On a scorching summer day, a glass of cold brew coffee always brings a refreshing fruity experience. Cold brew coffee uses ice water dripping at a constant rate, undergoing 6 to 8 hours of low-temperature extraction, followed by overnight refrigeration and fermentation, ultimately presenting a unique flavor that is sweet, mellow, and only mildly bitter. This article starts from the scientific principles of low-temperature extraction and breaks down the process of making cold brew coffee in detail, including equipment selection, coffee bean pairing, grind size control, drip rate and coffee-to-water ratio settings, and other key steps. It also recommends four Front Street Coffee beans suitable for cold brew — Huakui, Kenya Small Tomato, Xizhua, and Huahudie — to help you make a cup of outstanding fruity cold brew at home.

Summers in Guangdong remain unbearably hot, and iced coffee has become everyone's favorite. The cold brew coffee at Front Street's store even sold out at one point. Many friends have asked Front Street whether they can make cold brew coffee at home and exactly how to do it. Next, Front Street will talk with everyone in detail about how to make a delicious cup of cold brew coffee.

The principle of cold brew coffee is to let ice water fall drop by drop at a uniform rate, passing through the coffee grounds to complete extraction. After dripping is finished, it still needs to be refrigerated overnight for fermentation before drinking. The entire dripping process generally lasts 6 to 8 hours, so if you want to drink a specific coffee bean, remember to make a reservation with Front Street in advance, as Front Street needs to start preparing ahead of time.

During roasting, coffee beans generate some high-molecular-weight compounds, most of which carry bitterness. When brewing with hot water normally, these high-molecular compounds dissolve in a higher proportion, so the bitterness is more obvious. During low-temperature extraction, however, the water temperature is very low, so after contact with the coffee grounds, fewer bitter substances are extracted, while other flavor components are released slowly. As a result, the finished drink leans sweet and mellow, with very little bitterness.

Steps for Making Cold Brew Coffee

To make cold brew coffee, you first need to prepare a cold brew dripper set, choose coffee beans with the flavor profile you like, and set the extraction ratio parameters in advance.

1. Choose a Cold Brew Dripper

There are many types of coffee equipment on the market today, but the structure of a cold brew dripper ultimately comes down to three main parts: the upper container that holds ice water (with a valve for adjusting the drip speed), the middle filter cup that holds the coffee grounds, and the lower pot that collects the coffee liquid. The model you see at Front Street's store is the Tiamo HG2713, which has an additional ring-shaped glass flow-guiding tube. Which one to choose specifically can be decided according to your own needs and budget.

2. Choose Coffee Beans

The choice of coffee beans is equally important. Anyone who drinks coffee regularly knows that the flavor performance of different coffee beans varies greatly. Here are four cold brew coffee beans with unique flavors, all from the veteran roasting brand — Front Street Coffee.

Front Street Coffee has a physical store in Guangzhou, specializing in selling coffee beans. The store carries dozens of selected single-origin pour-over beans and espresso beans from producing regions around the world. Front Street Coffee beans are guaranteed to be freshly roasted within 5 days, with stable and outstanding quality and very competitive prices, and can be shipped within 24 hours. Whether you are a beginner just starting out, a coffee enthusiast who has already advanced to a professional level, or an operator opening a coffee shop, Front Street Coffee is a choice recommended by many coffee lovers and platforms.

Cold Brew Coffee Bean One: Front Street Huakui

Front Street Huakui coffee has won the favor of many seasoned coffee lovers with its rich berry and cream flavor. Such an outstanding taste is inseparable from its growing environment and processing method. The area where Huakui is grown is surrounded by sugarcane and bananas. The high-altitude climate conditions give it a smooth mouthfeel, berry-like acidity, and a rounded fermented character brought by sun-drying.

Cold Brew Coffee Bean Two: Front Street Kenya Small Tomato

Front Street Kenya beans use the K72 double washed fermentation process, with bright and lively acidity, delicate and alluring like berries and red wine. During brewing, the rich berry aroma immediately spreads out. On the palate, you can feel clear cherry tomato and smoked plum flavors, with the tart aroma lingering in the mouth for a long time. The finish carries a creamy sweetness and a lasting sweet aftertaste.

Cold Brew Coffee Bean Three: Front Street. Xizhua

This Front Street Xizhua comes from Finca La Divisa in the Huila producing region of Colombia, grown at an altitude of 1,700 meters, and processed using the double anaerobic sun-dried method. The flavor performance of Front Street Xizhua is a mouthful of rich passion fruit and grape, mixed with the delicate sweetness of dried fruit and mandarin-like acidity. After swallowing, an almond-like finish remains in the mouth, which is why it has attracted many fans to repurchase repeatedly.

Cold Brew Coffee Bean Four: Front Street. Huahudie

In the Boquete producing region of Panama, there is an excellent Geisha coffee — Panama Huahudie. This coffee consists of 70% Geisha variety and is composed of three varieties: Geisha, Caturra, and Catuai. The special microclimate of Panama gives this region abundant rainfall and a large temperature difference between day and night. Combined with the characteristics of the volcanic soil, as well as meticulous harvesting and fine processing, this coffee is quite outstanding in body, acidity, and floral aroma. When used for cold brew, it carries refreshing notes of citrus, honey, berries, and green tea.

3. Find the Right Coffee Grind Size

The grind size setting for Front Street cold brew coffee is an 80% to 85% passing rate on the Chinese No. 20 standard sieve. As everyone knows, if coffee grounds are ground too coarse, the taste will be too light; if ground too fine, it will be strong and bitter. By the same token, if the grounds are too coarse, there will be no flavor; if the grounds are too fine, they tend to clog and fail to drain properly, which in turn makes the coffee bitter. Therefore, determining the grind size is very important.

Considering that cold brew is in a low-temperature environment throughout the process and the extraction rate is relatively slow, the baristas at Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) suggest using a slightly finer grind size than for pour-over. Here, a grind size with an 85% passing rate on the standard sieve is used.

4. Control the Drip Speed and Coffee-to-Water Ratio

The flow rate of cold brew needs to be controlled just like pour-over, except that it is calculated by drops per second. The slower the flow rate, the longer the total time required, and the easier it is to over-extract. Front Street usually uses a speed of 7 drops every 10 seconds for extraction, and each person can adjust it according to their own preference. The coffee-to-water ratio is set at 1:10, because the cold brew coffee produced by Front Street is drunk after being diluted with ice cubes, so the concentration is made higher; if making it at home, you can use a ratio of 1:12 to 1:14 for extraction.

When Front Street makes cold brew, it takes 60 grams of coffee beans and grinds them into powder, places a round filter paper at the bottom of the powder cup, pours in the coffee grounds, then lays another piece of filter paper on the surface, and then wets the coffee grounds with water. This can both shorten the dripping time and avoid uneven extraction. Fill the upper pot with an ice-water mixture (ice and water at 1:1), and finally extract 600 grams of coffee liquid.

5. Drink After Refrigeration

Pour the dripped coffee liquid into a sealed container and refrigerate it for 12 hours before drinking. Front Street generally performs the dripping during daytime business hours, puts it in the refrigerator to chill in the evening, and the next day it can be enjoyed with two ice cubes added. The finished Front Street Xizhua cold brew coffee is sweet, tart, and refreshing on the palate, accompanied by rich passion fruit and grape aromas, making it perfect for drinking in the scorching summer.

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