The iced pour-over coffee I've shared with you before is the Japanese-style iced pour-over method, which is essentially hot coffee cooled with ice. In this article, Front Street will introduce a true iced pour-over coffee brewed with ice water. Don't blink!
Can you brew coffee with ice water?
The brewing time for a normal pour-over coffee is only 2-3 minutes, and only by using high-temperature hot water can the flavor compounds of the coffee be extracted in such a short time. Brewing with ice water seems very unrealistic—just look at ice drip and cold brew, which are measured in hours.
However, this time we need to deeply dissect the principles of coffee extraction. Basically, the pour-over extraction model we understand is a brewing method derived from a series of brewing theories and practices. For example, someone tells you that using this water temperature, this grind size, and this pouring method can brew delicious coffee—and in fact, it really can brew delicious coffee.
But if you carefully analyze the relationships within, such as the relationship between grind size and water temperature, and the effects of various pouring methods on coffee flavor, once you understand them thoroughly, you can also find other delicious brewing methods (the road to success is not unique).
Returning to the question of brewing coffee with ice water, although the extraction efficiency of ice water is far inferior to hot water, friends who understand the relationships between pour-over extraction factors should understand that the water temperature is not the higher the better, and the grind size is not the finer the better—everything has a reasonable point.
Below, please see Front Street Coffee's ice water brewing plan and analysis.
First, our goal is to brew a refreshing and delicious pour-over coffee using ice water. So in terms of bean selection, Front Street chose the Costa Rica Strawberry Candy coffee bean. This coffee bean has performed excellently in previous iced pour-overs and cold brews, with a light rose aroma and strawberry gummy sweetness that is very comfortable and delicious.
Next is choosing the dripper for brewing. Because ice water has low extraction efficiency and coffee grounds tend to accumulate, Front Street chose the Kalita Wave flat-bottom 3-hole cake dripper. The reason a flat bottom is better than a cone shape is that it won't clog the outlet holes, and this dripper itself has a slow flow rate, fully meeting the requirements.
Next is choosing the grind size of the coffee grounds. Two main factors are considered: whether it will cause accumulation and clogging, and whether it will easily lead to under-extraction. After multiple tests and adjustments, Front Street decided to use a grind size of 90% passing through a No. 20 sieve, EK43s setting 7.
To prepare for brewing, we also need two pour-over kettles (one filled with hot water, one filled with ice water mixture), and a spoon for stirring (to prevent clogging).
① Place the filter paper, pour in 20g of coffee grounds, use hot water at 96℃ to pour 35ml to wet all the coffee grounds, and let it bloom for 1 minute and 30 seconds.
After multiple verifications, 35ml of water is exactly the right amount to wet all the coffee grounds with the minimum amount of water dripping into the server, and a longer bloom time is also to improve the subsequent extraction efficiency.
② Then use the pour-over kettle filled with ice water to pour. Pour 100ml of ice water in a circular motion with a large stream, using the impact force of the water column to make the coffee bed tumble.
③ When the water level drops to 1/2, continue pouring 100ml of water, then use a small spoon to stir the coffee bed to prevent fine particles from clogging the outlet. When all the coffee liquid has flowed into the server, the extraction is finished, with a duration of 4 minutes and 20 seconds.
The freshly brewed coffee is very icy cold. When tasting, the blueberry flavor is very rich, the mouthfeel is full-bodied, with no watery sensation. It is very refreshing and comfortable to drink in summer.
Can you brew coffee with soda water?
The Front Street team, who always love to push their luck, decided not to waste this experimental opportunity and decided to use soda water as the ice water source to brew an iced coffee once, to see what the taste would be like.
The barista's double happiness
The brewing method and parameters are basically the same as above, but the ice water is replaced with iced soda water. The water used for blooming is still ordinary hot water. The process was nothing special until the end of the bloom, when using soda water to brew the coffee, a large number of bubbles gushed out.
The coffee bed was also raised higher than usual, and the inside of the coffee grounds was made very fluffy by the soda water bubbles. Finally, when the coffee liquid flowed into the server, the coffee bed that had lost its support collapsed.
The coffee brewed with soda water carries a soda water bitterness, and the bubbles all dissipated during brewing, so you don't feel any effervescence when drinking the coffee.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
