What Is Cold Brew Coffee & How To Make It?

1 August 2021

Cold brew is all you love about coffee without all you don’t. The fruity, fragrant and robust coffee will surely make you smile! Learn how to make it here!

Cold brew is a unique coffee style. Unlike most coffee specialties, you can make this one at home, and it’s easy! Learn all about cold brew coffee and how to make a batch today.

What Is Cold Brew Coffee?

Cold brew coffee is not brewed but infused. Cold Brew coffee is prepared in approximately 12-16 hours. It’s ground coffee steeped in water for long hours until the water absorbs the bean’s lovely scent, color and flavor. But let’s start from the beginning.

Let me tell you all about our favorite coffee. Cold brew. No, this is not your average iced coffee; this one’s better. Imagine the most fragrant, robust coffee without any bitterness or astringency, just pure fruit aromas, a lovely roasted flavor and a hefty dose of caffeine. And you don’t even have to brew this one!

So, what’s the deal with this marvelous drink? Cold brew is nothing like any other type of coffee. In fact, it has more in common with tea. Cold brew was created in Japan, where people cold brew tea (meaning sans-hot water) since forever.

And what happens here is that since the coffee beans are never exposed to hot water, the stringent components in them are never leached, only coffee’s flavor.

The bad news is that although hot water brews coffee in seconds, it takes anywhere between 12 and 24 hours for cold water to extract coffee’s goodness. If you’re tired of waiting for your local barista to fix you a cappuccino, be prepared to wait a little longer.

How To Make Cold Brew Coffee?

Cold brew coffee might take some time, but it’s super easy to make. You need only to ground the coffee coarsely, steep it in water overnight in a tight jar and wait. You’ll know when it’s ready. Finally, enjoy it as-is or serve it over ice. You can also add some cream to it; you’ll love it.

What’s The Best Coffee For Cold Brew?

You want to avoid deeply roasted coffee. No dark roasts, like Spanish or Italian roasts. What you want is a medium or light roast. Why? Because you don’t want all those burned flavors to leach into your cold brew. You want the fruity flavors found only in a medium or light roasts.

How Much Coffee For Cold Brew?

If you make cold brew, you can work in batches. Something you can’t say from almost any other type of specialty coffee. But how much coffee should you add to the water?

Anywhere in between the ratios of 1:2 to 1:10 works well. Low ratios lie 1:10 make a cold brew you can enjoy right away. Anywhere over a 1:4 ratio is called a coffee concentrate, and you must dilute it with water before drinking — it’s fairly strong!

How Long To Cold Brew Coffee?

Anywhere between 12 to 24 hours will work. Still, the warmer the water, the faster your cold brew will be ready. Infuse the water in the fridge for a slow and steady brew. Keep it over the counter if you’re in a hurry. You’ll have to taste the coffee during the process, though. We all like ours differently, so there’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to brewing times.

What’s The Difference Between Cold Brew and Iced Coffee?

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Now, let’s talk about the most popular iced coffee styles and why they’re different. More importantly, let’s see when you should make one or the other.

Cold brew coffee is infused, not brewed. Iced coffee is made by chilling coffee that has been brewed traditionally with boiling water. Cold brew and iced coffee taste entirely different. You’ll find roasted, even charred aromas reminiscent of chocolate in an iced coffee. On the other hand, cold brew often offers berry aromas and a milder flavor.

Can you make an iced coffee with cold brew? Well, it depends. What are you trying to accomplish? You can definitely use cold brew to make iced cappuccinos, mochas and other iced delights.

Now, hear this. Cold brew and an intense shot of espresso are not interchangeable. They both work best for different recipes. The good news is that you don’t have to choose. Have some cold brew in the fridge and brew yourself a hot cup of coffee whenever you feel; that’s it! Your coffee, your rules.

Now, let’s talk about the cold brew concentrates I mentioned before because these are truly something unique. You’ll love them!

What’s The Difference Between Cold Brew and Cold Brew Concentrate?

When you prepare a batch of cold brew, you use a coffee-to-water ratio between 1:10 and perhaps even 3:10. That means a few tablespoons of coarsely ground coffee for every four cups of water.

Now, if you use more coffee, with ratios between 1:4 and 1:2, you end with an incredibly concentrated coffee. So concentrated that it’s hard to drink as-is. This is a cold brew concentrate.

Why do you need cold brew concentrate for? You can make a batch of it and make yourself many cups of tasty coffee by diluting it with fresh water. How many cups? That’s up to your taste, of course.

You can also use cold brew concentrate to flavor specialty coffee drinks like a cappuccino. If the concentrate is strong enough, you can think of it as an espresso. One-shot will give an intense flavor to any milky drink.

In a nutshell, the difference between cold brew and cold brew concentrate is that the concentrate is stronger, sometimes much more potent! And each has its uses, so you should try making both!

Some people love concentrate, especially if they drink a lot of coffee and can’t wait another 24 hours for their next cup.

How to Drink Cold Brew?

Drinking cold brew is the easy part. If you made yours mild, you can just pour it over fresh ice and perhaps add a lovely splash of cream to round it up. You can also enjoy a shot of cold brew if it’s strong enough. It will give you a caffeine buzz not dissimilar to what you’ll get from an espresso.

Then there’s the creative part. Cold brew is perfect for crafting milk drinks like lattes and even Frappuccinos. The sky’s the limit with cold brew. Once you have it in the fridge, you’ll know exactly what to do with it. Now, go make yourself a batch!