Do you need a caffe machine for German iced coffee?

German iced coffee is built on a long-extracted espresso poured over vanilla ice cream, cream and caramel sauce, with rum added in the deluxe version. Italian iced coffee is shaken with ice, while American iced coffee is espresso, water and ice. All three depend on an espresso machine, so the cold water immersion method is the easier route for home brewing.

Cold brew skips heat entirely, so bitter compounds stay locked in the grounds and the cup finishes clean and full-bodied. Grind coarsely, use a roughly 1:8 coffee-to-water ratio by weight, and steep 12 to 16 hours at room temperature or in the refrigerator. Beans with a lightly roasted profile and clear fruit notes hold up well over ice.

European countries have different understandings of iced coffee: American-style iced coffee is mainly espresso with water and ice, Italians are used to shaking espresso with ice cubes to create foam, while Germans prefer a long-extracted espresso paired with vanilla ice cream, cream, and caramel sauce, and the deluxe version even adds rum. However, none of these methods can do without an espresso machine. If you want to easily make a delicious iced coffee at home, the cold water immersion cold brew method is the most worry-free. Following the approach of Front Street Coffee, this article introduces the principles of cold brew coffee, the coffee-to-water ratio, steeping time, and recommends several coffee beans suitable for making iced drinks, so you can enjoy a clean and full-bodied icy flavor even in summer.

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European countries do not have a unified understanding of iced coffee. Some methods add ice cubes directly to hot coffee, some blend ice cream into hot coffee, and others use long cold-water immersion extraction. Taking the United States as an example, the most common combination is espresso, water, and ice cubes. This form has now become the most widespread iced Americano method in coffee shops around the world.

In Italy, locals usually put espresso and ice cubes into a shaker and shake them together, using the agitation to create foam on the surface of the coffee, thereby making the texture of the whole drink richer. In Germany, the common pairing is espresso obtained by extending the extraction time, plus a scoop of vanilla ice cream, cream, and then caramel sauce drizzled on top or some chocolate shavings, and the deluxe version also adds rum.

However, all the iced coffee methods mentioned above require an espresso machine to complete, which is not exactly convenient for ordinary households. So how can you make delicious iced coffee at home simply and conveniently? Next, follow Front Street Coffee and learn together how to make summer iced coffee with just cold water.

How to make cold brew/cold extracted coffee

Compared with coffee extracted with hot water, cold water immersion lacks heat to drive the movement of water molecules, and the bitter substances in coffee are not easily released in a low-temperature environment, so cold brew coffee tastes cleaner and more refreshing. At the same time, the longer steeping time allows the high-quality flavor substances in the coffee to be fully released, so the mouthfeel is also quite full.

Because the extraction time is longer, the caffeine content of cold brew coffee is usually higher than that of drip coffee and espresso-based coffee. If you urgently need to wake up, you can prioritize cold brew.

The method for making cold brew coffee is actually very simple.

To make homemade cold brew coffee, Front Street's Gudingding Cooperative is recommended. This is a lightly roasted washed bean from the well-known Ethiopia. No matter which extraction method is used, it can express the flavors of white florals, citrus, green tea, and cream. The taste is bright and refreshing with balanced acidity and sweetness, and there is basically not much of an extraction threshold, making it especially suitable for beginners who are just starting out.

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:12 (1g coffee, 12g water)

Water temperature: room temperature

Equipment: cold brew pitcher

Steeping time: 12-16 hours

Cold brew (cold extracted) coffee can be said to be the most worry-free and least technique-demanding way to make iced coffee. The only drawback is that it takes a relatively long time to make, so you cannot drink it immediately. You can start steeping at dinner time, and the next morning you can drink a full and clean cold brew coffee.

Since the cold brew pitcher used by Front Street has a 1L capacity, this time 60g of coffee grounds will be used for the demonstration. You can increase or decrease the coffee grounds according to the size of your own cold brew pitcher. Keep the ratio unchanged, but be sure to ensure that the coffee grounds can be fully immersed after the water is added.

Prepare a clean cold brew pitcher, pour the ground coffee into the filter of the cold brew pitcher, then pour 720g of room-temperature water over the coffee grounds so they are fully moistened and immersed. After that, cover the lid of the filter part, and finally put the lid of the cold brew pitcher on. Then place it in the refrigerator and extract at low temperature for 12-16 hours.

At the end of extraction, lift the filter and let it hang at the edge of the pitcher to drip the remaining coffee liquid. After that, discard the coffee grounds and it is ready to taste. If you find 1:12 too strong, you can make it 1:13, or dilute it with ice cubes/clean water when drinking.

Recommended coffee beans suitable for making iced drinks

[Front Street Ethiopia Natural Red Cherry Coffee Beans]

Medium-light roast, flavor: mixed berries, caramel, black tea, slight fruity fermentation aroma

Red Cherry refers to the "Red Cherry Project" carried out by a Dutch green coffee merchant in 2007. The project was established mainly to raise the purchase price of fully ripe coffee cherries, thereby encouraging coffee farmers to harvest only coffee cherries that are already ripe and have red outer skin.

The effect of doing this not only greatly improves the overall quality of the coffee beans, but also, because fully ripe fruit has a relatively high sugar content, after the whole fruit is dried in the sun, the coffee beans can also obtain excellent sweetness and a slight fermented quality, bringing a soft and smooth mouthfeel to the coffee. It is one of the coffee beans with very good sweetness in the Ethiopia region.

[Front Street Panama Elida Estate Natural Typica Coffee Beans]

Medium roast, flavor: peach, orange, raisin, caramel, green tea

When it comes to Elida Estate, the first thing everyone may think of is the ASD slow natural Geisha coffee beans that the estate won in the 2019 Bop competition. But the estate does not only grow Geisha variety coffee beans; it also grows the Caturra and Catuai varieties common in Central and South America, as well as the Typica variety, which itself has a clean and serene flavor profile.

The biggest feature of this Elida Typica coffee bean is that it has both the rich fruity flavors brought by the terroir of the producing region and natural drying, and the clean characteristics of the Typica coffee bean itself, so the coffee tastes very smooth and full.

[Front Street Colombia Diviso Estate Sidra Coffee Beans]

Medium roast, flavor: grape, passion fruit, dried apricot, citrus, fermentation aroma

The Sidra variety gained widespread attention because last year, in 2022, WBC champion barista Anthony Douglas selected Colombia's Sidra coffee beans in the competition.

Front Street's Sidra coffee is actually a laboratory variety bred by crossing Typica and Red Bourbon. Later, based on genetic comparison, it was found that Sidra coffee has similar genes to Ethiopian landraces, so some scholars also speculate that Sidra was crossed between an experimental research variety exported from Ethiopia and the local Bourbon coffee variety of Ecuador.

Sidra variety coffee beans have floral and fruity characteristics comparable to Geisha, expressing flavors such as peach, citrus, grape, and honey, with moderate acidity and a round mouthfeel. Key point! Excellent value for money.

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