Unpopular Opinion: Let’s Talk About Cold Brew

Summer is – hopefully- fast approaching, and we start seeing coffee shops selling more and more cold drinks. In the last decade or so, we have also seen the ascension of Cold Brew. But then what is Cold Brew?

Cold Brew, to explain it simply, is cold filter coffee. Instead of being brewed hot, like a Batch or a V60, it can be made directly cold. The only difference is that Cold Brew, being brewed cold, needs up to 16-24 hours before it’s ready to be done. And of course there isn’t only one way to do it, there’s quite a few exciting ones out there.

It was born in the U.S. first, where the coffee giants like Stumptown and Blue Bottle sell tons of it. In recent years here it only became quite popular here in the UK. I am not 100% sure of the rest of Europe, but I am pretty sure some cafe’s do offer the option there too. Americans, I have experience, order cold brew with a mere 3C, so it is very common there! Also,I love it too even when it’s not so hot – I am mad I know!

“Okay, okay..so how do you brew it?”

Well, the most common way is the simplest one: steeping coarse grind of coffee into cold water for 16+ hours – pss, there’s the recipe at the bottom of this post! But we like to spice things up in the coffee world, so there is always a new way! For example, some of ice brew a hot V60 over ice. Some other an Aeropress. Or even more simply, brew their hot filter and then add ice. I mean, the world is your oyster here.

Like always, there are some rules to follow: Cold Brew is like brewing Filter at home. So you need to go through those steps we talked about brewing the perfect coffee at home.

In the specialty industry, Cold Brew is either loved or not so much by us baristas. I guess it’s because it’s not so new here, and it doesn’t feel as punchy as a nice cup of hot brew. I can tell you, two of your girls here love it!

We think Cold Brew is a greater and tastier option to an “Iced Americano”. The reason is because by brewing it with cold water as we do, we extract sweeter compounds of coffee and less bitterness. In easier words it’s sweeter and doesn’t have that punchy ness to it.

”Alright, but what about the caffeine? Is it strong?”

It is well caffeinated, I can assure you of that. Cold Brew may feel “weaker” but it’s actually a little higher in caffeine that normal filter. All thanks to it’s longer brewing time.

We also need to be careful when we talk about “strength” in coffee: it is not how strong your coffee tastes. All coffee can taste “strong”. Strength is a technical term that we use for saying how much of our cup is water and how much is coffee. And let me blow your mind a little: there is only up to max 20% of coffee in any of your cups.

Anyway, back to Cold Brewing….My question is now, after this little intro, should we have Cold Brew the whole year round? Should coffee shops serve it instead of iced Americanos and educate customers?

Well, the answer isn’t so simple. But I personally think it should be available all year round. And yes, I think we should tell customers about it and educate them on what it is, but also why we think it’s a better replacement.

“Yeah, but what is the difference?”

As I said before, flavour is the one big thing. Cold brew is brewed slowly, so the result will be sweeter compare to an espresso made drink. (This though may still depend on the coffee)

Another difference is the longevity of the brew. When you make hot filter coffee, you can hold hot it for a maximum of 2 hours really, before the coffee looses its aromas. Also, even if you cool it down, by the end of the day you can chuck it away, otherwise it would be like drinking chalk. With Cold Brew, you can keep it in the fridge up to a couple of weeks to a month, obviously depending on how you store it. You can pretty much make as much as you need to cover that period of time. Perfect, right? I mean, we don’t make coffee for us daily, unless at work, so total life saver here.

The other great thing about this beautiful coffee drink, is the ease of brewing. All you really need to do for this are 4 things: grind your coffee, pour filter water with it, wait and filter it out (if you really need too). I mean, suuuper easy!

And, not only you can use it for drinking, but also BAKING! Say what? COCKTAILS! No way!

Yes way! Cold brew is also the perfect ingredient for the above. You could use it to make yourself a tasty Martini. Or even a tasty Negroni.

Not only that, but it’s the perfect great ingredient for cakes too: we normally swap for cold brew when we make Tiramisu’ during summer. We are Italians, we eat Tiramisu all year round guys. But also, in cakes cakes like the lovely Cold Brew Bundt Cake Simona made a few years ago.

So, let’s say it: we do love cold brew and our opinion is pretty positive on it. Because we love it so much, I wanted to share with you also the recipe we use to make it at home. This way you can try it for yourself and and give us your opinion below on wether you love it or hate it!

Cold Brew How-to

Makes roughly 1 litre

Prep Time: 10 mins

Additional Time: 16 hrs

Total Time: 16 hrs 10 mins

Ingredients

• 65 g Freshly Ground (or old! 1) very coarse coffee
• 1 litre of cold filtered water (2)
• A Jug or a Bottle large enough to let coffee through
• Paper Filters (3)
• Somewhere to decant your coffee

Instructions

Day 1

If you haven’t ground your coffee, grind it now and place it inside your brewing vessel.

Once your ground coffee is placed inside where you are brewing, pour in the whole 1 liter of water. (4)

Secure your vessel closed and wait! Let your coffee steep for 16+ hours – or pretty much overnight.

Day 2

Before you decant your coffee and get rid of the grounds, prepare a v60 with a paper filter or a Muslin cloth over the place of rest of your Cold Brew.

Slowly pour the contents until you have no more coffee coming out and all the grounds have stayed into your other vessel.

ET VOILA’!

Your cold brew is done and can be enjoyed over ice!

ANNOTATIONS AND EXPLANATIONS…

Before you brew, read these annotations and explanations. They are quite geeky, I know. But it will make sense of the brewing process.

1. (a) The freshness of the coffee: if you don’t have a grinder, it is okay to use pre ground coffee. The fresher generally the better, but I know of coffee professionals whom use old coffee to cold brew at home to not waste it out. When I talk old, I talk about 1 month plus from the roast date. The idea is that you make it into a concentrate ( so less water or more coffee per liter) so you can then use it for multiple things. Pretty handy right?
   (B) Grind Size:again, I could be here forever talking about this. Similar to French Press, you want to go the coarsest possible with Cold Brew. I mentioned in the intro the why, but in short because of brewing with cold water.
2. Water quality: as I mentioned in the how to brew the perfect coffee post, you need high quality water for your brews. Hence why I always recommend to use filtered water in my brew guides.I highly recommend to invest those £20 into a water filter jug. Honestly best investment.
3. Paper Filters: okay, so on this one 1 thing I can say is go bleached paper filters. Or the white once. I know, the environment.. but do you really want your coffee to taste like an old library? I am sure not. For cold brew you can buy bigger filters, like these ones from Amazon. Trust me, you can thank me later.
4. Brewing Vessel: you can actually buy bottles for cold brewing, like this one from Hario, which basically take out the day 2 step of getting rid of the grounds. We use our v60 and it’s papers, because let’s be honest, if I bring another piece of equipment in here I will be killed 😂

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