Cold brew coffee, with its unique flavor brought about by low-temperature, long-duration extraction, has become a favorite of many coffee lovers. But to make a delicious cup of cold brew coffee, every step—from bean selection and grinding to drip speed—requires careful attention. Front Street Coffee shares its complete operational process for making cold brew built up over years, including core parameters such as coffee powder amount, powder-to-water ratio, grind standard, and extraction time, and focuses on analyzing the three major factors that determine the flavor direction: the selection of floral and fruity coffee beans, the grasp of coffee powder grind size, and the reasonable control of drip speed. Whether you are trying it for the first time or want to refine your technique, these hands-on experiences from Front Street can help you avoid detours and make a delicious cold brew where juicy body and floral aromas coexist.

When Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) makes cold brew coffee in its stores, it follows this set of operating parameters:

The amount of coffee powder used is 60 grams; the powder-to-water ratio is set at 1:10; for grind size, using the China standard No. 20 sieve as a reference, the pass-through rate is controlled at 85%; the entire extraction process takes about 6 to 8 hours.

The specific operation can be completed in six steps:

1. First take out the powder cup, wet the bottom, then lay the filter paper on it, making sure the filter paper fits tightly against the bottom of the cup.

2. Pour the ground 60 grams of coffee powder into the powder cup, gently shake it to level the surface of the powder layer, then cover with a round filter paper.

3. Take a small amount of ice water or room-temperature water and pour it over the coffee powder to moisten it.

4. Pour an appropriate amount of ice-water mixture into the water container.

5. Adjust the valve so that the flow rate stabilizes at 5 drops every 10 seconds.

6. After extraction is complete, pour the coffee liquid into a sealable container, place it in the refrigerator's cold storage compartment, and drink it after low-temperature fermentation overnight.

Front Street Coffee believes that a delicious cup of cold brew coffee cannot be separated from the following three key points:

Choose coffee beans with prominent floral and fruity aromas:

Cold extraction itself is a process of slowly extracting at low temperature. Substances with smaller molecules in coffee beans, such as floral aromas and fruit acids, are more easily brought out by water; while larger-molecule bitter components such as tannic acid are less likely to dissolve out. In addition, after extraction is completed, it still undergoes 12 hours of refrigerated fermentation. Therefore, when selecting beans for cold brew, Front Street usually tends to favor coffee beans with obvious fruity notes, clear floral aromas, or a slight fermented quality:

The first option to consider is Front Street Mozart, where you can taste flavors of raisins, pineapple, and orange;

The second recommendation is Front Street Xizhua, with more prominent sweet aromas of passion fruit, grapes, and apricot;

The third is Front Street Kenya, which after being made into cold brew presents a juicy feel like smoked plum, snow pear, and plum.

Grind size must be handled just right:

The water temperature used for cold brew is already low, so the exchange rate of flavor substances is much slower. Therefore, in addition to extending the extraction time, the coffee beans also need to be ground finer so that the contact area between water and coffee particles is increased as much as possible, so that the ideal flavors can be fully extracted.

If the powder is ground too fine, too many substances will be brought out, including undesirable bitterness; conversely, if the powder is too coarse, the final flavor will appear vague and the mouthfeel will be thin. After repeated testing, Front Street found that controlling the grind size at around 85% passing through the China standard No. 20 sieve is a relatively suitable choice.

The drip speed must not be too fast:

Usually, first calculate the extraction parameters and operate according to a powder-to-liquid ratio of 1:10. 60 grams of coffee powder ultimately extracts 600 grams of coffee liquid. The ice-water mixture is prepared at 1:1, and the valve flow rate is controlled at 7 drops every 10 seconds. When Front Street makes cold brew, it generally completes the dripping within 6 to 8 hours. Common cold brew ratios range from 1:10 to 1:12. You can adjust according to your own taste preferences.

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