In addition to being brewed with hot water, coffee can also be made with cold water. Coffee made with cold water is called "cold brew coffee" and has a different style compared to hot brewed coffee.
Cold brew coffee is divided into cold brew coffee and ice-drip coffee. Cold-brew coffee is to soak coffee powder with cold water, and ice-drip coffee is to extract coffee drop by drop in the form of drip filter. A friend asked Front Street: "Should cold brew coffee be brewed in hot or cold water?" Coffee brewed in hot water cannot be called cold brew coffee. Cold brew coffee can only be soaked in room temperature water or ice water, and the soaking environment must be kept at a low temperature.
Since the whole process is only in contact with low-temperature cold water of 4-10°C, the extraction efficiency is very low and bitter macromolecules are not easily released. Long-term low-temperature soaking allows compounds such as sugars and organic acids to be more fully extracted, so the acidity, sweetness and mellowness of the coffee are more balanced.
So how to make cold brew coffee so that it tastes better? Here Front Street will share with you some operational details.
Coffee bean selection
If you don’t want to overturn, Front Street recommends choosing medium-light roasted coffee beans. Compared with medium-dark roasted coffee beans, the fault tolerance rate will be higher.
There are currently a dazzling array of coffee beans on the market with various processing methods and different roasting degrees. As long as they are single-origin coffee beans marked for hand brewing, they can be used to make cold brew coffee. When dark roasted coffee is extracted with hot water, it will present a rich coffee aroma, which is mellow and bitter at first and then sweet. However, when it is made into cold brew, it will taste more burnt, bitter and carbonized when drunk at an ice temperature, and it is difficult to have the sophistication of hot coffee.
Therefore, if you want iced coffee with a refreshing juice flavor, you can choose Front Street Little Tomato or Front Street Oiran;
If you want a fermented fruity wine aroma, buy Front Street Blackberry, Front Street Strawberry Candy, and Front Street Mozart; if you don’t want sour coffee, buy Front Street Bird of Paradise and Front Street Queen’s Manor with a balanced taste.
Coffee grinding size
Since the cold brewing process is carried out in a low-temperature environment, the extraction efficiency of cold water on coffee powder is relatively slow. Compared with hot water extraction, bitter substances are not easily released. Therefore, the grinding degree, powder-to-water ratio, and soaking time are not as rigorous as Pour over(V60) coffee. Usually, as long as it falls roughly within a range and the coffee beans are selected correctly, a cup of delicious iced coffee can be made in a few simple steps.
Take the daily cold brew production of Front Street as an example. The grinding degree of the coffee beans will be slightly finer than that of hand brewing, that is, the Chinese No. 20 standard sieve will filter 75 to 80%. The naked eye is about the level of fine granulated sugar, which corresponds to the 9.5 to 10 scale of EK43s. The hand-cranked coffee grinder, taking C40 as an example, is about 22 to 26 grids.
soaking time
In hand brewing, we pay special attention to the water temperature and time, because water is the main brewing medium, and the temperature directly affects the extraction efficiency of coffee. If it is too high or too low, it will change the taste of the coffee. Since cold extraction is only in contact with low-temperature water of 4-10°C throughout the process, the extraction efficiency is very slow. Therefore, it is necessary to extend the soaking time to release more aroma substances, thereby allowing the extraction of sugars, organic acids and other compounds more fully, and the resulting coffee will be more balanced in terms of acidity, sweetness and body. Under normal circumstances, it is usually recommended to control the soaking time of cold brew coffee between 8 and 18 hours.
Front Street once conducted a cold brew experiment with time as a variable, soaking a coffee for 6 hours, 10 hours, 16 hours, and 24 hours respectively. Finally, it was found that the taste of the 6-hour coffee was too thin and the aroma was bland. The cold brew soaked for 24 hours was obviously bitter and showed signs of over-extraction. The 10-hour and 16-hour groups showed the best flavor, with rich aroma and rich taste.
Pink to water ratio
Front Street noticed that for convenience, some friends would directly pour coffee powder and water into the pot and start soaking. As long as it is coffee extraction, the parameter of powder to water ratio is involved. Without weighing, coffee is like opening a blind box. You never know what the taste will be. In order to ensure that the extracted coffee tastes better, Front Street recommends that the cold brew should be controlled between 1:10 and 1:13. If the concentration is too high, you can add an appropriate amount of ice cubes to dilute it.
Finally, let’s talk about Front Street’s cold brew coffee making method! First of all, when coffee beans are sold on the street, they tend to use medium-light roasted coffee beans. All the container needs is a clean, sealable container. Prepare 40 grams of coffee powder, grind it into a fine grind (85% passing rate of No. 20 mesh) and pour it into the container, then pour 480 ml of cold water, stir evenly with a wooden stick and close the lid.
After stirring evenly, seal it with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for 12 hours. After filtering out the coffee grounds, you will get clear coffee liquid and you can drink it immediately. You can also put the filtered coffee liquid into a bottle and continue to refrigerate it for 4 hours. The flavor will be better.
Generally speaking, for the sake of flavor experience and health and safety, whether it is ice dripping or cold extraction, as long as the extraction method is carried out in a low-temperature environment, Front Street recommends that you drink it within 5 days (counted from the production date).
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
