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 an ice drink. If we choose dark roasted coffee, the coffee liquid will most likely taste cold and bitter. At the same time, without the support of high temperature, the bitter taste will persist, making people not want to take a second sip after the first sip. Therefore, when making cold brew at home, Front Street will first recommend medium-light to medium-roasted coffee beans that have a more prominent aroma or a more obvious sweetness and sourness. The iced coffee produced is not only suitable for sourness and sweetness, but also has a refreshing and refreshing juice flavor, which is especially suitable for summer.
For example, Front Street Coffee Coffee) currently sells "Front Street Ethiopian Sun-Dried Alo Village Coffee Beans", which has a light floral aroma, full berry sweetness and sourness, mixed with a moderate sense of fermentation and a sweet aftertaste like black tea; or "Front Street Panama Flower Butterfly Coffee Beans", which has Bright citrus acidity, fresh white floral aroma, honey sweetness and green tea-like aftertaste; and "Front Street Honduran Sherry Coffee Bean", which has the aroma of whiskey, the sweetness and smoothness of vanilla cream cake, and the aftertaste of nutty caramel, which makes people have endless aftertaste after drinking it.
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, FrontStreet 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. FrontStreet needs to emphasize that the aroma of ground coffee will dissipate faster, so if conditions permit, it is 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.
Here Front Street uses the Indonesian Lindong Mandheling from Front Street as a demonstration. This bean is roasted to a medium depth. When brewed by hand, the flavor is caramel, fried nuts, dark chocolate, herbs and caramel. It is suitable for various brewing methods. The taste is also closer to the espresso powder sold on the market. If it is made into espresso, it will also be rich in oil.
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 resulting particles were as fine and uniform as powdered sugar.
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: 1:14
Cold water: 700g
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 espresso coffee powder is relatively dark, the flavor is mostly caramelized aroma, the taste is thick, and the bitterness is slightly heavy. If you want to filter it, you can add an appropriate amount of ice cubes before tasting.
Today's cup of Front Street Indonesian Mandheling cold brew, with the blessing of ice cubes, tastes obvious with spices, mostly dark chocolate and caramel flavors, and also has a Pu'er tea-like aftertaste. The taste is ice-cold and transparent, and very refreshing.
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
