In recent years, with the vigorous promotion by the European and American specialty coffee industry and Starbucks, Cold Brew coffee has become a hot favorite in the iced coffee world. On scorching summer days, you can not only enjoy a cup at a beautiful coffee shop, but brewing a pot at home has also become a stylish and relaxing new coffee choice. What is the difference between cold brew coffee and regular iced coffee? In this article, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) will discuss the charm of cold brew coffee~

Unlike the conventional use of high-temperature hot water to extract coffee flavors, cold brew coffee uses low-temperature immersion. Typically, making a batch of cold brew coffee takes 8-12 hours, so in many coffee shops, cold brew coffee is a limited product. Without the high-temperature extraction process, many chemical molecules in the coffee grounds are not released, so the bitterness, astringency, and oils of cold brew coffee are reduced. However, because the water and coffee grounds are immersed for a long time, the caffeine content is higher, and it carries an alcoholic fermented feel. A little iced brew with ice cubes can feel like drinking liquor, and drinking too much or at too high a concentration can cause dizziness.

Why can coffee extracted at low temperature effectively reduce the bitterness and astringency of coffee? That is because low-temperature extraction can effectively reduce the release of some heavy molecular weight substances in coffee particles (such as bitter and full-bodied substances). At the same time, cold brew coffee has a longer extraction time, so the light molecular weight flavor substances in the coffee particles can be fully released, socold brew coffeecan present an overall clean profile while also having a rich aroma and full body.

It is precisely because low-temperature immersion cannot extract full-bodied substances that cold brew coffee, if lacking sweetness and acidity, is like missing its soul. Moreover, because the quality of the bean flavor will be clearly and unmistakably exposed by cold brew coffee, it is recommended to use beans of good quality, freshly roasted, with obvious flavor and obvious sweetness and acidity for making cold brew coffee. Every coffee bean sold by Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) has undergone manual selection more than twice to ensure that every friend receives coffee beans of uniform quality.

In order to let everyone drink the freshest coffee beans, the coffee beans shipped by Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) are all sent out within 5 days after roasting is completed. The purpose is to hope that every coffee lover can start from the freshest state of the coffee beans and appreciate the charm of the flavors brought by the different states of the coffee beans every day.

In the past, coffee sales would decline in summer and then begin to rise again in autumn. But now, cold brew coffee has driven coffee demand to surge even in the hotter months, by a margin far greater than other iced coffee drinks. Coffee sales increase as temperatures rise. Cold brew coffee has also attracted a whole new audience for coffee: millennials, many of whom make it their preferred drink.

Also because it is loved by the younger generation, Starbucks seized the opportunity and began launching its cold brew coffee series in 2015. Subsequently, in order to increase the layering of cold brew coffee's mouthfeel, it also successively launched nitro cold brew and cloud cold brew made with skim milk. Also because of Starbucks' launch, more people came to know this divine summer drink.

However, due to the long production time, a cup of cold brew coffee in a cafe is generally not cheap, so in this article Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) will teach everyone how to make cold brew coffee at home (quick, take out your notebooks and write this down!!)

Unlike high-temperature extraction, if you want the coffee to extract more evenly and richly under low-temperature extraction, the coffee grind should be a little coarser than pour-over coffee~ Why? Because without heat to increase the movement of water molecules, solid molecules tend to clump together (caking), so the finer the coffee grind, the greater the clumping in the water, to the point that the coffee grounds in the middle of the clump cannot be fully extracted.

Therefore, Front Street recommends using a grind size for cold brew coffee that is a little finer than granulated sugar (but not as fine as caster sugar), that is, a size with a 70-75% passing rate through the Chinese standard No. 20 sieve. Generally, cold brew coffee for 1-2 people requires 30g of coffee grounds, extracted at a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:13 (that is, add 390-400g of ice water/cold water), use a clean, oil-free sealed container as the extraction container, mix the coffee grounds and ice water evenly, then place it in the refrigerator and let it sit for 8-12 hours. After extraction is complete, filter out the coffee grounds thoroughly, and you will have a cup of cold brew coffee with an overall clean profile and full mouthfeel~

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) recommends using light-roast coffee beans to make cold brew coffee, such as coffee beans from the Yirgacheffe region of Ethiopia, with flavor notes of citrus, white floral, honey, and tea (Front Street Coffee's (FrontStreet Coffee) sun-dried Red Cherry coffee beans/washed Gutingting coffee beans); or coffee beans from the Kenya region, with flavor notes of cherry tomato, smoked plum, plum, and caramel (Front Street Coffee's (FrontStreet Coffee) Asalia coffee beans);

Or alternatively, coffee beans from the Costa Rica region, with flavor and mouthfeel notes of dried-fruit-like fermented aroma, red/yellow floral, and almond cream (Front Street Coffee's (FrontStreet Coffee) Strawberry Candy coffee beans/Mozart coffee beans); if you want something special, you can try Front Street Coffee's (FrontStreet Coffee)Honduras Sherry coffee beans, with flavor notes of whiskey, vanilla cream, and caramel.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

For more specialty coffee beans, please add the private WeChat of Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

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