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Once summer arrives, cold brew coffee becomes the hottest topic of conversation among coffee enthusiasts, with everyone sharing their tips on making cold brew coffee. Why has cold brew coffee taken the coffee world by storm in recent years? What's the difference between cold brew coffee and regular iced coffee? In this article, Front Street will talk about this fascinating cold brew coffee.

What is cold brew/cold brew coffee?

Cold brew coffee is a pure black coffee liquid made by directly steeping coffee grounds in room-temperature/cold water at room temperature or low temperature. Because it is extracted at low temperature, the flavors of the coffee grounds are released much more slowly than at high temperature, so depending on the room temperature/fridge temperature, the total extraction time often requires 8-24 hours. Since it requires no skill and no cumbersome brewing equipment to make an iced coffee with pronounced aroma and high body, and you can steep it at night and drink it in the morning, it has become a favorite of many office workers.

What's the difference between cold brew coffee steeped at room temperature and at low temperature?

Cold brew coffee at room temperature is recommended to steep for no more than 8 hours, while cold brew coffee at low temperature is recommended to steep for 12-24 hours.

The extraction time of room-temperature cold brew coffee varies with the room temperature. Coffee steeped at room temperature shows a full body immediately after extraction is complete, but the downside is that it easily develops a woody taste. The advantage of putting it in the fridge is that it can extract a full body while a woody taste is also less likely to appear, but the downside is that it really takes a long time...!

What coffee beans are suitable for making cold brew coffee?

The liquid produced by cold brew coffee is not as transparent as that of ice drip coffee, and a thin layer of oil floats on the surface, making it seem slightly heavier and more balanced in flavor and mouthfeel. Front Street recommends choosing coffee beans with pronounced sweet-and-sour notes/rich aroma to make cold brew coffee, such as Front Street Sherry Coffee Beans, Front Street Mozart Coffee Beans, Front Street Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry Coffee Beans, Front Street Kenya Coffee Beans, etc., all of which are high-value single-origin coffee beans suitable for cold brew.

If you like sweet-and-sour cold brew, we recommend three specialty coffee beans: Front Street Fruit Ding Ding, Front Street Strawberry Candy, and Front Street Huakui, which are not only full of fruity aroma but also present a delicate sweet-and-sour taste under low-temperature extraction; if you prefer a balanced taste, we recommend Front Street Diamond Mountain, Front Street Kafa Forest, and Front Street Gesha Village Chaka, which have a good balance of sweet, sour, bitter, and mellow notes;

The correct way to make cold brew coffee

Front Street relatively recommends making cold brew coffee in a low-temperature fridge environment, especially in the south, where the room temperature gets quite high once summer arrives. If you steep cold brew coffee at room temperature, it is very difficult to control the steeping time properly.

Cold brew coffee making parameters: 1:10 coffee-to-water ratio, grind size with a 75% passing rate through a Chinese standard No. 20 sieve (0.85mm holes), steeped in ice water. When making cold brew coffee, Front Street uses 50 grams of coffee grounds, adds 400 milliliters of filtered water and 100 grams of ice, stirs evenly, then seals the bottle and puts it in the refrigerator's cold storage compartment. Extract at low temperature for 8 to 12 hours; it is not recommended to exceed 16 hours (it easily over-extracts and produces off-flavors). After steeping and extraction are complete, simply filter out the coffee grounds with a filtering device.

The correct way to drink cold brew coffee

Front Street recommends placing the completed cold brew coffee in the fridge for 2-3 hours before drinking, because during the overnight resting process, as time passes, the coffee liquid becomes fully mellowed and the flavor is better.

How long can cold brew coffee be stored?

After filtering, cold brew coffee can be sealed and kept in the fridge for 5 days. Although the longer cold brew coffee is stored, the fuller its flavor becomes, after all, the fridge environment is "complicated" (especially household refrigerators), and it is hard to completely avoid the invasion of bacteria. Moreover, every time we open it, it means air has a chance to enter, so for everyone's health, Front Street does not recommend storing it for a week or even a month before drinking.

You can now purchase Front Street Coffee single-origin coffee beans and espresso blend coffee beans at the Tmall "Front Street Flagship Store," with 60 kinds of coffee beans from around the world, freshly roasted and shipped within 24H.

Tmall link: https://qianjieshipin.tmall.com

Or you can search "Front Street Flagship Store" directly on Taobao.

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