Because of their high quality and the convenience of brewing, more and more people are starting to keep a few packs of Front Street's drip coffee bags at home and in the office. As the seasons change, many regions are beginning to enter the rhythm of summer. Besides being brewed hot, drip coffee bags can actually also be made into cold brew iced coffee! In this article, Front Street will explain how to make iced black coffee using drip coffee bags.

Where did the design inspiration for drip coffee bags come from?

The design inspiration for drip coffee bags comes from tea bags with strings. Pre-ground coffee powder is placed in a non-woven bag with a paper card, and when brewing, you just need to hook the card onto the rim of the cup to brew the coffee. What makes drip coffee bags different from stringed tea bags is that drip coffee bags extract coffee through drip filtration, while stringed tea bags extract tea through steeping.
 

What is the difference between drip extraction and immersion extraction?

Front Street will use coffee extraction as an example. Drip extraction is carried out by pouring water and filtering, so the pouring speed of drip brewing (flow rate, pouring height, etc.) all affect the filtration speed and the flavor of the coffee. The biggest characteristic of drip brewing is that coffee extracted this way is rich in layers. Immersion extraction is carried out by directly steeping coffee grounds in water for extraction and then filtering out the coffee grounds. Its biggest characteristic is that it can more fully extract the flavor compounds of the coffee, and the body of the coffee is also greatly enhanced.
 

So hot-brewed drip coffee bags belong to drip extraction, while cold brew drip coffee bags belong to immersion extraction. The former quickly extracts the flavor compounds of coffee through high temperature, while the latter slowly steeps out the flavor compounds of coffee through low temperature.

The difference between high-temperature extraction and low-temperature extraction

Temperature affects the breakdown rate of oils, acids, and sugars in coffee. Depending on how quickly this process occurs, the aroma, taste, and texture of the coffee vary greatly. This is also why different extraction methods can produce coffees of different qualities.

The advantage of high-temperature extraction is that it can quickly extract the flavor compounds of coffee, causing the tannic acid in the coffee to quickly break down into caffeic acid, producing acidity, sweetness, and bitterness—what Front Street often calls the process of releasing coffee flavor. The disadvantage of high-temperature extraction is that it easily causes the coffee flavor to be fully released, and then it begins to release the taste of the coffee bean's woody fiber, which is what we often call off-flavors, woody notes, and other unpleasant tastes.
 

Cold brew uses low-temperature immersion extraction, allowing the flavors in the coffee to volatilize less under low-temperature conditions and preserving as much of the coffee aroma as possible in the coffee liquid. Then, when you drink it, as the coffee liquid warms in your mouth, the aroma contained in the coffee liquid suddenly bursts out, letting the drinker feel an intense aroma at the base of the tongue. This sudden burst of aroma creates a great sense of happiness. The disadvantage is that it takes a long time to make; cold brew coffee requires at least 8 hours or more.

How do you make cold brew coffee with drip coffee bags?

This time, Front Street will use the FrontStreet Coffee Honduras Sherry coffee bean drip coffee bags as a demonstration. Honduras Sherry coffee beans have always been a flagship coffee bean deeply loved by Front Street fans. The coffee beans, fermented at low temperature for one month in aged whiskey sherry casks, absorb the whiskey aroma from the oak barrels, making this coffee taste like whiskey. The drip coffee bags made from these coffee beans brew with a rich whiskey flavor, a silky vanilla-cream-like body and aroma, leaving an endless aftertaste that is hard to forget.
 

Materials needed: two packs of Front Street drip coffee bags (each pack has a net content of 10g), a clean container with a lid, and ice water. Front Street recommends a ratio of 1:15 for making cold brew coffee, which means two drip coffee bags need 300ml of ice water for steeping.

How to make cold brew coffee with drip coffee bags: First, open the drip coffee bags, pour the coffee grounds into a clean container with a lid, and keep the drip bag. Next, add the recommended ratio of ice water to the container, cover with the lid, and shake so that the coffee grounds and water are fully immersed. Then put it in the refrigerator and let it sit for low-temperature extraction for more than 8-12 hours and less than 24 hours. After extraction is complete, hang the reserved drip bags on a cup and pour the cold brew coffee into the drip bags to filter.
 

How to enjoy the filtered cold brew coffee you have made?

The cold brew coffee made at a 1:15 ratio reaches a concentration with balanced flavor, so it can be enjoyed directly. If you still find it too strong, you can add ice cubes, purified water, or milk to dilute it before drinking.
 

How long can cold brew coffee be stored?
Even if the coffee liquid is stored in a sterilized container, Front Street does not recommend storing it refrigerated for more than 72 hours. After all, low temperature only suppresses bacterial growth; it cannot completely prevent it.
 

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