On a scorching summer day, a glass of iced coffee always brings a refreshing, invigorating coolness. But for coffee lovers without professional equipment, is it still possible to easily make delicious iced coffee? The answer is yes. This article will use the most convenient drip bag coffee as a starting point to explain in detail two home methods for making iced coffee—hand-brewed iced coffee and cold brew coffee. From bean selection and parameter adjustments to specific operating steps, Front Street will break down the key points one by one, including core parameters such as water temperature, coffee-to-water-to-ice ratio, and grind size, as well as how to compensate for the limitation that drip bag coffee cannot adjust grind size by changing the brewing strategy. Whether you want to quickly get a refreshing glass of iced hand brew or are willing to spend time waiting for a pot of rich cold brew, you can find practical operating guides in this article.

In the height of summer, a glass of ice-cold coffee always evokes a sense of ritual in the hearts of coffee lovers. For this reason, Front Street has recently continued to release a variety of iced coffee preparation guides, and today is naturally no exception.

This time, Front Street will teach everyone to use drip bags to make two completely different styles of iced coffee. After all, not every friend is willing to bring out a whole set of professional equipment and go to great trouble. So, we choose the most effortless and convenient drip bags to achieve these two iced drinks that would otherwise require professional equipment—one is hand-brewed iced coffee, and the other is cold brew coffee~

How do you brew iced coffee with drip bags?

Although any drip bag can be made into an iced drink, if you want to obtain a truly refreshing and outstanding flavor, there are still some things to pay attention to. After adding ice cubes, the coffee as a whole leans toward a cold, sweet-and-sour style, so medium roast or medium-light roast beans are more suitable. Friends who often drink iced coffee most love to buy Front Street Little Tomato Drip Bag, Front Street Fruit Ding Ding Drip Bag, Front Street Huakui Drip Bag, Front Street Flower Butterfly Drip Bag, and Front Street Panama Geisha Drip Bag.

Iced hand brew is essentially a method derived from the framework of hot hand brew. The usual operation is to directly add ice cubes on the basis of hot hand brew, thereby quickly obtaining a glass of iced hand brew. But melting ice cubes will dilute the coffee concentration, so we need to compensate for this effect by adjusting the corresponding parameters.

The production principles of drip bag coffee and traditional hand brew are largely the same, so the idea of iced hand brew can also be transferred to iced drip bag coffee.

Reducing the amount of water and making the grind finer are the two parameter adjustments Front Street makes when preparing iced hand brew. Reducing water is to increase the coffee concentration and thereby offset the dilution caused by melting ice; making the grind finer is to compensate for the decrease in extraction efficiency caused by the reduced amount of water, so that the coffee can maintain a high concentration while still having sufficient extraction yield.

We can reduce the amount of water used to brew the drip bag, but drip bags use pre-ground coffee powder, so the grind size cannot be adjusted by ourselves. Therefore, the variable that needs to be adjusted during brewing becomes: water temperature.

Increasing the water temperature can speed up the dissolution rate of hot water. The higher the water temperature, the faster the flavor substances in the coffee are released. Next, Front Street will demonstrate how to use drip bags to make hand-brewed iced coffee.

A single pack of Front Street drip bag contains 10g of powder. The extraction parameters are as follows: water temperature 93°C (use 90°C for dark roast beans), powder-to-water-to-ice ratio 1:10:6, that is, 10g coffee powder paired with 100ml hot water and 60g ice cubes. However, the ice cubes will not all melt quickly, so as long as you drink the coffee fast enough, it does not hurt to add a little more ice~ The specific steps are as follows:

Step 1: Prepare a tall glass (a larger-capacity short glass is also fine), and first put the ice cubes into the glass.

Step 2: Hang the drip bag on the rim of the glass.

Step 3: Once the water temperature is up to standard, begin brewing. First bloom, using 20ml of hot water to bloom for 25~30 seconds.

Step 4: After the bloom is finished, pour the remaining 80ml of hot water in four pours, 20ml each time, all poured in a small stream in a circular motion. Be sure to wait until the hot water from the previous pour has completely drained before pouring the next portion.

Step 5: After the last portion of hot water has fully permeated, remove the drip bag, and extraction is complete.

Step 6: Stir the coffee with any tool to make the concentration and temperature uniform. After stirring, it is ready to drink~

How do you make cold brew coffee with drip bags?

Cold brew coffee is relatively much simpler to make. There are not many parameters to pay attention to, and there is no need to deliberately control the water flow, so it is very easy to operate. However, we need to prepare an additional sealed bottle, and the amount of powder used will also be greater.

In terms of parameters, they can be adjusted according to whether ice is added when drinking. If you plan to add ice cubes when drinking the cold brew to maintain a low temperature, you can use a 1:10 coffee-to-water ratio when making it. The principle is the same as iced brew, so it will not be repeated here; if you do not plan to add ice cubes, then use a 1:12 coffee-to-water ratio.

Since a single pack of Front Street drip bag contains 10g of powder, if made according to a 1:10 coffee-to-water ratio, the final cold brew liquid obtained will be only about 80ml. For most people, this amount is obviously not enough to satisfy.

Therefore, it is recommended to use 3~5 packs of drip bags at a time to make cold brew, otherwise waiting so long only to get half a cup is not very worthwhile. Of course, everyone can decide according to their own needs. Here Front Street uses four packs of drip bags for the demonstration.

Step 1: Take out the drip bags, tear open the sealing strips, pour the coffee powder into the sealed bottle, and be sure to keep the drip bag packets.

Step 2: Pour in an appropriate amount of room-temperature water. Front Street used 4 packs of drip bags, totaling 40g of coffee powder. At a 1:10 ratio, pour in 400ml of water here.

Step 3: Stir the coffee powder and water with any tool until all the coffee powder is submerged in the water.

Step 4: Tighten the bottle cap to seal it, put the entire bottle into the refrigerator, and refrigerate for 8~12 hours. (The longer the time, the stronger it becomes.)

Step 5: When the time is up, take out the coffee, and stretch the previously kept drip bag packets over a cup.

Step 6: Pour the coffee into the drip bag to filter out the coffee grounds, and the cold brew coffee is complete.

After the coffee liquid is filtered out, you can add ice cubes and enjoy the deliciousness of cold brew! Note that cold brew that is not intended to be drunk immediately after filtering should be poured into a sealed bottle and put back in the refrigerator for cold storage to prevent spoilage. The shelf life is about five days. As long as you finish drinking it within five days, the possibility of spoilage is very small~

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