Many friends who come to Front Street to drink coffee say that they feel so refreshed when they see the ice water in the ice dripping pot slowly dripping. They also ask Front Street what kind of coffee this is. This is the biggest difference between ice-drip coffee and many other coffee categories. It generally requires a long and slow extraction of 6-8 hours, so the cup volume of ice-drip coffee in Front Street is usually not large, resulting in a situation of "supply exceeds demand".
Ice drip coffee story
What is iced drip coffee
Ice-drip coffee refers to a method of dripping ice water into coffee powder at a constant speed, and slowly extracting the aromatic substances of coffee under normal pressure. Since low-temperature ice water cannot easily extract the bitter substances of coffee, the slow flow rate greatly improves the extraction rate of coffee, so the taste of ice-drip coffee is strong but not bitter. If you choose coffee beans with a more prominent flavor, the fermentation, the sour and sweet taste of the fruit, and the refreshingness of the ice cubes will instantly relieve the heat in the summer.
The origin of iced drip coffee
Usually we often hear about Cold drip coffee, Cold brew coffee, and Dutch Coffee. What are the differences and connections between these three types of coffee? Front Street starts with a Dutch coffee story.
In the early 18th century, when the Dutch were transporting coffee beans from colonial Indonesia back to Europe, due to the long distance, there was no hot water on the ship and they could not brew a cup of coffee leisurely. I couldn't drink hot coffee, so I thought of using cold water to extract the coffee. Use a container to hold the ground coffee powder, add cold water to soak it for a few hours. This way, the coffee made is very sweet and not bitter at all. Dutch traders found this convenient way to drink coffee during maritime trade, so this method of making coffee with cold water began to spread around the world.
However, this method of extracting coffee with ice water was not widely spread in the Netherlands. Instead, it was retained by the Japanese and gradually transformed into today's iced drip coffee. Therefore, we sometimes see the saying that "ice drip coffee was invented by the Japanese." In fact, to be more precise, it should be that the Japanese improved the production method invented by the Dutch and preserved this production method so that we can drink iced coffee with this unique taste.
After reading the above story, Front Street believes that you have roughly understood that this production method of soaking coffee powder in cold water to extract coffee liquid is known as Dutch Coffee. Cold drip coffee, which is improved from the production principle of cold brew coffee, is also a type of Dutch coffee. There is also a new low-temperature extraction method. Cold brew coffee refers to pouring ice water into a container containing coffee powder, then waiting for it to stand for 12-24 hours, and finally filtering out the coffee grounds to obtain a cup of iced coffee with a slight alcoholic taste and sour and sweet taste. The brewing principle is actually the same as that of Dutch coffee, so it is also a type of Dutch coffee.
How to use an ice drip coffee maker
We can usually see a variety of ice dripping pot devices on the Internet, with different materials and shapes, but they are generally inseparable from the upper, middle and lower parts, and are also divided into four main structures: upper pot, valve, powder cup, and lower pot.
The upper container is mainly used to hold ice cubes and water. There is a metal object attached to the bottom. This is a valve that can adjust the water outlet diameter to change the speed of water droplets, so that the ice water drips evenly into the coffee powder. The cup-like glass pot in the middle is used to hold ground coffee powder. There is a filter hole in the middle of the bottom, which can drip out the extracted coffee liquid. The large pot below is to collect the extracted coffee.
The front street here uses a popular Costa Rica Mozart coffee to make it. Mozart coffee beans are processed with raisin anaerobic honey. The flavor is the sweet aroma of raisins, osmanthus, and fruit fermentation. Ice-drip coffee can make the fermentation feeling more obvious.
In terms of grinding degree, Front Street generally chooses the same grinding degree as ice hand brewing. Since low-temperature water reduces the extraction rate, the coffee will be ground finer to improve its extraction. This bean uses China's No. 20 standard sieve with a 85% sieving rate. According to the grinding degree of the Front Street store, it is ground on the 9-scale of the ek-43s grinder.
Generally, we first calculate the extraction parameters. Using a powder-to-liquid ratio of 1:10, 60 grams of coffee extracts 600g of coffee liquid. The ratio of ice-water mixture is 1:1. The flow rate of the valve is controlled at 7 drops every 10 seconds. Drip filtering is usually completed within 6-8 hours.(Usually the ratio of ice drops is 1:10-1:12, you can adjust it according to your own taste)
Place a round filter paper on the bottom of the medium pot and cover it with water. Then grind the coffee beans into powder and pour it in. Pay attention to spreading it evenly to ensure even extraction. Also put a round filter paper on the surface of the powder layer to prevent water droplets from dispersing the powder layer. The powder layer needs to be moistened with cold water before dripping, which can save extraction time and avoid uneven extraction in the early stage.
Place the powder cup on the rack and begin filling it with a mixture of ice and water, usually half ice and half water. Adjust the flow rate of the valve to 7 drops/10 seconds, and align the water droplets of the main drip filter with the position where the coffee liquid is filtered out. After the trickling filtration is completed, pour the contents of the lower pot into a sealable container, such as a glass bottle used in Front Street, and place it in the refrigerator for fermentation for more than 12 hours. You can usually drink it the next day.
After being refrigerated overnight, Mozart coffee will have a fermented feel like wine, with the sweet and sour taste of tropical fruits such as berries and pineapples. The taste is rich but not bitter. After diluting it with ice cubes, it will feel like drinking a glass of refreshing fruit wine.
How to choose coffee beans for iced drip coffee
The biggest feature of ice-drip coffee is the long-term extraction at low temperature, so when we choose coffee beans, we generally consider the type of coffee beans with more prominent flavor characteristics. Here Front Street introduces several types of coffee beans with more typical flavors.
1. Tropical fruit and fermented wine aroma types
For example, the aforementioned Front Street Mozart coffee has the sour and sweet taste of dark berries, and the wine aroma produced by aging at low temperature makes the overall taste better. In addition, there are several coffee beans on the Front Street bean list that also belong to this type. Colombia’s Front Street Flower Moonlight Coffee, Honduras’ Front Street Sherry Coffee, and Costa Rica’s Front Street Strawberry Sugar Coffee have very obvious aromas and are also suitable for ice hand brewing and cold brewing.
2. Refreshing and clean type
Some use water washing to make the acidity of the coffee beans very clean and full. This flavor of ice-drip coffee will have an acidity like juice, with a clear and refreshing fragrance of cherry tomatoes and grapefruit, which is very suitable for drinking in hot summer. For example, on the Front Street Bean List are Kenya’s Asalia AA coffee, Ethiopia’s Washed Fruit Cooperative Coffee, and Panama’s Gesha Blend Butterfly Coffee. If you are a fresh lover, you will definitely like this pure and transparent taste.
3. Sweet and delicious type
Compared with the above two types of medium and light roasted coffee, dark roasted coffee is generally less used to make iced coffee because it is considered to be very strong and bitter. In fact, Front Street tried using Indonesian golden mandheling to make ice-drip coffee. After adding ice cubes, it has a rich chocolate sweetness and a fermented aroma, without being bitter at all. If you can't accept the "heavy flavor" Mandheling coffee, Front Street believes that Brazil's Queen's Manor can also present the flavor of nuts and chocolate, and it also has a smooth creamy taste when diluted with ice cubes.
4. Flavor blending types
Our friends who often drink Italian coffee must know that coffee beans can be made by blending, so the same can be done for iced drip coffee. In addition to using single-origin beans with clear flavors, iced drip coffee can also choose to blend two or more single-origin beans. For example, Front Street tried blending Honduran Lychee Orchid coffee and Musician Series Beethoven coffee at a ratio of 1:1, hoping to drink coffee that has both alcoholic and fruity flavors. After mixing and drip filtering, the extracted coffee shows a rich brandy aroma and honey sweetness, as well as refreshing fruity acidity. According to this idea, you can get a cup of ice-drip coffee with great taste and flavor by making a combination according to your personal preferences.
Regarding flavor expression, you can make your choice by referring to the classification recommendations on Front Street. Since ice-drip coffee is extracted at low temperature, the efficiency is slower, so it is more tolerant. You can adjust it based on factors such as your home equipment and budget. It should be noted here that all flavor expressions are based on the freshness of the roasted coffee beans, so Front Street recommends choosing coffee beans that are within their best tasting period. The roasting purpose of Front Street is to roast good coffee freshly. The coffee beans shipped by Front Street are all freshly roasted within 5 days. We hope that every customer can drink good coffee when the flavor is at its best.
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
