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Regular readers of Front Street articles know that coffee can be brewed not only with hot water but also with cold water. Coffee made with cold water is called "cold brew coffee," and it offers a unique character compared to hot-brewed coffee.

Cold brew coffee is divided into cold steep coffee and ice drip coffee. Cold steep coffee is made by soaking coffee grounds in cold water, while ice drip coffee refers to extracting coffee drop by drop through a drip filtration method. A reader asked Front Street: "Is it better to steep cold brew coffee with hot water or cold water?" Coffee brewed with hot water cannot be called cold brew coffee. Cold brew coffee can only be steeped with room-temperature or ice water, and the steeping environment must be kept at a low temperature.

Since it only comes into contact with cold water at 4-10°C throughout the process, the extraction efficiency is very low, and bitter large molecules are not easily released. The long low-temperature steeping allows compounds such as sugars and organic acids to be extracted more fully, so the acidity, sweetness, and body in the coffee are more balanced.

So how should cold brew coffee be made to taste good? Here Front Street shares a few operational details with everyone.

Selection of coffee beans

If you don't want to mess up, Front Street recommends choosing light-roast or medium-roast coffee beans, as this offers a higher margin for error. Currently, there is a dazzling variety of coffee beans with different processing methods and roast levels on the market. As long as they are single-origin coffee beans labeled for pour-over use, they can all be used to make cold brew coffee. Dark-roasted coffee, when extracted with hot water, presents a rich coffee aroma, with a mellow bitterness followed by a sweet aftertaste; when made into cold brew, it tastes thick and has an obvious bitterness when drunk at ice-cold temperatures.

Recommended cold brew coffee bean one: Front Street Washed Yirgacheffe

Flavor: Refreshing lemon and citrus acidity, with honey-like sweetness, a clean mouthfeel, and a clean finish;

Recommended cold brew coffee bean two: Front Street Kenya Little Tomato

Flavor: Cherry tomato, smoked plum, black plum, full-bodied juiciness, with balanced acidity and sweetness;

Recommended cold brew coffee bean three: Front Street Strawberry Candy

Flavor: Rose, grape, strawberry candy, dried blueberry, with a fresh and sweet fruity aroma;

Recommended cold brew coffee bean four: Front Street 90+ eleta Geisha

Flavor: Longan, candied fruit, grape, fermented aroma, chocolate, with a mellow mouthfeel;

Recommended cold brew coffee bean five: Front Street Bird of Paradise

Flavor: Nuts, cocoa, low acidity, unobvious bitterness, and a balanced mouthfeel.

Finally, Front Street will explain Front Street's cold brew coffee making method! First, for coffee beans, Front Street tends to use medium-light roasted coffee beans. Here, Front Street Panama Butterfly coffee beans are used. Choose a clean container that can be sealed for storage, then prepare 40 grams of Front Street Butterfly coffee grounds, grind to fine sugar consistency (85% passing through a No. 20 sieve), pour into the container, then add 480 milliliters of cold water at a 1:12 coffee-to-water ratio, stir evenly with a wooden stick, and cover with a lid.

After stirring evenly, seal the opening with plastic wrap, place in the refrigerator and refrigerate for 8-12 hours, then remove and filter out the grounds. After filtering out the coffee grounds, the clear coffee liquid obtained can be drunk immediately, or the filtered coffee liquid can be put into a bottle and continued to be refrigerated for 4 hours, which will give an even better flavor and mouthfeel.

Generally speaking, for the sake of flavor experience and health safety, whether it is ice drip or cold brew, Front Street recommends that everyone drink any extraction method carried out in a low-temperature environment within 5 days (counting from the production date).

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