I had my first cold brew coffee a year ago on my first visit to Arizona, USA. I fell in love with this variant right away. Since then, most of the coffee I drink is cold brew.
What is the difference between cold brew and regular coffee?
It's primarily the manufacturing method. The cold brew method consists of using water at room temperature instead of hot water. Compared to hot water preparation, only certain elements are extracted from the coffee powder, with the cold brew coffee containing only 90% of the flavor elements and only 15% of the oils and acids overall. This results in a mild, non-bitter taste with a higher caffeine content.
Four advantages of cold brew over regular coffee
Less Acid: Because the beans aren't exposed to the temperature of the boiling water, cold brew has less acidity. Less acid provides a smoother taste. And makes the coffee easier on the stomach. Less acid also makes the coffee taste sweeter.
Never again watery Iced Coffee: Ever poured hot coffee over ice? And what came out was watery iced coffee. Diluting is easier with cold brew. Since it is already cold or at room temperature, you can mix ice, water and coffee as you like.
More caffeine in the glass: Caffeine is more soluble and extracts more easily at higher temperatures, but the high bean-to-water ratio and longer brewing time significantly increase the caffeine content of the cold brew.
Less daily effort: The result of cold brewing is initially a coffee concentrate, which is mixed with ice and/or water. The concentrate can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, ie. it is enough to make coffee every 1-2 weeks instead of every morning. As with everything - efficiency is progress.
How to make your own cold brew at home
1. Get some coarsely ground coffee or set your coffee grinder to its coarse setting. The coffee should be ground very coarsely. Look for about the same consistency as breadcrumbs.
2. Take a large mason jar or any other large jar with a lid (cling film also works as a lid)
3. Put the coffee in the container and pour water over it. Use a coffee to water ratio of 1:8 - e.g. 100g coffee powder and 800ml water.
4. Stir briefly until well combined, then cover jar and refrigerate for 18-24 hours.
5. After 18-24 hours, pour the coffee through a fine sieve into another container. So that the coarse residues of the coffee powder are removed. Then use a thin cotton cloth, such as a tea towel, stretch it over the bowl with a thick rubber band and carefully pour the coffee through the cloth into the vessel. This is the easiest way to remove the fine coffee particles. Repeat this two or three times until you don't see any cloudy residue of ground coffee on the bottom.
6. Done! Serve over ice. Also with a dash of cream
The taste difference between filter coffee and cold brew is big. Try it….