60g, because of the extra ‘water/ice’ in the bottom chamber. (Extraction Process = Drip)
French-Press: This is the trickiest process of the three. The idea with this method is to make a coffee concentrate. This method uses time instead of heat in extracting flavour. There are differing opinions on how much ground coffee to use in this process, but it depends mostly on the size of your plunger. You can add about 25% more coffee than you would for normal French-Press brewing.
The key component, after grinding your coffee and adding it to the press with your water just off the boil, is to leave the concoction to brew for a good 10-12 hours (the longer the time, the more intense the extraction).
After the allotted time, give the brew one more stir to move the silt around before pressing the plunger down. Pour your concentrate over into another container and keep it in the fridge. Fill your cup to about a quarter full and dilute it with either water or milk. (Extraction Process = Steeping) As I have said in another blog post – please experiment! Be sure to send us any interesting recipes you might come up with.
