Because the weather is getting hotter, the ice-drip coffee in the Front Street store has been in short supply recently. Through interviews with Front Street, I found that the reason why many friends choose iced coffee among all the iced coffees is not only because its texture and taste are different from other regular iced coffees, but also partly because they cannot make it at home.
Ice drip coffee is a type of cold brew coffee made by dripping ice water for a long time. Its production usually requires the use of a professional appliance called an ice drip pot. Because the extraction efficiency of ice water is very low, we need to use the flow restriction valve of the ice drip pot to output the ice water in the form of water droplets, so as to extend the extraction time and allow the coffee to have a complete extraction.
But for individual players, the ice drop bottle is not a necessity. Not only because its practicality is not that great, but also because of its not cheap price and cumbersome operation steps. So this discourages many friends, who would rather go out and buy a cup of ice-drip coffee than spend money on a pot to make it at home.
But in fact, ice-drip coffee does not necessarily require a special ice-drip pot to be made. Because there happens to be such an alternative. The equipment required to make ice-drip coffee is not only very simple, but it is also very easy to operate and not complicated at all!That's right! It is a method that has been shared on Front Street and is also very popular on the Internet - directly using ice cubes and filter cups to replace the function of the ice drip pot to make ice drip coffee.
The specific operation is very simple. We only need to find a filter cup to hold the coffee powder, and then place the ice cubes directly on top of the coffee powder. A simple "home version" ice dripper is completed. Over time, the ice cubes on the coffee grounds will gradually melt into water and extract the coffee. As long as the production environment is not very hot, the ice cubes will not melt as quickly as everyone thinks. Therefore, this method can also allow the coffee to be relatively fully extracted, making a cup of ice-drip coffee with a rich flavor.
Although it is very simple, there are many issues that need to be paid attention to. If you make the wrong step, the coffee will not be fully extracted and the taste will not be so rich. Therefore, in the process of sharing the production, Front Street will list the problems. It is best for everyone to avoid these minefields when making~"Home Edition" Ice Drip CoffeeFirst of all, Front Street will introduce the equipment needed to make "home version" ice-drip coffee: a container for collecting coffee liquid, 1 to 2 coffee filter cups of any choice, and 2 filter papers that match the filter cup. Then the only ingredients you need to prepare are coffee powder and ice cubes! That's right, it's what we usually use when making Pour over(V60) coffee, it's that simple.
The beans used in this demonstration are strawberry candies from Costa Rica. You can choose your favorite beans according to your preferences.
Recommended coffee suitable for iced dripping: Front Street.Oiran
As a must-drink African specialty coffee, Front Street Oiran adopts the most traditional Ethiopian sun-drying process and has a full tropical fruit flavor. The iced coffee has an aromatic sweet and sour flavor, with floral aroma and fruity sweet and sour taste, low bitterness, and refreshing taste, suitable for drinking alone.
Recommended coffee suitable for iced dripping：Front Street.BlackBerry
Front Street Blackberry Coffee uses a unique black honey processing technology, which is different from sun-drying and washing, because only the pectin of the coffee is retained for drying, giving the green beans a sweet aroma. When made into various iced coffees, they will show the flavors of grapes, flowers, and oranges. The taste is light and elegant, with the aftertaste of mulberries and berries.
Recommended coffee suitable for iced dripping：Front Street.Xizhao
A Front Street Xija coffee beans grown at an altitude of 1,700m in the Colombian Cymbidium production area boundary estate adopts a double anaerobic sun treatment method. Because the flavor of Front Street Hija coffee shows a mouthful of fragrant passion fruit, grapes, as well as the sweetness of preserved fruits and the acidity of tangerine, and there is an almond-like aftertaste in the mouth after swallowing, it has successfully attracted many fans to repurchase.
Recommended coffee suitable for iced dripping: Front Street. Mozart
Front Street Mozart comes from the famous specialty coffee producing area of Costa Rica. It uses a very special raisin honey treatment to allow the sweetness of the pectin layer to penetrate into the coffee beans and present a rich ripe fruit tone. When used to make iced coffee, it will show very obvious flavors of blueberry, black grape and wine fermentation, with a refreshing taste and a lingering fragrance on the teeth and cheeks.
After selecting the coffee beans, there is one point we need to pay attention to in terms of parameters, which is grinding.
Generally speaking, the powder tank design of the ice dripping pot is a long and narrow cylinder. Such a design can increase the thickness of the powder bed and allow the hot water to pass through more coffee powder to extract more substances. On the contrary, the filter cup is designed with a narrow bottom and a wide top in order to make the extraction more uniform. When the same amount of powder is poured into the filter cup, the powder bed formed by it is not as thick as the powder bed formed by the powder trough of the ice dripping pot. This means that the same amount of water will reduce the final extracted substances due to the reduction of paths.
Therefore, if we want to obtain the same extraction rate of coffee powder, it is best to adjust the grinding to a finer level based on the original. By finer grinding, the gaps between powders are reduced, and the area where water needs to flow is increased to complete the extraction. The parameters are as follows:Amount of powder used: 25gGrinding degree: 8.5 scale of Ek43, 90% sieving rate of No. 20 mesh (a little finer than fine sugar, and a grinding degree two grids finer than hot hand grinding)When the material preparation is completed, we can start making iced coffee. So first, we wet the filter paper, pour in the coffee powder, and then use the same amount of room temperature water as the powder to "steam" the coffee powder.The steaming action performed here is not to exhaust air, but to moisten the coffee powder, so that the subsequent dripping of ice water can extract coffee powder outside the range through capillary effect. It is worth noting that in this step, it is best to lower the height of water injection as much as possible and reduce the amount of water injected to prevent the powder bed from being flushed out of holes by water, which will lead to insufficient extraction.
When the water filling is completed, some water will fall directly into the lower pot through the powder layer. At this time, we can pour out all this water. Because the temperature is too low, it does not carry too much coffee substance, and keeping it will only dilute the coffee extracted later.Then, we cut two pieces of filter paper about the same size as the surface of the powder bed (round filter paper can also be used if there is not much powder), lay them flat on the powder bed and wet them. Because the ice water drips in the form of water droplets, in order to allow them to better extract the coffee powder evenly, we need to use filter paper to disperse it. This step must not be ignored.
When the filter paper is laid, we can place the ice cubes directly on the filter paper. Since the space on the filter cup is not large enough to accommodate all the ice cubes needed, we can add the ice cubes in batches.
If you have two filter cups, you can directly choose to use the filter cup to hold ice cubes (like the method on the right side of the picture below). This way you can add all the ice cubes at once without having to keep an eye on the melting progress of the ice cubes to decide whether to add ice. It should be noted here that you must cover the filter cup with filter paper before adding ice. Otherwise, when the ice cubes melt to a certain size, they will directly pass through the filter holes of the filter cup and give you a "heavy blow" on the flat powder bed.
Finally, we only need to wait for the ice cubes to melt before we can remove the filter cup and complete the coffee extraction!
But the making of iced drip coffee is not over yet! At this time, the ice-drip coffee has not yet taken shape. It needs to be refrigerated for a long time to ferment the flavor and aroma. Therefore, at this time we need to use plastic wrap, or prepare an additional sealed bottle to seal the ice-drip coffee, and then put it in the refrigerator for refrigeration.After 8 hours, the ice-drip coffee is officially declared complete. At this time, we can choose to add ice to enjoy it, or extend the refrigerated fermentation time to make the wine aroma stronger~
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
