For more specialty coffee knowledge, please follow our WeChat official account: Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)

Since cold brew coffee is made through a different process than regular hot-brewed coffee and needs to be prepared a day in advance, the cold brew sold at Front Street stores doesn't offer as rich a selection of coffee beans to choose from as pour-over does.

But precisely because of this, when Front Street steeps its cold brew, it carefully selects coffee beans that are particularly well-suited to cold brewing and have a flavor profile with broad appeal, so that customers can get an outstanding experience even from a limited set of choices.

And because these cold brews suit most people's tastes so well, friends often quietly probe Front Street after finishing one for the ingredients and recipe used to steep the cold brew, so they can recreate the same deliciousness at home.

Although Front Street just shared a general approach to bean selection a couple of days ago, many friends have been messaging us privately asking for a more detailed recommendation of beans for cold brew. Because, as mentioned earlier, cold brew coffee is made differently from hot-brewed coffee, so the coffee made from the same bean will be very different in style from regular hot-brewed coffee.

How to Make Cold Brew Coffee

Cold brew coffee is a very easy method to master. Front Street Coffee's cold brew method is based on 50 grams of coffee grounds, with the grind size set so that 85% passes through a No. 20 standard sieve. Put the coffee grounds into a glass bottle, then add 400 milliliters of room-temperature water and 200 grams of hard ice cubes (600 grams of ice-water mixture in total), for a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:12. Then use a stirring rod to stir the coffee grounds and water evenly, seal the bottle, and place it in the refrigerator.

After leaving it in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours, use filter paper to strain out the coffee grounds and obtain a clean coffee liquid. Then pour the coffee liquid into a clean sealed bottle and refrigerate it for about another 4 hours before drinking.

The main characteristics of cold brew coffee are that it's not bitter, only mildly acidic, with a soft flavor, while also carrying the fermented feel produced by "low-temperature aging." As long as we combine how the coffee bean performs with the characteristics of cold brew coffee and let our imagination run, we can get a rough idea of how a coffee bean will perform once made into cold brew. If you're not good at imagining, that's fine too—Front Street will next share the coffee beans commonly used for making cold brew, and you can just copy the answers directly to steep a cold brew that suits your own preferences~

Rich Fruity Cold Brew

If we had to pick one type of cold brew coffee to get through this hot summer, Front Street believes most friends would choose a sweet-and-tart cold brew with rich fruity aromas. Because this kind of coffee not only has hardly any bitterness, but its pleasant sweet-and-tart taste can also fully dissolve the summer heat.

If we want to make a cup of cold brew coffee with a full, juicy feel like this, Front Street would recommend using naturally processed or honey-processed coffee beans from Ethiopia, Colombia, and Panama. Because coffee grown in these regions carries very rich fruity aromas, and natural and honey processing can make these aromas evolve into something even richer.

For example, on Front Street's bean list, Front Street Sidamo·ALO and Huakui fit these conditions perfectly. The cold brew steeped from them will carry rich mango aromas, rounded citrus acidity, and a slight fermented feel of pineapple; or Front Street Ethiopia Aito, which can steep a cold brew with lychee, mango, and blueberry aromas.

Fresh Floral and Fruity Cold Brew

Some friends prefer cold brew coffee with floral aromas—the kind that's more refreshing and delicate, not too intense in flavor! If your taste preference is this type, then when buying coffee beans you can narrow the keywords down to "washed" or "Geisha (T2722)."

Washed beans undergo relatively less fermentation, so the coffee beans can better retain their original flavors—especially washed coffee beans from Ethiopia and Panama, which are famous for their fresh fruity notes; and the T2722 variety of Geisha, needless to say, is almost a household name for its rich floral aroma.

For example, Yirgacheffe·Gutingting on Front Street's bean list—being washed, the cold brew steeped from it will have the fresh flavors of lemon, white flowers, and green tea; or Front Street Boquete·Washed Geisha and Washed Butterfly, whose cold brew will carry flavors of white florals, citrus, and honey.

But note that the white floral flavor can sometimes be so intense that people misjudge it as bitterness or a medicinal taste, so when we use beans with white floral aromas to make cold brew, we can appropriately increase the amount of water used to slightly lower the coffee's concentration.

Rich and Deep Cold Brew

Because some friends rather enjoy the rich, deep flavor that dark roasting brings, Front Street shared a while ago how to make cold brew coffee using dark-roasted and espresso-blend coffee beans. So if you also like this "acid-free," fragrant, and extremely full-bodied cold brew coffee, then you might as well try making it with dark-roasted coffee beans.

On the bean list, Front Street Jamaica·Blue Mountain Coffee and Indonesia·Golden Mandheling are both very good choices. The cold brew steeped from them will have rich chocolate flavors, caramel sweetness, and a very full body.

“"Tipsy" Boozy Cold Brew

Boozy cold brew is a must-have type of cold brew coffee at Front Street stores, because its audience really is enormous. Many friends like cold brew not just because it has a richer taste, but also because it has a fermented feel different from the usual. And when we use coffee beans with a relatively deep degree of fermentation to make cold brew, the resulting coffee often has a richer boozy aroma—one sip feels almost like taking a sip of liquor, making people exclaim how satisfying it is.

So if you like cold brew coffee with a rich boozy aroma, Front Street would recommend using anaerobically processed coffee beans. Because most anaerobic processing causes the coffee beans to ferment more deeply, thereby generating a pronounced fermented feel.

Generally, Front Street uses two beans to make boozy cold brew. One is Front Street Honduras·Sherry on the bean list. Since it's a medium-roasted, anaerobically processed coffee bean, the cold brew extracted from it has almost no acidity—more than anything it's the high sweetness of vanilla and cream, along with a very rich whiskey aroma!

And if what you like is a boozy cold brew with fruity aromas, fruity acidity, and higher sweetness, then Front Street Costa Rica Strawberry Candy on the bean list is definitely the one and only choice!

Raisin-honey processed, it has the fermented aromas of strawberry, berries, and raisins. Once made into cold brew, the coffee's sweetness is enhanced, and the aromas of strawberry and raisin evolve into the taste of fruit wine—very nice; or Costa Rica·Mozart, which uses the same processing, works too—besides the aromas of berries and raisins, we can also taste a purple floral note similar to lavender.~

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