The characteristics of cold brew coffee are well known. It is high in sweetness, low in acidity and slightly bitter, and has a rich and fragrant taste. It is easy to make. Even without any professional equipment, you can easily make a cup of delicious cold brew coffee at home. Therefore, Front Street has always recommended that everyone make their own cold brew at home. It is simple and delicious.
However, making cold brew coffee is not completely without difficulties. For example, Front Street often receives inquiries from many friends, saying that the cold brew coffee they make at home has a very weak taste and a thin texture. No matter how fine the grinding is, the taste is still the same. So Front Street asked Front Street which step caused the problem.
Front Street has actually shared this situation many times. Although the answer may sound a bit counter-intuitive, in fact the most likely cause of this situation is that the coffee powder is ground too finely.
When making Pour over(V60), espresso and other coffees, if the grinding degree of the coffee is finer, the total surface area of the grinding will be larger. Logically speaking, the speed of material dissolution will usually be faster than the same period last year, and vice versa. But for the production of cold brew coffee, sometimes too fine a grinding degree may reduce our extraction rate and concentration, resulting in a thin and bland cold brew coffee.
The reason why such a "counter-common sense phenomenon" occurs is mainly due to the overly simple production process of cold brew coffee.
How easy is it to make cold brew coffee? We only need to find a sealable container, then pour the ground coffee powder and an appropriate amount of room temperature water and mix them evenly. Seal the container and put it in the refrigerator. After 8 to 12 hours of refrigeration, take it out and filter out the coffee grounds. A cold brew coffee is ready. Isn't it very simple? We don’t need to do any complicated operations, nor do we need to prepare expensive and exquisite equipment, we can simply get a delicious cold brew coffee.
What coffee beans are best for cold brew? Generally speaking, as long as you choose the coffee beans well, the taste of cold brew will not be much different. You just need to buy according to your preferences and budget. For novices who are just starting out, we recommend the extremely cost-effective Front Street Oiran and Front Street Fruit Dingding, which offer a rich floral flavor at an affordable price;
If you want to make iced coffee like fruit wine, the first choice is Front Street Strawberry Candy, Front Street Blackberry, and Front Street Mozart. They have undergone honey treatment or anaerobic processes, so they have rich tropical fruit aromas. After long-term low-temperature fermentation, they produce a taste like wine;
Of course, those who don’t like sour flavors also have many choices, such as the mellow and fragrant Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling, and the Front Street Queen’s Manor with a balanced nutty flavor.
But it is precisely this feature that makes the production of cold brew coffee such a "counter-intuitive" phenomenon. Since the soaking time is very long, and we did not disturb the coffee powder during this period, the coffee powder will sink to the bottom of the bottle and accumulate after absorbing the water.
If the density of the coffee beans you use is too high, or the grinding degree is too fine, resulting in an increase in the number of fine powder, then it is easy to "the finer the grinding degree, the lighter the coffee brewed."
Because the particle size of fine powder is small, it will absorb water first and then sink before other large-particle coffee powder. Without any interference, the fine coffee powder that sinks to the bottom first will clump together and form a large block that is impermeable to "water".
As the "bulk" becomes larger, the surface area is reduced, so there is not as much coffee powder that the water can contact. When there are more fine powders, the extraction efficiency of water is relatively lower, so the cold brew coffee we get in the end is naturally less rich. This is why when you adjust the grind size to be finer, the resulting cold brew becomes weaker.
It is also very simple to improve this situation. There are three options. You can choose the appropriate method and make adjustments according to your actual situation~
1. Adjust coarse grinding
If you have a grinder at home and grind your own coffee powder, you can choose to adjust the grinding degree of the coffee powder to a coarser one. Because as mentioned before, grinding too finely and resulting in too much fine powder is one of the reasons for the bland taste.
In fact, many friends use a finer grind when making cold brew coffee, because they think that the water temperature of cold brew is too low and it is soaked, so based on "common sense", they think the finer the better. But in fact, we don’t need to adjust the grinding speed of cold brew coffee too much, or even need to adjust it. We can just apply the grinding speed of Pour over(V60) coffee.
Take Front Street as an example. Front Street usually uses coffee beans with strong floral and fruity aromas such as Front Street Costa Rica Strawberry Candy and Front Street Esai Oiran in the bean list to make cold brew, because the taste made with them is more in line with public taste preferences. When using them to make cold brew coffee, Front Street directly applies the grinding size of Pour over(V60) coffee!
That is: 75%~80% screening rate of No. 20 sieve, fine sugar grinding. Then the ratio of powder to liquid is 1:10, and the refrigeration soaking time is 8 to 12 hours.
The cold brew coffee produced with this parameter not only has a high enough concentration, but the extraction rate can also meet the standard. When you drink it, it will have a very rich fruit flavor, a mellow and full taste, a long aftertaste, and almost no bitterness.
But if the coffee beans you use are roasted to a darker degree, such as Front Street Queen's Manor and Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling, which can produce fragrant and acid-free cold brew, then your grinding speed can be slightly coarser than hand brewing. Because this type of coffee beans has a higher crispness, it is easier to grind them into fine powder.
2. Pack coffee powder into tea bags
If you choose a commercial grinder, there is no way to change the size of the coffee powder particles. Then you can buy some tea bags offline and then package the coffee powder to be brewed, which can effectively prevent the coffee powder from clumping together.
Front Street has done such an experiment before, and the results show that for coffee with more fine powder, the use of tea bags can indeed effectively increase the extraction rate, avoid agglomeration, and help you make a fragrant and delicious cold brew coffee. The most important thing is that there is no need to filter after soaking, just take out the tea bag and enjoy the delicious coffee!
3. Stir the coffee powder regularly during the production process
If you can neither change the grind nor buy tea bags, then Front Street recommends that you stir the coffee powder regularly during the making process.
Although this method is more troublesome than the first two, it is also a good way to improve the extraction rate. After all, stirring can break up the clumped coffee powder and give the water more contact area. It’s just that...the coffee powder will sink and clump again soon, so you need to stir it regularly.
Therefore, if possible, Front Street recommends the first two methods. If it doesn't work, use multiple containers to extract and steep them separately. This is also a good way to distribute coffee powder...probably...
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
