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"What is the difference in taste between cold brew coffee and ice drip coffee?" "Which is simpler to make, cold brew coffee or ice drip coffee?" When guests come to FrontStreet Coffee and see ice drip coffee being made with chemistry lab vessels, they can't help but associate it with cold brew coffee and compare the two. In this article, Front Street will explain in detail what cold brew coffee is, what ice drip coffee is, and what coffee beans are suitable for making these two types of black coffee.

Q1: What coffee beans are suitable for making cold brew coffee and ice drip coffee?

When making cold brew coffee or ice drip coffee, FrontStreet Coffee generally uses light-roasted coffee beans, because everyone drinks iced coffee for a refreshing feeling. Moreover, sweet and sour substances are more easily released at low temperatures. If medium-roasted coffee beans are used, it may not be possible to achieve the mellow body of coffee extracted at high temperatures.
 

If you like fruity and acidic iced coffee, it is recommended to choose Front Street Big Belly Button Coffee, Front Street Little Tomato Coffee, and Front Street Fruit Ding Ding Cooperative Coffee; if you prefer the fermented aroma of fruit wine, you can choose Front Street Rose Valley, Front Street Strawberry Candy, and Front Street Mozart Coffee as representatives; they are not only suitable for long soaking at low temperatures and release just the right round mouthfeel and sweet-and-sour flavors, but also, because of their unique fragrant aroma, are suitable for various extraction methods, such as iced pour-over, and are equally delicious as cold brew.

Q2: What is ice drip coffee?

Making ice drip coffee requires a specific device—an ice drip pot for drip filtration. The ice drip pot used by FrontStreet Coffee is divided into four parts: a water container with a valve, a coffee powder cup, a serpentine tube (for temperature recovery), and a coffee liquid container. Usually, ice water below room temperature is used to make ice drip coffee, contacting the coffee grounds one drop at a time for extraction, and it takes a relatively long time, usually 6-8 hours.
 

Q3: Compared with pour-over coffee, what advantages do cold brew coffee and ice drip coffee have?

Unlike pour-over coffee, which uses hot water for high-temperature extraction, far fewer bitter substances are extracted at low temperatures. A coffee bean is 70% lignocellulose and 30% flavor substances. Coffee flavor substances are released quickly through hot water extraction. The disadvantage is that if the water temperature and extraction time are not well controlled, it is very easy to over-extract and produce a bitter taste.
 

However, if low-temperature extraction is used, the extraction speed of coffee flavor substances will slow down a lot, so the coffee flavor will be extracted more fully. At the same time, low-temperature water cannot extract the woody taste and substances, so the resulting coffee will also be smoother and more refreshing.

Q4: How to make cold brew coffee?

Materials to prepare: freshly roasted coffee beans, a clean and oil-free container with a lid, ice-water mixture, a filter mesh/filter paper. FrontStreet Coffee's cold brew recipe uses 50 grams of medium-fine ground coffee (75% passing through a 0.85 mm aperture sieve), with a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:10. First, pour the coffee grounds into a clean container, add 500 ml of ice-water mixture, stir evenly, cover with a lid, and place in the refrigerator to rest for 12-24 hours.
 

After extraction is complete, use filter paper/filter mesh to filter out the coffee grounds, then store sealed in a clean container in the refrigerator. FrontStreet Coffee recommends that cold brew coffee should not be stored for more than 72 hours.

Q5: How to make ice drip coffee?

Materials to prepare: freshly roasted coffee beans, an ice drip pot, ice-water mixture, a clean and oil-free container with a lid. FrontStreet Coffee daily uses only 60 grams of medium-fine ground coffee (75% passing through a 0.85 mm aperture sieve) for ice drip coffee, and the coffee-to-water ratio used is also 1:10. Add the ice-water mixture to the water container to extract 600 ml of coffee liquid. For ice drip, the drip flow rate is about 3 drops per 10 seconds, and the extraction time is about 5-8 hours.
 

After extraction, put the coffee liquid into a sealed bottle. At this time, the coffee's flavor is not yet obvious. It should be placed in the refrigerator to rest for more than 8 hours, allowing the coffee to release carbon dioxide inside the bottle. Carbon dioxide allows the coffee flavor molecules to be released better. FrontStreet Coffee recommends that cold brew coffee should not be stored for more than 72 hours.
 

Q6: The taste difference between cold brew coffee and ice drip coffee

Ice drip coffee made through drip filtration has a clear and transparent coffee liquid; while cold brew made through immersion appears hazy, with oil attached to the surface. Therefore, in terms of mouthfeel, ice drip is more refreshing and clean, while cold brew has a fuller mouthfeel and more uniform flavor.
 

Q7 : What is cold brew coffee?

Cold brew coffee is made by using a container, putting the ground coffee powder into the container, then adding a corresponding proportion of cool (iced) water, stirring evenly, and sealing. Place it in a low-temperature environment (refrigerator) and let it rest for 12-24 hours for low-temperature extraction. Then use filter paper to filter out the coffee grounds, and what you get is cold brew coffee. Sounds troublesome? Actually, compared with ice drip coffee, cold brew coffee is much simpler to make!
 

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