Which coffee beans suit cold brew coffee at home?

Medium roast beans are a reliable choice for cold brew at home. Low-temperature immersion pushes light roasts toward sharp acidity and dark roasts toward bitterness that can lose their aroma, while medium roast keeps sweetness and fruit balanced. Any bean can be soaked in cold water, but starting with a medium roast gives a smoother glass.

Use a coffee-to-water ratio near 1:15, a coarse grind, and 12 to 16 hours in the refrigerator. Fruit-forward options from street coffee roasters, such as strawberry candy or huakui lots, bring blueberry, grape, and tropical notes; fermented picks like xizhua add complexity. Chill, strain, and serve over ice.

Guangzhou's summer is unbearably hot and humid. Rather than going out and being roasted by the high temperatures, you might as well make a glass of iced cold brew yourself. Cold brew is actually not complicated—as long as you have coffee beans and ice water, you can get started. However, beans of different roast levels will show completely different flavor directions under low-temperature immersion—light roasts tend to turn sour, dark roasts tend to turn bitter and even lose their aroma, so medium roast beans are a more reliable choice. This article will first help you pick suitable coffee beans according to your taste, recommend a few classic options from Front Street Coffee, and then walk you through key parameters such as coffee-to-water ratio, grind size, and refrigeration time, so you can consistently make a cup of cold brew coffee at home with balanced acidity and sweetness and full fruitiness.

Guangzhou's weather is really unpredictable—you can experience all four seasons within a week, but right now it is genuinely hot. In the middle of summer, no one wants to go out, let alone be half-cooked by the sun. That's when you should have an iced coffee to cool your body down. If you happen to have coffee beans and ice water on hand, then don't hesitate—make a cold brew to treat yourself.

Step one: pick a bag of coffee beans that is neither too sour nor too bitter

Strictly speaking, any coffee beans can be used to make cold brew—whether single-origin pour-over or espresso blend, dark roast or light roast, it doesn't matter; you're just throwing them into cold water to soak. But low-temperature extraction will reveal different personalities in different beans: light roasts tend to show sharp acidity, while dark roasts tend to become bitter and sometimes can't even retain their aroma. So if you want a smooth glass of iced coffee, medium roast beans should be given priority.

If you prefer fruity notes, you can try Front Street Strawberry Candy Coffee and Front Street Huakui Coffee first. These two beans can bring sweet aromas of blueberry, grape, and tropical fruit, with low acidity and delicate yet balanced flavors—perfect for making iced drinks;

If you want a bit of fermented complexity, then choose Front Street Xizhua Coffee and Front Street Blackberry Coffee. The former offers aromas of grape, passion fruit, and dried fruit, while the latter leans toward melon, berries, and floral notes. Made into cold brew, they present a mouthfeel similar to fruit wine;

If you really can't accept sourness and only want to drink a mellow, smooth black coffee, then Front Street Queen's Estate Coffee is strongly recommended. This bean uses a medium roast. After grinding, you can smell cream and roasted peanuts, and the chocolate and toasted bread flavors are especially pleasing. It can also be used normally for iced pour-over or iced SOE Americano.

Step two: follow the process, then fine-tune the parameters according to personal taste

In terms of bean selection, Front Street generally leans toward light to medium roast coffee beans. Here, we'll use the juice-rich Front Street Strawberry Candy Coffee beans for demonstration. As for equipment, you only need a clean sealable container. Weigh out 40 grams of ground coffee, grind to a fineness like caster sugar (85% passing through a No. 20 sieve), pour it into the container, then add 480 milliliters of cold water. Stir evenly with a wooden stick and cover with a lid.

Put the container in the refrigerator and refrigerate for 12 hours. When the time is up, take it out and filter out the coffee grounds. The filtered coffee liquid can be drunk directly. If you want to take the flavor up a notch, you can also pour the filtered coffee liquid into a bottle and continue refrigerating for 4 hours before drinking; the mouthfeel will be even better.

The Strawberry Candy cold brew made this way has just the right balance of sourness and sweetness. On the palate there are soft notes of berries and roses, a sweet orange-like taste spreads through the mouth, and after swallowing you can still feel the rounded sweetness brought by almonds and candied fruit.

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