How To Cold Brew Coffee
Cold Brewing Coffee. Yes, we do this!
Unlike your normal blazing cup of coffee, cold brewing your coffee allows you to consume your favorite beverage either cold or at room temperature without sacrificing those coffee flavors you crave throughout the day.
The difference between cold brewed coffee and hot brewed coffee is in the chemistry. When you expose coffee grounds to hot water they release oils with acidic compounds; this gives coffee its signature flavor and bitterness. We are talking the fancy, guru cupping note description of flavor “bitterness,” the good kind. That other “eww, too bitter” description comes from using low quality beans, poor roasting profiles, and/or Robusta beans…nothing you will find from us!
All coffee is naturally acidic. The “acid gut” or heartburn some experience can be helped by using MORE grounds while brewing. A topic for another time, not to be confused with natural acidity in coffee. Again, the fancy, guru cupping note description of “acidity.” The good kind. Stay with us here…
Cold brewing your coffee releases less of those acidic compounds into the water, which not only allows your coffee to taste smoother in some regard, but also allows you to more easily perceive the hints of fruit, chocolate, or other flavors in your coffee that you would otherwise miss. You can still add hot water to your coffee afterwards and keep all of the benefits and flavor of cold brewing if you can’t live without a hot cup of Mobjack Java.
Cold brewing your coffee couldn’t be simpler, but you will have to be patient as the process can take up to a whole day. In the end, you will be left with a coffee that is both stronger and sweeter than coffee brewed by conventional means.
Simple Cold Brew Directions:
Use coarsely ground coffee. A typical “French Press Grind” will do!
1 Cup of Coffee Grounds to 4 Cups of fresh, good tasting water. (yields 4 cups of coffee concentrate = 1 pot when diluted 1:1 ratio with water.)
Mix together in a container of your choice. Pour through a coffee filter and into your cup or a pitcher when ready to drink. At home we use a mason jar. At our cafe, we cold brew our coffee in a special system and then keep it on tap for our customers to enjoy!
Steep coffee for:
- 12 Hours: Low Strength
- 18 Hours: Medium Strength
- 24 Hours: Maximum Strength
Pour through coffee filter to strain out coarse grounds.
Serve over ice, at room temperature, or add hot water to mixture.
Remember, you have made a coffee concentrate to be slowly diluted by the ice you pour it over, or you can add water or cream to dilute to taste).
Your cold brew coffee can be kept for up to 72 hours, (left over coffee? What?) so you don’t have to repeat the process every day.
(PLEASE NOTE: FDA regulation is being updated (2019) regarding shelf life of cold brew coffee. Buyer beware of companies that sell cold brew coffee with long shelf life in kegs. It is either not up to current FDA and U.S. Dept of Agriculture regulatory codes or it is not really cold brew coffee. Reduced oxygen holding of this product is conducive to certain types of dangerous bacteria growth. Because the brew method does not use temps high enough to kill off potential bacteria, this is a concern.)
If you like the strong concentrated coffee, you can freeze some of it in an ice tray, which gives the bonus of not adding more water to the mixture as you would with regular ice cubes.
Fancy, and hip, we know. Now go, brew, chill, enjoy.
