Does ice timing change a gesha coffee bean pour-over?

Front Street ran a controlled test on iced pour-over using 15 g of Kaffa Forest coffee, a 1:10 coffee-to-water ratio, 90-91°C water, and an EK43s grinder set to 9, comparing ice added first against ice added last. After shaking, both cups scored similarly, but ice-first tasted cleaner and more refreshing.

Ice-last brews came out more concentrated and aromatic, because less ice melts during the pour. The Kaffa Forest lot is washed and shows white florals with sweet orange, dried apricot, peach, green grape, and yellow lemon. The Gesha name traces to a region in western Kaffa, the forest area widely treated as coffee's birthplace and a reservoir of Arabica diversity.

Should you put ice in first or last when making iced pour-over coffee? This question has puzzled quite a few coffee enthusiasts. Front Street Coffee conducted a controlled experiment using 15 grams of Kaffa Forest coffee beans, a 1:10 coffee-to-water ratio, 90-91°C water temperature, and an EK43s grinder set to 9 for grind size, testing two brewing sequences: ice first and ice last. The experiment found that after thorough shaking, the overall results of the two methods were quite similar, but the coffee with ice added first tasted cleaner and more refreshing, while the coffee with ice added last had a more concentrated and intense aroma. The root of the difference lies in how much ice melts. This article will present the complete experimental parameters, operating steps, and sensory comparison results to help readers understand how the timing of ice addition affects the flavor of iced pour-over coffee.

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A customer previously asked Front Street: How exactly do you make your iced pour-over coffee? Is there really a difference between adding ice first and adding ice last? To answer this question, Front Street designed a comparative experiment, hoping to provide some reference for everyone.

Front Street Iced Pour-Over Coffee Parameters When making iced pour-over coffee, Front Street weighs out 15 grams of ground coffee, sets the coffee-to-water ratio at 1:10, meaning 15 grams of coffee with 150 grams of hot water, and prepares 100 grams of ice for cooling and dilution (whether to add ice first or last is exactly the key point this experiment aims to verify).

For this experiment, Front Street selected the recently launched Kaffa Forest as the demonstration bean. The Kaffa region contains the largest forest area within Ethiopia, and its biosphere primeval forest is widely recognized as the birthplace of coffee and a genetic treasure trove of present-day Arabica coffee. The "Gesha" mentioned in the Geisha origin story is actually a region in the western part of Kaffa. Beyond its regional significance, this bean is washed-processed and presents delicate white floral notes along with juicy fruit flavors of sweet orange, dried apricot, peach, green grape, and yellow lemon.

The grind size for iced pour-over is slightly finer than for hot pour-over. Taking the Front Street Kaffa Forest used in this experiment as an example, Front Street uses a setting of 10 on the EK43s grinder for hot pour-over (80% pass rate through a No. 20 standard sieve), while for iced pour-over it goes one notch finer EK43s grinder setting 9 (85% pass rate through a No. 20 standard sieve). As for water temperature, light roasts are recommended at 90-91°C, while medium-dark roasts use 87-89°C.

Experiment Comparison Ice First: First place 100 grams of ice into the server, then set the dripper and filter paper on top, pour in 15 grams of ground coffee, and tare the electronic scale.

Begin pouring. For the first pour, add 30 grams of hot water for a 30-second bloom, then pour 70 grams of hot water in a circular motion from the center outward. Because the coffee is ground finer, the coffee bed rises quickly and the drawdown speed is slower than with hot pour-over. When the water level drops to halfway, continue pouring 50 grams of water. Once all the coffee liquid has flowed into the server, remove the dripper. Total extraction time is 1 minute 40 seconds. Then shake the server to quickly cool the coffee and mix it evenly.

Ice Last: After completing the preparation stage, pour in 15 grams of ground coffee and begin pouring. For the first pour, likewise add 30 grams of hot water for a 30-second bloom, then pour 70 grams of hot water in a circular motion from the center outward. When the water level drops to halfway, continue pouring 50 grams of water. Once all the coffee liquid has flowed into the server, remove the dripper. Extraction time is also 1 minute 40 seconds. Then add 100 grams of ice to the server and shake it to rapidly cool the coffee and mix it evenly.

Sensory Comparison After repeated side-by-side tasting comparisons, provided the server is thoroughly shaken, the overall performance of the two methods is basically identical. On first taste, the coffee with ice added first appears cleaner and more refreshing, with delicate floral and fruity aromas; the coffee with ice added last has a more concentrated and intense aroma, with slightly more layered changes on the palate. Of course, the iced coffees made by these two methods are very close—without a side-by-side comparison, it might be hard to tell the difference.

As for why adding ice first makes the coffee more refreshing, Front Street compared the state of both after the initial shake and found that the ice in the ice-first version had clearly melted more than in the ice-last version. The reason is that adding ice first is a continuous cooling process—the coffee liquid flowing in initially is at a higher temperature, so more ice melts. When ice is added after brewing is complete, the coffee liquid has already "cooled" at room temperature before being chilled by the ice, so less ice melts.

Seeing this result, I believe everyone will no longer agonize over whether to add ice first or last!

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.