In such hot weather, in such a hot Guangzhou, taking a sip of iced coffee is simply one of life's great pleasures. Everyone may have had plenty of iced coffee, so what exactly is cold brew coffee? Why doesn't every coffee shop have it? Today Front Street Coffee will explain the category of cold brew coffee to everyone.
The production process and principles of cold brew and Americano are completely different! Simply put, the biggest difference between the two lies in "temperature," or more precisely, extraction temperature. Iced coffee like iced Americano and iced pour-over is a cold drink obtained by first brewing hot coffee, then adding ice to cool it down.
Cold brew coffee, as the name suggests, is iced coffee extracted with cold water. It remains in a low-temperature environment throughout the process, so the extraction efficiency is slow and the production time is long, but at the same time it has less bitterness and acidity, and the taste is more balanced.
Below we will first introduce the characteristics of cold brew coffee:
Relatively sweeter taste: The flavor molecules in coffee have an order of dissolution. Aromatic small molecules are extracted first, followed by the bitter and heavy large molecules. When brewing coffee with hot water, improper control of temperature and time often dissolves too many bitter molecules, making the coffee taste poor. Cold brew coffee uses cold water for long extraction, dissolving only small molecules such as fruity acidity and floral aroma, resulting in a richer, smoother taste that presents the best original flavor of coffee. Not bitter and not astringent is the main reason many people like cold brew coffee.
Shelf-stable: After any food is heated, its molecular structure is destroyed, making it prone to spoilage. The best-tasting period of coffee brewed with hot water is extremely short; after more than half an hour, the aroma begins to dissipate. Cold brew coffee has not gone through a heating process, so its shelf life is very long. After extraction, it can be kept fresh in the refrigerator for two weeks, and the fermentation process within it will also give the coffee's flavor different layers of mellow changes. It is generally recommended to place the completed cold brew coffee in the refrigerator for 1-3 days before drinking for better flavor.
Does not irritate the stomach: Many people with poor digestion keep away from coffee because ordinary coffee causes stomach pain. Cold brew coffee contains far fewer of the irritating molecules found in hot-extracted coffee. It is mild and smooth and does not irritate the stomach, making it a relatively healthy choice.
Front Street Cold Brew Coffee Bean Recommendations
Whether at the Guangzhou store or the online Taobao store, Front Street Coffee offers more than 40 different kinds of coffee beans, including single-origin coffee beans and espresso blends. Many friends, while enjoying a cup of coffee at Front Street, will also buy a few bags of coffee beans to take home. Some friends make cold brew at home and ask what coffee beans are suitable for making cold brew coffee. Actually, any type of coffee bean is suitable for making cold brew coffee. Cold brew coffee made from coffee beans from different producing regions will have different flavor expressions.
This time Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) plans to use drip coffee bags to make cold brew. Below are 10 drip coffee bags listed by Front Street, and everyone can choose according to their own preferences.
How to make cold brew?
Step 1: Prepare two drip coffee bags
Grind size and parameters are indeed troublesome for many people, and freshly grinding also requires preparing a grinder first, which costs too much. At this time, you only need two fresh drip coffee bags to easily meet the requirements for making cold brew coffee! Simple and affordable! Here, cold brew coffee is made using Front Street Strawberry Candy drip bags. This is a Geisha blend composed of Costa Rica and Panama, with flavors of raisins, strawberry gummies, and pink florals, suitable for many methods.
Generally, cold brew coffee extracts more slowly, and the substances extracted are fewer than with hot water extraction, so the ratio of coffee grounds to water needs to be larger, usually about 1:10. That is to say, one drip bag (10 grams of grounds) is paired with about 100 grams of water. Adding the water absorbed by the coffee grounds, you may end up with only about 80 grams of cold brew coffee. Since the waiting time is so long, of course it is better to make more at once so there is enough to drink.
Step 2: Soak and refrigerate
Prepare a container. Any material is fine: plastic, glass, ceramic, and so on. Whether it has a lid or not is also unimportant, but make sure it is deep enough to hold the coffee and water. First open the drip bags and pour the coffee grounds into the container (do not throw away the drip filter bags! Keep them, they are useful!), then add a mixture of ice and water. Low-temperature extraction is the hallmark of cold brew coffee. Extracting with 4°C water versus extracting with 24°C water will give you different flavors~
Stir gently and evenly, and be sure to make sure all your coffee grounds are moistened and soaked. Then place it in the refrigerator to soak for 12 hours. The soaking time is very important. If the time is insufficient, the extraction will be insufficient and the flavor will be weak. If the time is too long... you will have a very hard wait! Ha~
Step 3: Filter
After a full 12 hours of waiting, the coffee soaking and extraction is finally complete! At this point, prepare a cup for the cold brew coffee. You haven't thrown away the drip filter bags from earlier, right? Pour the completed cold brew coffee into the filter bag to remove the grounds. After waiting for it to filter completely, you will have your own cold brew coffee.
Just like that, you can have delicious cold brew coffee in a super simple way, and it can be refrigerated for up to two weeks. You can add ice to adjust the concentration, or add milk or anything else you want for flavor. Slow work produces fine results. Cold brew coffee is like the essence extracted by time, every drop so precious. Whether to cool off or to try something new, any coffee lover absolutely must not miss the great taste of cold brew coffee!
Cold brew coffee can be very strong. You can reduce the concentration of the coffee by adding water or ice. Some people mix equal amounts of water and coffee. Exactly how much ice or water to add is entirely up to your preference.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
