For more knowledge about specialty coffee, please pay attention to: Front Street Coffee (Frontsteet Coffee）
Ice-drip coffee and cold brew coffee are both relatively common methods of cold brewing coffee, and their cool feeling is loved by many people. So what is the flavor difference between iced drip coffee and cold brew coffee? Let’s compare below on the front street.
Ice drip coffeeinvention
Although iced coffee is called Dutch coffee, it has no deep connection with the Netherlands. On the contrary, it has a deep connection with Japan, so it is also called Kyoto coffee. When the owner of Kyoto Hanabusa Coffee was reading a coffee book, he read about the local people's method of brewing coffee in Indonesia, a Dutch colony at that time, and was very interested in this method. Based on the description in the book at that time, he developed an ice-drip device with the help of a chemistry student at Kyoto University and a medical device company. He wanted to reproduce the Indonesian brewing method, and thus invented ice-drip coffee. Later, it became popular in Europe and the United States. Because Europeans and Americans were not aware of this history, they simply called it Kyoto coffee.
The difference in preparation methods
First of all, the production time of both is very long. Generally, ice-drip coffee is made through an ice-drip pot, which is a coffee appliance divided into an upper pot (ice water), a middle pot (coffee powder), and a lower pot (coffee liquid). The ice water in the upper pot is dripped drop by drop into the coffee powder in the middle pot, and the coffee liquid is slowly extracted and flows into the lower pot. The general production time is 6-8 hours.
Cold brew coffee uses a container, puts the ground coffee powder into the container, then adds a corresponding proportion of cold (ice) water, swirls it around evenly, and seals it. Store in a low-temperature environment (refrigerator) for 12-24 hours for low-temperature extraction. Then filter the coffee grounds through filter paper, and the result is cold brew coffee.
Let’s start making ice drops now~
1. The ice dripping used by FrontStreet CoffeepowderThe water ratio is 1:10, that is, 60 grams of coffee powder extracts 600 ml of coffee liquid.
2. Place a piece of circular filter paper at the bottom of the coffee cup, wet it with water and fit it to the wall of the cup. Add 60g of ground coffee powder (the size of coarse sugar), and then smooth the surface of the coffee. You can also use the weight of the powder hammer to lightly press the powder layer to make the surface smooth.
3. Remember to put a piece of filter paper on the noodles. Because the tension of the filter paper can make the water evenly distributed, if there is no filter paper, long-term water droplets will make a pit in the powder bed.
4. Use ice water to "pre-soak". In fact, this is similar to the steaming process in hand brewing, which can improve the extraction effect and the consistency of the finished product. Direct ice dripping may cause the powder layer to be unevenly moistened. Some of the coffee powder will be over-extracted while other parts of the coffee powder will not participate in the extraction.
5. Put a 1:1 mixture of ice and water into the water bottle, and adjust the regulating valve for about 10 seconds to make 7 drops of water.
6. After making, pour the coffee liquid into a sealed glass bottle and put it in the refrigerator to ferment overnight. This will allow the flavors of the coffee to blend together, making it taste better and easier to drink.
How much caffeine is in iced drip coffee?
Many people think that the caffeine content of ice-drip coffee is low because the lower the water temperature, the less easily the caffeine dissolves (the lowest temperature at which caffeine dissolves is above 80 degrees Celsius). However, the low amount of caffeine extracted by cold water cannot be underestimated over a long period of extraction. Therefore, some people believe that the caffeine content of iced coffee is higher, and many experimental results have also proven this statement. Ice-drip coffee will have very different caffeine content due to the coffee beans used in various cafes, the water drip interval, and the total extraction time. Therefore, people who are sensitive to caffeine are better off drinking decaffeinated coffee instead of ice-drip coffee.
How do we choose the coffee beans for iced drip?
The first reaction of friends who saw this title was: just choose a bean drop~ That’s totally fine. But if you only use one kind of bean to make ice drops, you may not be able to fully experience the aroma, sweetness or smoothness of this bean. Therefore, when making ice-drip coffee, it is recommended to blend two types of coffee beans to make ice-drip coffee. The purpose is to make the coffee highlight the characteristics of a certain flavor. The following introduces the two matching methods, which you can use as a reference.
30g【Honduras Shirley】+30g【costa rica beethoven】
Pictured: Sherry processed in wine barrels and washed Beethoven, with a fermented wine aroma, rich fruit acidity and honey sweetness.
The washed Beethoven has obvious citrus acidity and the fullness of berry juice.
Sherry fermented in whiskey barrels has a distinct aroma of whiskey and is as smooth as vanilla cream.
When made into ice drops, you will feel the rich aroma of whiskey, the obvious acidity of citrus and the fullness of berry juice in the mouth, and the smoothness of vanilla cream.
20g【Honduras Lychee Orchid】+40【Yirgacheffe Dinguo】
Litchi orchid processed in wine barrels and diced Yirgacheffe fruit washed in water, with a faint aroma of brandy, plum-like acidity and sweetness of maple syrup.
The lychee orchid processed in brandy barrels has a rich aroma of brandy, chocolate aftertaste and honey aftertaste.
Washed yaka fruit dices, plums, and citrus fruit acidity, with the sweetness of oolong and a smooth tea-like taste.
When made into ice drops, you will feel the faint aroma of brandy, and the rich fruit acid leads to the sweetness of honey and smooth creamy taste.
30g【Sidamo Oiran】+30g【Panama Hartmann】
The sun-dried Oiran and the red wine-treated Hartmann have a strong fermented wine aroma and some slight acidity, which is more suitable for people with a heavier taste~
The sun-dried Oiran has a relatively high sweetness, smells like strawberry, and tastes like passion fruit, fermented wine, strawberry, and jackfruit.
The red wine-processed Hartmann has some fermented red wine aroma and is smooth in the mouth, with some tropical fruits, nuts and brown sugar flavors. When made into ice drops, you will feel that the fermentation smell is stronger, the sweetness is higher, and the body is higher.
Cold brew coffee recipe
Front Street's cold brewing plan uses 50 grams of coffee powder, and the reduction powder-to-liquid ratio is 1:10, so add 400 ml of cold water and 200 grams of hard ice (a total of 600 grams of ice-water mixture, and the water absorption rate of the coffee powder is twice that of itself). Stir evenly, seal and store in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Then take out the filter paper and filter the coffee grounds, then use a clean sealed bottle to seal the coffee liquid and place it in the refrigerator for 2 hours, then it is ready to drink.
Front Street uses Oiran coffee beans to make iced drip coffee and cold brew coffee respectively for comparison.
Pour the ice-drip coffee and the cold-brew coffee into glasses respectively and observe. The ice-drip coffee is clear and translucent, while the cold brew appears hazy with oil on the surface.
Ice drop flavor: Refreshing, clean taste, rich fermentation flavor, with some wine flavor. Slightly sweet and sour berry flavor.
Cold brew flavor: The taste is relatively full, the flavor is relatively uniform, and the sweetness of the fruit is very obvious. The fermentation feeling is not very strong.
Comparing the flavors of these two types of cold brew coffee, you can actually clearly feel the difference, especially in the clean and refreshing taste, which is very easy to identify.
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
