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As soon as summer arrives, cold brew coffee becomes the most directly discussed topic among coffee enthusiasts, with everyone sharing their experiences in making cold brew coffee. Why has cold brew coffee become so popular in the coffee circle in recent years? What is the difference between cold brew coffee and regular iced coffee? In this article, Front Street will talk about this fascinating cold brew coffee.
What is cold brew/cold extracted coffee?
Cold brew coffee is a pure black coffee liquid made by directly soaking coffee grounds in room temperature/cold water at room temperature/low temperature. Due to low-temperature extraction, the flavor release of coffee grounds is much slower than at high temperature, so the soaking time varies with room temperature/refrigerator temperature, and the total extraction time often requires 8-24 hours. Since it requires no skill and no complicated brewing equipment to make iced coffee with obvious aroma and high body, soaking it at night and drinking it in the morning has become a favorite among many office workers.
What is the difference between cold brew coffee soaked at room temperature and at low temperature?
Cold brew coffee at room temperature is recommended to soak for no more than 8 hours, while cold brew coffee at low temperature is recommended to soak for 12-24 hours.
For cold brew coffee at room temperature, the extraction time varies with room temperature. Coffee soaked at room temperature can show a full body immediately after extraction, but the downside is that it easily extracts a woody taste. The advantage of putting it in the refrigerator is that it can extract a full body while woody flavors are also less likely to appear, but the downside is that it really takes a long time...!
What coffee beans are suitable for making cold brew coffee?
The liquid produced by cold brew coffee is not as clear as that of ice drip coffee, and a thin layer of oil will float on the surface, making the flavor and mouthfeel appear slightly heavier and more balanced. Front Street recommends choosing coffee beans with obvious acidity and sweetness/rich aroma to make cold brew coffee, such as Front Street Sherry Coffee Beans, Front Street Mozart Coffee Beans, Front Street Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry Coffee Beans, Front Street Kenya Coffee Beans, etc., all of which are high-value single-origin coffee beans suitable for cold brew.
If you like cold brew with a sweet and sour taste, we recommend three specialty coffee beans: Front Street Fruit Ding Ding, Front Street Strawberry Candy, and Front Street Huakui. They are not only full of fruity aroma, but can also present a delicate sweet and sour taste under low-temperature extraction; if you prefer a balanced taste, we recommend Front Street, Diamond Mountain, Front Street Kafa Forest, and Front Street Gesha Village Chaka, which have a good balance of acidity, sweetness, bitterness, and sweetness;
The correct way to make cold brew coffee
Front Street relatively recommends making cold brew coffee in a low-temperature refrigerator environment, especially in the south, where the room temperature is quite high in summer. If cold brew coffee is soaked at room temperature, the soaking time is difficult to control properly.
Cold brew coffee making parameters: 1:10 coffee-to-water ratio, grind size with a 75% passing rate through China Standard No. 20 sieve (0.85mm holes), using ice water for soaking. When making cold brew coffee, Front Street uses 50 grams of coffee grounds, adds 400 milliliters of filtered water and 100 grams of ice, stirs evenly, then seals the bottle and puts it in the refrigerator's cold storage compartment. Extract at low temperature for 8 to 12 hours, not recommended to exceed 16 hours (easy to over-extract and produce off-flavors). After soaking and extraction are complete, use a filter device to filter out the coffee grounds.
The correct way to drink cold brew coffee
Front Street recommends putting the extracted cold brew coffee in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours before drinking, because during overnight storage, as time passes, the coffee liquid becomes fully mellowed and the flavor is better.
How long can cold brew coffee be stored?
After filtering, cold brew coffee can be sealed and stored in the refrigerator for 5 days. Although the longer cold brew coffee is stored, the mellower the flavor becomes, the refrigerator environment is "complex" after all (especially household refrigerators), and it is difficult to completely avoid bacterial invasion. Moreover, every time we open it, it means air has a chance to enter, so for everyone's health, Front Street does not recommend storing it for a week or even a month before drinking.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
