Which beans belong in a cold brew coffee guide?

Cold brew uses low-temperature, long-duration extraction, which softens acidity and highlights sweetness, so medium-light roasted single-origin beans work better than dark roasts. Dark roasts turn bitter once chilled and bury the origin character. Washed Fruit Dingding, Strawberry Candy Geisha Blend and Sun-Dried Huakui are three options that show fruit and floral layers in a cold cup.

Brewing comes down to three parameters: coffee-to-water ratio, grind size and steeping time. Hot brewing runs at 82 to 95°C for under three minutes, while cold brew trades heat for hours of contact at refrigerator temperature. A coarser grind and a longer steep keep the cup clean. The full step-by-step method uses Huakui as the working example from start to finish.

In the scorching summer heat, want to drink a refreshing iced coffee but don't want to go out? Making cold brew at home is actually not complicated. The biggest difference between cold brew and regular iced coffee lies in the low-temperature, long-duration extraction, which makes the coffee taste softer, with balanced acidity and sweetness, and can clearly showcase the regional flavors of specialty beans. This article will start from the extraction principles of cold brew, tell you why medium-light roasted single-origin beans are more suitable for cold brew, and recommend three popular beans from Front Street Coffee: Washed Fruit Dingding, Strawberry Candy Geisha Blend, and Sun-Dried Huakui. Then it will break down key parameters such as coffee-to-water ratio, grind size, and steeping time in detail, along with the complete steps for Front Street Coffee Huakui cold brew, helping you easily make a full-flavored homemade cold brew.

You want coffee, you really do; you want a cup of ice-cold coffee that chills you to the core, you want that too; but to brave the scorching sun and go out for it, you definitely don't want to! Actually, staying at home, even without complete equipment, making yourself a cup of coffee is not difficult—cold brew can fulfill this little wish of yours.

The Difference Between Cold Brew Coffee and Other Iced Coffees

The two hallmarks of cold brew are low-temperature extraction and a longer extraction time, which is also the most fundamental difference from high-temperature extracted coffee. The water temperature for brewing coffee with hot water is usually maintained between 82-95°C, and the whole process generally does not exceed 3 minutes.

Cold brew coffee itself can well showcase the delicate flavor layers of coffee beans. Because of its soft acidity, prominent sweetness, bright mouthfeel, and gentle taste, cold brew can better restore the origin characteristics of a specialty bean, so it is very suitable for making with pour-over single-origin beans.

There is a wide range of pour-over single-origin beans to choose from. For cold brew, the first thing to consider is the taste; it's best to avoid dark roasts, otherwise the bitterness of the finished iced coffee will overwhelm everything. Conversely, medium-light roasted beans are heated for a longer time, retaining more fruity acids, and some even have floral notes. Using them for cold brew can present a refreshing flavor, very suitable for those who are afraid of bitterness.

If you want to stock a bag of beans at home that can be used for both pour-over and cold brew, and you want to taste richer flavors, the following three currently popular single-origin beans are worth getting:

1. Front Street Coffee. Washed Fruit Dingding: from Yirgacheffe Town, after cold brew it has the fresh fragrance of flowers, citrus, lemon, honey, and green tea;

2. Front Street Coffee. Strawberry Candy Geisha Blend: a blend of Panama and Costa Rica beans, with both the light aroma of washed processing and the sweetness of honey processing. After cold brew, it presents flavors of rose, raisins, and fruit gummies, leaving a lingering fragrance after drinking;

3. Front Street Coffee. Sun-Dried Huakui: a champion bean from the Guji Hambela region, using fine sun-dried processing, with flavors of light floral notes, strawberry, guava, and dried mango, and after cold brew it also has a black tea aftertaste.

Key Points for Making Homemade Cold Brew Coffee

Whether cold brew tastes good depends not only on the beans themselves but also on key parameters such as ratio, grind size, and steeping time, among which grind size has the greatest impact.

Taking the cold brew regularly produced by Front Street Coffee as an example, the grind size of the coffee beans is slightly finer than for pour-over, that is, 75-80% passing through the Chinese No. 20 standard sieve. Visually, it is about the size of fine granulated sugar, corresponding to EK43s setting 9.5-10. For a hand grinder, taking C40 as an example, it is about 22-26 clicks.

Usually, the steeping time for cold brew is recommended to be controlled at 8-18 hours. Front Street Coffee once conducted a cold brew experiment with time as the variable, without stirring during the process to affect extraction, steeping one coffee for 6 hours, 10 hours, 16 hours, and 24 hours respectively. In the end, it was found that the 6-hour coffee tasted too thin with flat aroma, the 24-hour cold brew was noticeably bitter with signs of over-extraction, and the 10-hour and 16-hour groups had the best flavor performance, with rich aroma and a full-bodied taste.

1. Prepare 30g Front Street Coffee. Huakui coffee beans, grind them to the granulated sugar coarseness above, then pour the ground coffee powder into a sealable glass bottle;

2. According to a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:10, pour in 300ml of room-temperature water or ice water, and fully wet and stir to mix.

3. Then seal the glass bottle, put the glass bottle in the refrigerator and steep for 8 to 12 hours.

4. After extraction is complete, filter with a dripper, and put it into a sealable glass bottle and store it in the refrigerator.

The cold brew made with Front Street Coffee. Huakui coffee beans has a complex berry juice sensation on the palate, with a long creamy aftertaste. After the ice cubes slowly melt, the concentration drops slightly, the fermented feel is diluted, but the sweet and sour berry notes remain very prominent.

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