Adding ice to coffee is an inescapable topic every spring and summer. "How much ice to add" is what many home users are most concerned about.
Although there are nanny-level recipes and tutorials for all kinds of iced coffee, which can be easily reproduced at home as long as you have the materials, Front Street believes that in order to achieve the best taste of coffee, the final amount of ice needs to be determined based on different methods, types of coffee beans, taste preferences, etc.
Ice cubes have three main uses in coffee. One is to help hot coffee cool down quickly; the other is to reduce the loss of aroma; and the third is to prevent iced coffee from warming up and maintain the cold taste for a longer time. Based on these aspects, before adding ice, we need to ensure that the concentration of the coffee is high enough and the flavor is sufficient; in addition to considering the issue of more ice and less ice, we also need to pay attention to the quality of the ice cubes.
The ice-making molds we use at home are generally divided into two types: spherical and square. When placed in the refrigerator, they will freeze using static freezing, so they are solid ice. In the same form, the larger the volume, the slower the melting speed. In addition, refrozen ice has a higher hardness and has a better cooling effect when put into coffee than freshly frozen ice cubes.
If you often make iced coffee at home, Front Street recommends that when buying ice trays, you try to choose a larger model or a separate large spherical mold to make stronger ice. If the ice cubes you make are small and you have free time, peel the ice cubes in advance, store them in a clean, airtight container, and then put them back in the freezer to maintain a higher hardness.
Next, we determine the corresponding amount of ice based on the actual situation.
Italian coffee with ice
The taste of a cup of espresso mainly depends on the concentration. The concentration depends on the amount of water or milk used. Ice cubes are responsible for cooling. Usually the cup is larger, and the drinking time may be longer. It needs to be maintained at a lower temperature for a longer period of time, so the ice cubes must not only be enough, but also melt slowly.
Considering that Italian coffee beans with different roasting degrees will provide different flavor tones, in order to ensure that the aroma of the coffee is not diluted, it is best to formulate two ice plans:
When using medium to dark roasted Italian coffee beans, such as the Front Street classic blend that is very popular among home users, the concentrate extracted from it will be rich in oil and exude roasted aromas of roasted hazelnuts, butter, dark chocolate, and maple syrup. It has high body and rich taste. When making iced American style or iced latte, you can increase the proportion of ice cubes appropriately.
Front Street. Front Street Classic Blend Ice American: 20g coffee powder extract 40g coffee liquid for 25~30 seconds, add 120ml drinking water + 100g ice cubes, the ice cubes are 2.5 times the coffee liquid, try to choose ice cubes with large volume/high hardness;
Front Street. Front Street Classic Blend Iced Latte: 20g coffee powder extract 40g coffee liquid for 25-30 seconds, add 150ml refrigerated fresh milk + 80g ice cubes, the ice cubes are twice the amount of coffee liquid.
The other type is medium roasted acidic espresso beans. Take the recently launched Front Street Grana Geisha SOE as an example. Because the concentrated oil is relatively small, the body is low, the bitterness is weak, and the flavor is mainly honey, lemon, nectarine, and blueberry. Whether making an iced American or an iced latte, it is to highlight its refreshing tonality, so the amount of ice, water, and milk should be reduced to enhance the presence of coffee.
Front Street. Grana Geisha SOE Ice American Style: 20g coffee powder extracts 40g coffee liquid for 30 to 35 seconds. Add 100ml drinking water + 80g ice cubes. The ice cubes are twice the amount of coffee liquid;
Front Street. Grana Geisha SOE Iced Latte: 20g coffee powder extract 40g coffee liquid for 30 to 35 seconds, add 120ml refrigerated fresh milk + 60g ice cubes, the ice cubes are 1.5 times the coffee liquid.
Hand brewed coffee with ice
Different from iced espresso, iced hand brewing uses ice cubes to quickly cool down the hot coffee liquid in a short time and dilute it to a moderate concentration. Compared with hot hand brewing, ice hand brewing has more ice cubes as a key element. If we want to make the coffee strong, flavorful and ice-cold at the same time, we need to achieve a coordinated state of hot water and ice without the assistance of other physical tools. There are still two options for adding ice:
When brewing medium-light roasted coffee beans with floral and fruity aromas such as Front Street Dingding and Front Street Cherry Tomato, you need to extract as much sweetness in the middle as possible to make the coffee fuller in flavor, so you can slightly reduce the proportion of ice cubes. Here is an example of a single serving of 15g Front Street Fruit Ding Ding. The total amount of water is 170ml, the brewing time is 2 minutes, and then 60g of ice cubes are added. The ice cubes are 4 times the amount of coffee powder.
For darker-roasted coffee beans such as Front Street Queen's Manor and Front Street Cymbidium, it is recommended to focus on the caramelized flavor in the front section and avoid the bitterness in the tail section. You can reduce the amount of water injected and increase the amount of ice cubes to achieve the effect. Use 15g of coffee powder corresponding to 150ml of hot water + 75g of ice cubes. The ice cubes are 5 times the amount of coffee powder.
Cold brew, iced drip coffee with ice
Cold brew and ice drip are both made at low temperatures, so coffee is more suitable for expressing the sweet and sour characteristics. Therefore, it is recommended to give priority to medium and light roasts. Newbies can try Front Street Strawberry Candy, Front Street Blackberry, Front Street Mozart, and Front Street Kenya, all of which are hot-selling items.
Since the low-temperature extracted coffee liquid itself is in a cold environment, there is no need for additional cooling. However, in order to obtain the best drinking taste, we can add a small amount of ice cubes to maintain its chilled state when drinking.
For example, when Front Street makes a cup of 180~200ml ice drip/cold brew, 30g of large ice cubes will be added, so that the coffee liquid is about 6 times that of ice cubes.
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
