How Is Cold Brew Coffee Made in Two Different Ways?

Cold brew coffee comes in two distinct methods: cold steep, where grounds soak in cold water, and ice drip, where low-temperature water passes slowly through the bed. Both extract softly and sweetly, avoiding the thin or bitter result that hot-brewed coffee can show when chilled with ice without careful ratio control.

Store practice uses a 1:10 powder-to-water ratio, adding ice to the cup so the drink stays cold while melting ice gradually lowers concentration. A Kenya Asalia bean suits cold brew, with K72 washed processing and SL28 and SL34 varieties producing bright, clean acidity. Grind size and extraction time are adjusted per method.

On a scorching summer day, a cup of icy coffee is a favorite for many enthusiasts. Cold brew coffee, with its soft and sweet taste brought by low-temperature extraction, is gaining favor with more and more people. But did you know? Cold brew actually comes in two distinctly different methods: cold steep and ice drip. This article provides a detailed analysis of the principles, brewing steps, and flavor differences of these two cold brew methods, and shares the powder-to-water ratio, grind size, and extraction time experience summarized by Front Street Coffee in its store practice. In addition, it recommends a Kenya Asalia coffee bean suitable for making cold brew, taking you through how the K72 washed processing method and the SL28 and SL34 varieties create a bright and clean acidity, so you can make a refreshing summer cold brew at home too.

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Stepping out during midsummer, if you gentlemen and ladies are missing a cup of icy drink in hand, you always feel you have shortchanged yourself. For coffee fans, that cold drink is naturally none other than coffee. Here Front Street would like to ask: do you know that cold brew coffee actually has two types, cold steep and ice drip? Friends who often visit Front Street stores should have noticed that the cold brew coffee produced by Front Street is usually only made using the ice drip method.

If coffee extracted with hot water is chilled with ice to make iced coffee, and the powder-to-water ratio is not controlled well, it may taste thin or bitter. Conversely, coffee slowly extracted with low-temperature water has a softer and sweeter taste, neither too sour nor astringent.

When Front Street Coffee makes cold brew coffee, it uses a 1:10 powder-to-water ratio to accommodate different people's taste preferences. When drinking, add an appropriate amount of ice to the cup; on one hand, it can maintain a low temperature, and on the other hand, as the ice gradually melts, the coffee concentration slowly decreases, thus satisfying friends with different requirements for concentration.

Cold steep coffee

Cold steep coffee is the kind of cold brew coffee that Starbucks vigorously promoted back then; the method can be seen from the name. Cold steep coffee is the coffee liquid extracted by soaking coffee grounds in cold water. It is smooth on the palate, with bright acidity and very weak bitterness. By choosing different varieties of coffee beans and pairing them with different parameters, cold steep coffee will also show different flavor directions. Moreover, cold steep coffee is especially easy to make, and the equipment needed is not as cumbersome as that for ice drip, so it can be said to have many advantages.

[Front Street Coffee's method for making cold steep coffee]

Front Street Coffee uses 50 grams of grounds as the baseline. In terms of grind size, although the extraction water temperature is much lower than that for pour-over, it is still a long soaking extraction after all, so choose a grind size slightly coarser than pour-over; if sifted with a Chinese standard No. 20 sieve, the pass-through rate is 65%. Put the coffee grounds into a glass bottle, pour in 500 grams of water, for a 1:10 powder-to-water ratio, then stir evenly with a stirring rod, seal, and place in the refrigerator to chill.

After refrigerating for 12 to 24 hours, filter out the coffee grounds with filter paper to obtain a clean coffee liquid. Then use a clean glass bottle to hold the filtered coffee liquid, refrigerate for about 4 hours, and then drink.

Previously, the baristas at Front Street Coffee used the Sidamo Candle Mango bean to try different extraction durations and compare the flavor and mouthfeel. The result showed that the longer the coffee grounds soaked in water, the stronger the flavor of the extract and the higher the concentration, with the expressions of acidity, sweetness, and bitterness all more prominent; the shorter the soaking time, the softer the flavor and the thinner the concentration.

In practice, although low-temperature extraction does not easily bring out off-flavors and bitterness, it takes a long time, and since cold steep is an immersion method, the baristas at Front Street Coffee suggest adjusting the grind size coarser. Cold steep coffee is also not better the longer it is brewed; whether it tastes good is inherently subjective. Some people like it light, while others prefer it strong, and it varies from person to person. If you like it rich and with an obvious fermented feel, you can adjust the powder-to-water ratio according to your own preference and extend the extraction time.

Ice drip coffee

It is said that ice drip coffee was invented by the Dutch, but it flourished in Japan and South Korea, and in Japan it even has a history of several hundred years. Many well-known ice drip devices come from Japan and South Korea, and almost every cafe in South Korea sells ice drip coffee. Its English expressions include "Kyoto Coffee" and "Japanese-style slow-drip."

[Front Street Coffee's method for making ice drip coffee]

Front Street Coffee uses 60 grams of grounds as the baseline. In terms of grind size, because the water temperature contacting the coffee grounds is far lower than that for ordinary pour-over, use a grind size with an 85% pass-through rate on a Chinese standard No. 20 sieve. The entire extraction process lasts 6 to 8 hours, and the powder-to-water ratio, like that for cold steep coffee, is 1:10.

① First place a round filter paper at the bottom of the powder cup, and wet it with water so it adheres to the cup wall.

② Pour the ground coffee powder into the powder cup, shake it level, and gently press the powder layer with a heavy object to make the surface flat.

③ Lay a piece of filter paper on top of the coffee powder layer to prevent long-term dripping from creating pits in the powder bed and causing uneven extraction.

④ Use ice water to evenly moisten the entire coffee powder layer, achieving an effect similar to pour-over blooming, improving extraction efficiency and consistency of the final product.

⑤ Fill the water container with a 1:1 ice-water mixture, and adjust the throttle valve so the drip rate is 7 drops per 10 seconds.

⑥ Pour the prepared coffee liquid into a coffee bottle, seal it, and refrigerate it to allow the extract to ferment and meld.

So, which coffee beans are suitable for cold brew? On this summer day when everything tastes cloying, Front Street Coffee recommends using Front Street's Kenya Asalia coffee bean to make cold brew. The coffee made from this Kenya bean is refreshing and clean, with a light acidity.

Front Street Coffee: Kenya · Little Tomato Coffee Bean

Country: Kenya Region: Thika region Altitude: 1550-1750m Variety: SL28, SL34 Processing method: K72 washed

The reason Front Street's Little Tomato coffee bean has a bright and clean acidity, besides the light roast level, is also related to Kenya's local red soil rich in phosphoric acid, the K72 processing method, and the coffee bean varieties.

The K72 processing method, also called the Kenyan-style 72-hour fermented washed processing method. The specific process is: peel the ripe coffee cherries picked that day, ferment them in a fermentation tank for 24 hours, then introduce clean river water to wash them, then ferment for another 24 hours, repeating this 3 times to achieve a strong 72-hour fermentation effect.

Most coffee varieties produced in Kenya are SL28 and SL34, both of which have been selected through multiple rounds of cultivation. SL28 belongs to the Bourbon genetic group, carrying the bright tonality and rich acidity of the original Bourbon. SL34's lineage is closer to Typica, and its acidity is milder than SL28's. Flavor description

The acidity of Front Street Little Tomato coffee is very lively, overall like a glass of fruit juice. When used to make ice drip coffee, it carries the fresh fragrance of cherry tomatoes and grapefruit, and drinks as a refreshing, light acidity, with an overall very clean feeling, very suitable for summer drinking.

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