I’ve made it clear in a couple of previous posts, most recently in an edition of Story Time, that I love coffee. My friends describe coffee as the blood that flows through my veins. Now, when you ask people what their favorite coffee is, you’d probably get answers like a cappuccino, or an iced latté or several other foreign-sounding names. It’s also a cappuccino for me, by the way — I have this terrible habit of only ordering cappuccino in every coffee shop I go to in order to compare them with the previous ones I’ve had. But in the past month I’ve been afflicted by the cold brew bug.
What is cold brew, you ask? It’s the coolest thing (literally and figuratively) in coffee nowadays. I first heard of cold brew back in 2016 when famous people tweeted about it, but paid no mind to it as I am always, alwaaaays not paying attention to trendy things. Also, at the time I thought it was some sort of beer because of the word “brew” in it (lmao, dumb right?).
Anyway, I came across a “how to make cold brew” article last year and discovered how insanely easy it is so I gave it a try… then forgot about it again. However, I took cold brewing more seriously around April this year when the summer heat started to hit its peak. And by “seriously”, I mean I read articles, watched videos and learned the actual science behind brewing coffee. No, really. Starbucks’ website provides all the basic stuff about coffee, and their YouTube channel has videos on the how-to’s of coffee making.
I would never say I’m an expert, as solidified by the fact that I’m not a barista, but I like to think that I got the hang of the art of cold brewing and I would like to share my process. But let me get one annoying misconception out of the way immediately:
Cold brew is not the same as iced coffee!!!
Okay, quick classroom discussion. What is cold brew? What is the difference between that and an iced coffee?
Iced coffee is simply normal brewed hot coffee that’s cooled down and served with ice and milk and some other flavorings like vanilla. (The whole topic of “normal” brewed hot coffee deserves a post of its own, something I might do in the future).
Cold brew is simply coffee brewed with room temperature or cold water for a set amount of time (usually 16-24 hours, sometimes longer). The coffee grounds are left to steep in water for that set period of time, slowly extracting the flavor and the caffeine (as opposed to the normal way of brewing wherein heat is used to pull out the flavor and the caffeine from the grounds).
This slow extraction causes the grounds to release less acidic components making cold brew naturally sweeter (and good for people who have acid reflux).
So to summarize the pros and cons of cold brew:
Pros
- Less acidic than normal brew
- Sweeter than normal brew
- Is not watered down like in iced coffee (since cold brew is already cold and ice isn’t necessary; and even if you prefer to add ice, cold brew is naturally more concentrated because you use more grounds to make it)
- Can last up to two weeks (if stored in the refrigerator)
- Has more caffeine due to the aforementioned amount of grounds used to make it (this is a con for some people, I guess lol)
Cons
- It takes a long ass time to make cold brew, at least 16-24 hours (which is why I prefer to make enough to last 7 days so I’d only brew once a week)
- Making cold brew uses more coffee grounds than normal brew
- Is more caffeinated than normal, which apparently can be bad for some people (hahahuhu)
HOW TO MAKE COLD BREW
- The coffee grounds to water ratio really depends on personal taste, so try experimenting to get what you’re looking for.
- Use coarse coffee grounds – this is important. The overall taste of coffee depends on many factors, the coarseness or fine-ness of the grounds is one of them apparently (fine grounds is best for espressos, in case you’re wondering). It is recommended that you grind your own beans, or have a store that sells beans grind them for you
- The type of beans also matter, but this is more of a personal taste issue. During my cold brew experimentation, I buy my coffee beans from Little Farmers Coffee, a local retailer (originally from Bacolod I think, though I’m not sure) that sells different kinds of coffee beans. They’re located at the ground floor of SM City Iloilo at the Food Court area (maybe I’ll expound on them in a separate post). The beans I’ve tried so far are Kalinga Black, House Blend, and Hazelnut. Hazelnut is my favorite because the beans and the brewed drink itself smells so good.
WHAT YOU NEED
- coarsely-ground coffee beans
- a big container made for liquids (Mason jars, French press, pitcher, drum lol, etc); personally I use a teapot with a strainer in the middle. The strainer wasn’t made for cold brewing coffee but it makes things happen, so whatever
- room temperature/cold water
- a filter (coffee filters are, of course, the best option for this, but any piece of clean fabric will do
- refrigerator
WHAT TO DO
- Put the grounds in the container. Again, the water-grounds ratio depends on personal taste. For me, I put 7 tablespoons of grounds for every liter of water.
- Slowly pour the water into the container, making sure that every inch of the coffee grounds get wet. You can use a spoon to stir the grounds if you like. (Side note: if you’re using a French press, don’t push down the plunger just yet.
- Cover the container and place in the refrigerator for 16-24 hours. Again, you can go as long as 48 hours. Starbucks does that with their Nitro Cold Brew. The longer the grounds are steeping in water, the more flavor is extracted, methinks.
- Remove the container from the fridge and transfer the brew onto another container, placing a filter in the opening to ensure none of the grounds come along for the ride, of course. (Side note: if you’re using a French press, now is the time to push down on the plunger.)
- Viola. That is it. You can serve the cold brew as it is, or with ice, or with milk, or both, or however you like. Do whatever you want.
Enjoy. Try not to consume too much.
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