The preparation of cold brew coffee can be said to be the easiest of all the coffee extraction methods and does not require any technical skills. It is a method that every coffee novice can easily brew delicious iced coffee. Regarding various knowledge about cold brew, Front Street has shared many articles and conducted various comparative experiments on various parameters involved. Not long ago, a friend posted a question to Front Street Street: Can espresso powder be used for cold brew?
What are the characteristics of cold brew coffee?
Cold-brew coffee tastes good because soaking in low-temperature water does not easily release unpleasant substances in coffee (such as bitterness, astringency, etc.), but can fully extract the pleasant substances (such as fruit acid, sweetness, etc.). Therefore, cold-brew coffee is cleaner, has a rounder texture, and is fuller in taste than other coffees brewed at high temperatures.
If we want to talk about the shortcomings of cold brew coffee, Front Street believes that there are two problems. One is that it takes a long time to make, usually needing to be refrigerated and steeped for 8-12 hours. However, Front Street believes that delicious coffee is worth the wait. You can soak it before going to bed at night, and then filter it directly when you wake up the next day, and have a cup of energetic cold brew coffee!
Another aspect is that if the coffee beans are not selected correctly, cold brewing will easily have a negative taste, and the coffee will end up tasting like a cup of Cantonese herbal tea. Therefore, in addition to controlling various parameters, it is equally important to choose coffee beans that suit your taste.
What coffee beans are recommended for making cold brew coffee?
Cold brew, as the name suggests, is a cup of iced drink. When making cold brew at home, Front Street will always choose medium-light to medium-roasted coffee beans with a more prominent aroma or a more obvious fruity and sweet taste. The iced coffee produced is not only suitable for sweet and sour, but also has a refreshing and refreshing juice feel, which is especially suitable for summer.
For example, the "Ethiopian sun-dried Alo Village coffee beans" currently sold by Front Street Coffee have a light floral aroma, full berry sweetness and sourness, mixed with a moderate sense of fermentation and a black tea-like aftertaste; or the "Panama flower butterfly coffee beans" have bright citrus acidity, fresh white floral aroma, honey sweetness and green tea-like aftertaste;
If you want to use Italian coffee beans to make cold brew, you must buy Front Street Strawberry Candy espresso. This coffee has beautiful oil and grape, berry and other flavors when made into espresso. When used as cold brew, it is as refreshing as the juice version, with prominent aromas of blueberry and sweet orange. It is very suitable for drinking in summer.
Water to powder ratio and step-by-step explanation for making cold brew
The ratio for making cold brew coffee is 1:10~1:12. For example, for 30g of coffee powder, we usually use 300g of cold water for soaking.
In terms of grinding degree, Front Street Coffee recommends that you use coffee powder with the thickness of fine sugar (China No. 20 standard sieve sieve rate is 75%). If you don’t have a grinder at home, you can note the cold brew coffee grinding powder when placing an order. Front Street needs to emphasize that the aroma of ground coffee will dissipate faster, so if conditions permit, it is still recommended that you grind it and brew it now.
To make cold brew coffee, choose a clean and sealable container, then pour the coffee powder and an appropriate amount of water into it, stir it to allow the coffee powder and water to fully contact, then seal it and put it in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours.
After the extraction time is almost up, you can take it out and use a filter tool to filter it, then pour it back into a clean and sealed container and store it in the refrigerator. After filtering the grounds, cold brew coffee can usually be stored for about 5 days, so be sure to drink it as soon as possible during this period.
Can espresso powder be used for cold brew?
Let's get back to business and return to the situation mentioned by the friend at the beginning. The reason why we raised this question is that the grinding degree of the coffee powder does not meet our cold brew extraction requirements.
We all know that the grinding degree for making Italian coffee is as fine as flour. Therefore, when water is added according to the above ratio and soaked for a long time, it will release soluble substances more easily than the conventional thickness (fine sugar level), eventually making the coffee rich, bitter, and even astringent. Therefore, in order to avoid over-extraction, we need to make adjustments in two details: soaking ratio and time.
The front street here uses Bird of Paradise from Papua New Guinea as a demonstration. This bean is roasted to a medium degree. When brewed by hand, the flavor is butternut, cocoa and sweet sugarcane. It is suitable for a variety of brewing methods and is a relatively compatible single-origin coffee.
In order to restore the situation that everyone encountered, Front Street used the Italian coffee grinder Galileo Q18 produced by the store, and adjusted the scale to 2.5 grids suitable for extraction and concentration. The grinding was as fine as powdered sugar to the naked eye, and you can feel the fine particles when you twist it with your hands.
Since the thickness of the coffee powder has been fixed, if you want to reduce the extraction rate, you must first shorten the time for soaking the coffee powder in water, and secondly, increase the ratio of powder to water, that is, change the coffee concentration, thereby making the flavor lighter. The specific parameters are as follows:
Coffee powder: 50g
Pink to water ratio: 1:13
Cold water: 650g
Soaking time: 3 hours
After filtering: refrigerate for another 2 hours
Since the coffee grounds are finer, there is greater resistance to the water flow during filtration, so it will take longer. The freshly filtered coffee liquid usually tastes a little dusty because the flavor substances are still free in the water. We can seal it and put it in the refrigerator for a short period of time to allow the suspended substances to settle slightly, thereby making the coffee taste cleaner.
In addition, considering that the roasting of Italian coffee powder is mostly darker, the flavor is mostly caramelized, the taste is thick, and the bitterness is slightly heavy. If you are looking for a refreshing taste, Front Street recommends filtering it and adding a few ice cubes before tasting.
Like today's cup of Bird of Paradise cold brew, with the blessing of ice cubes, it tastes like spices, almonds and caramel, and also has the taste of oolong tea. The sourness is relatively weak, the taste is ice-cold, and it has a refreshing effect.
But if the espresso powder you buy is roasted too darkly, the cold brew may be thicker and bitter. Adhering to the virtue of not wasting, you might as well try to match it with other ingredients. First, it will be more delicious, and second, it can also increase the flavor. For specific operations, please refer to this article: "Find another way! Various hidden ways to drink cold brew」。
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
