Is Coffee Cold Brew the Same as Regular Ground Coffee?

Cold brew coffee is made by steeping ground coffee in cold water for about 12 hours, then filtering out the grounds. Regular ground coffee works fine for this method; there is no need to buy special beans. Because extraction happens at low temperature, cold brew has less bitterness, a smoother body, and a distinct fermented aroma compared with hot-brewed coffee.

The fermented note explains why does coffee taste like alcohol in some cold brews, especially as it sits in the fridge, since the flavor grows stronger day by day. Front Street suggests drinking cold brew within 3 to 4 days. Steeping can run from 12 hours up to 24 or 48 hours for a fuller body.

Cold brew coffee, with its refreshing taste and fermented aroma, has become the most convenient coffee choice in many people's daily lives. It takes only a few minutes to prepare, goes into the fridge overnight, and is ready to enjoy the next day. But is regular coffee grounds suitable for making cold brew? Where do the flavor differences between cold brew and hot brew lie? This article will cover the definition and characteristics of cold brew, coffee bean selection, and more, introduce Front Street's recommended Yirgacheffe Gudingding and Panama Butterfly beans, and finally share creative cold brew methods such as adding sparkling water, milk, or alcohol, to help you find the cold brew solution that suits you best.

Today, cold brew coffee is becoming increasingly popular. When life moves fast, there is not even time to squeeze in a trip to the coffee shop for a cup, and cold brew happens to be one of the quickest ways to get coffee right now.

Cold brew's distinctive fermented notes and icy sensation make every sip refreshing, and even in autumn and winter, people find themselves longing for that taste. Preparing the materials takes only a few minutes; put it in the fridge, and it is ready to drink the next day. More importantly, if you cannot finish it, you can seal it and keep it refrigerated. Note, however, that the longer cold brew coffee is stored, the more pronounced the fermented character becomes, so the flavor you taste each day will differ slightly. Front Street recommends drinking it within 3 to 4 days.

What exactly is cold brew coffee?

Cold brew coffee is called Cold Brew Coffee in English. The method is to put ground coffee into a dedicated container, add cold water in a certain ratio, then refrigerate it, usually steeping for about 12 hours. If you want a fuller body, you can extend it to 24 to 48 hours. After that, filter out the coffee grounds completely, and the resulting liquid is cold brew coffee.

Low-temperature extraction and long steeping are the two core characteristics of cold brew coffee. Compared with hot extraction, its flavor expression is noticeably richer, bitterness is greatly reduced, and it goes down more smoothly. This coffee, which sounds rather time-consuming, is actually much simpler to make than imagined. You can think of the whole process this way: coffee grounds steep in cold water, go into the fridge overnight, the grounds are filtered out, done. To put it poetically, what you drink is not just a cup of coffee, but a long wait.

Characteristics of cold brew coffee

Cold brew is made entirely in a low-temperature environment. Water and coffee grounds remain in contact for a long time, and only small-molecule flavor substances can be dissolved out, such as fruit acids and floral notes. Larger-molecule flavor substances like smoky and roasted notes are difficult to extract. Because of this, cold brew coffee has lower astringency and acidity, and is widely loved by the public.

What coffee beans should be chosen for making cold brew coffee?

Front Street recommends trying beans that are natural process, washed, or produced with special processing methods. The reason is simple: cold brew made this way has greater distinctiveness and better sweetness.

African beans are known for intense floral aromas and alluring fruit acidity; the acidity is lively and pleasing, but the body tends to be thinner. American beans, on the other hand, have balanced flavors. Coffees from producing regions like Panama and Costa Rica have pronounced floral and fruity aromas, excellent acidity, and still retain a full body, especially honey-processed beans, which have an even richer fermented character.

tips:

The long extraction of cold brew gives the coffee clear layers and a noticeable sweet aftertaste; while compensating for the thin mouthfeel of African beans, it also suppresses the sharp acidity of African beans at low temperatures.

Front Street. Yirgacheffe Gudingding Coffee Beans

Country: Ethiopia

Region: Yirgacheffe

Altitude: 1850-2100m

Processing method: Washed

Grade: G1

Variety: Heirloom

Flavor: White florals, citrus, red plum, medium acidity

Front Street. Panama Butterfly Coffee Beans

Region: Boquete, Panama

Variety: 70% Geisha, Caturra, Catuai

Altitude: 1600-1650

Processing: Natural process

Flavor: Classic Geisha flavor, citrus, tea-like notes

Of course, you can also try the following creative methods:

\Add sparkling water/

Front Street once made cold brew coffee with soda water and found that the concentration tended to be higher. The reason is that the bubbles in the soda water cause the coffee grounds to float to the top before the container is put in the fridge. As the bubbles rise, they constantly collide with the coffee grounds. After about 13 hours, when it is taken out of the fridge, the coffee grounds have already sunk to the bottom of the bottle. During steeping, the coffee grounds move from top to bottom, making it easier to extract substances from them.

However, the cold brew Yirgacheffe made with soda water by Front Street smelled more intensely of berries. Although no bubbles were visible in the coffee liquid, drinking it gave the sensation of bubbles bursting in the mouth.

\Add milk/

Generally speaking, light-roast beans are chosen to enjoy floral and fruity aromas and sweet acidity, so they are mostly enjoyed black. If dark-roast beans are used, the taste is heavier, and this type of rich cold brew coffee can be blended with milk to become a smooth, mellow flavor. However, adding different dairy products also changes the mouthfeel.

They can be roughly divided into two categories: one is fresh milk, and the other is creamer balls, that is, fresh cream type. Fresh milk has a higher water content, so blending with it gives a more refreshing taste and a thinner body; while blending with fresh cream-type creamer balls, because of the lower water content, gives a richer overall taste and a thicker body. When Front Street makes cold brew coffee, adding milk but no sugar makes a cold brew coffee latte, which drinks with a natural sweet aftertaste.

\Add alcohol/

Front Street thinks that adding a little Irish whiskey or brandy also gives it a distinctive flavor. Of course, any alcohol can be added, except that Irish whiskey is made from grain, unlike Scotch whisky, which is mostly made from barley.

Summary

This experiment of making cold brew coffee with room-temperature water turned out unexpectedly well overall. As for the choice of coffee beans, it is still the same advice: everyone should just go by their own taste.

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