As the weather gets hotter, more and more people want to drink iced coffee. As a result, the simple and hassle-free cold brew is back in everyone's refrigerator, ready to last the whole summer. Recently, several novices came to the Front Street store to buy some coffee beans suitable for cold brewing. By the way, they asked about low-cost production methods. Let's talk about it today.
Cold brew coffee is generally made by grinding coffee beans into powder, then adding cold water in a certain proportion, sealing it and placing it in the refrigerator for one night. Finally, the coffee grounds are filtered, and the resulting coffee liquid is cold brew.
Low-temperature extraction and long time are the two major characteristics of cold-brew coffee, and they are also the main differences between cold-brew and high-temperature brewed coffee. For high-temperature brewed coffee, the temperature is usually between 82-95°C and the brewing time is generally no more than 3 minutes. The entire process of cold brewing is carried out in an environment close to 0°C. Small molecule flavor substances that tend to be sour and sweet are released first, which also inhibits the dissolution of bitter macromolecular components to a certain extent. Therefore, cold brew usually tastes soft in acidity, has a mellow taste, low bitterness, and has a little aftertaste, so it is very popular among coffee drinkers.
Regarding the practice of cold brewing, you can learn many ways by searching on the Internet, but the key remains the same. The key lies in the coffee beans and parameters:
The fermented aroma and refreshing feeling of cold brew can make people feel instantly comfortable, so when buying coffee beans, you can give priority to types with strong fruity aroma or lively acidity, and choose them from coffee producing areas in Africa, Central and South America.
For those who especially like floral aromas and can tolerate acidity, we recommend trying Front Street Fruit Ding Ding; if you want to make a cold brew with a juice-like feel, you can choose Front Street Cherry Tomato; if you want iced coffee with a sweet taste, buy medium-light roasted Costa Rica and Colombian single-origin coffee, such as Front Street Blackberry, Front Street Hija, and Front Street Big Navel.
tips: A friend reported to Front Street that she usually likes to use some fruity single-origin beans to make cold brew, but the cost is too high to part with it, so Front Street suggested to her to find a bean with a soft tonality that does not steal the taste and is affordable, such as Front Street Xi Zhao.30%+Front Street Yirgacheffe70%(Cold brew flavor: passion fruit, grape, citrus, floral), Front Street Hamathew30%+Front Street Oiran70%(Cold brew flavor: tropical fruit, black tea, pineapple, honey).
Home cold brew parameters:
Pink to water ratio: 1:10~1:12
Grinding degree: white sugar (medium-light roasted coffee beans EK43s scale 9.5 grid, medium-dark roasted coffee beans EK43s scale 10 grids/China No. 20 sieve sieving rate 80%)
Soaking time: 6~14 hours
So based on these parameters, what methods can be used for cold brew coffee?
Direct soaking method
Direct immersion, as the name suggests, is to let cold water soak the coffee powder for extraction. Because there are fewer other obstacles, the two can contact more fully and release flavor substances into the water.
This method only requires a clean container with a large enough capacity, preferably sealed, and a filter cup and filter paper or a metal filter. It is enough to make cold brew coffee with a full taste and clean flavor. It is the simplest and most cost-effective home method. (For specific operations, please refer to this article on Front Street:Ice drip and cold brew, how to make it coffee shop quality? )
Advantages: richer flavor and lower cost;
Disadvantages: Since the coffee powder is saturated with water after soaking, it is easy to block the gaps in the filter paper, so the filtering speed will be very slow and it often takes a long time to wait.
Filter bag/tea bag steeping method
This method requires the use of a filter bag containing coffee powder, but there are not many restrictions. Common tea bags or marinade bags at home can be used as long as they are clean and do not leak powder. When making cold brew, first put the coffee powder into the filter bag, tie it up, then put it into the pot and add water to soak it. When the time is up, there is no need to filter, just take the filter bag out directly to get the extracted coffee liquid.
Advantages: It saves the process of filtering coffee grounds and is not expensive.
Disadvantages: Due to poor water absorption, clumps of coffee powder bags will float on top, resulting in slow extraction efficiency. Therefore, it is best to use a slightly larger filter bag to leave space for water to enter.
Cold brew pot making
Compared with the previous two alternative versions, the cold brew pot is a professional coffee appliance, so it has relatively complete functions. In addition to the built-in filter, some models also provide scales for coffee powder and water volume, which saves the weighing step. After soaking, just pour out the coffee grounds and start drinking.
Advantages; most convenient
Disadvantages: Since the coffee powder is contained in the filter,It is difficult for water to completely penetrate into the coffee to extract flavor substances, so the taste tends to be bland and the body is not as rich as the direct soaking method; moreover, the built-in filter of some cold brew pots is not fine enough, and the extracted coffee liquid sometimes leaves very fine powder and a thin layer of condensed oil, making it taste a little rough. If you want to improve the taste, you need to sift it again with filter paper.
However, for people who don’t use it frequently, the cold brew pot is often forgotten in the corner and collects dust, so it must be thoroughly cleaned from the inside out before making coffee.
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
