It might be hard to explain; what is cold brew coffee, what is the difference between cold brew coffee and iced coffee and how to make cold brewed iced coffee. Cold brew coffee is one of the most loved types of soft drinks by people.
It has a few advantages to itself, and it’s because of this reason many either agree to pay a lot for just a little of it or go through the trouble of making some. One needs very few ingredients in making of this kind of coffee.
How To Start?
One needs only to steep medium ground coffee in water which should be at room temperature for 12 hours or longer. After that, filter the coffee particles and the coffee should be ready for drinking already. This kind of coffee never gets exposed to heat. The longer you wait for it between 12 -24 hours the better it gets.
The general idea with making this kind of coffee is steeping the coffee in cold water and giving them time for the water to dissolve the required content from the coffee powder then one can finish by decanting the mixture to separate the two. Here are three different ways that explain how to brew cold brew coffee.
How To Make Cold Brew Coffee In A French Press Coffee Maker
As simple as this procedure sounds, one major requirement is a French press machine and that should, the ground up coffee powder and water. Most people have these machines lying around not in use. That is how to make cold brew coffee in french press. Get some ground coffee beans, some water at room temperature and mix them up in the French press.
This coffee has to be kept for 12 or more hours so to be ready for drinking. The advantage is that most people already have everything required in this procedure. It is also a very simple procedure to follow for everyone.
The French press procedure though has to be followed keenly as a little mistake, and the coffee might not come out as it should. It might have lots of sediments in it. The procedure looks unfinished, but in the real sense, this is how to make this special coffee in the french press.
How To Make Cold Brew Coffee In A Mason Jar
This is how to make cold brew coffee in a mason jar; one needs a mason jar which would help in the immersion of the coffee, the ground up coffee and some water still. Pour the ground coffee into the jar and add water as you stir slowly to make sure the whole coffee is well immersed into the water then cover it for 12 hours or more.
After the preferred amount of time elapses, strain your mixture by a piece of cloth to help separate the residue from the coffee. Apart from the fact that it takes time to make this coffee at home, it is also fun and economical as many people have this equipment but never use them.
Although these procedures take long periods to get the coffee ready for drinking, this is also one of the best ways on how to make the best cold brew coffee.
How To Make The Best Cold Brew Coffee Using The Aeropress Machine
The use of Aeropress machines can is among one of the best ways on how to make the best cold brew coffee. Aeropress machines just like the mason jar and the French press work in nearly the same manner. Put your ground coffee in the Aeropress, add some water to it which should also be at room temperature.
It is good always to note that the coffee should not be ground to completely fine as this leads to excessive release of acid and bitterness in the coffee when mixed with water. Aeropress method is very cheap as well. Most people already have these machines with them, and whenever they would need to make the coffee, everything should be readily available to them.
How to Brew Cold Coffee Using Cold Brew Coffee Maker
One might wonder how to make your cold brew coffee. The cold brew coffee maker is the ultimate of them all on how to brew cold coffee. This machine is originally meant to make this kind of coffee as its name dictates.
It produces very impressive results too. Just like the other machines, human involvement is required here as well in the setting up of the whole procedure.
Ground up coffee poured in the machine, some water then the waiting starts. The best thing with this procedure is that it also produces coffee that is very low in acidity hence very safe for anyone including children or sick people to drink.
After knowing how to brew this delicious drink, it is good you also get to know how long is cold brew coffee good for? This is because the more it stays, its taste changes as well. Details on the period to wait will be provided later.
Mistakes To Avoid When Learning How To Brew Cold Coffee
Some people make many mistakes on how to brew cold coffee or other drinks but end up getting poor results at the end of it all. Although making cold brew coffee seems like a simple procedure to follow for anyone, there are some few common mistakes that many people end up doing in the process, hence end up with bad coffee. Some of these mistakes should be an at all cost during this coffee brewing process.
#1 Uneven Ground Coffee Size
When people say that one needs ground up coffee to make any coffee drink, lots of precision and watchfulness is important. If the ground up coffee gets too fine, they might end up producing excessive extracts which might not be good for any coffee drinker.
An example of these dangerous extracts is the acidity and the bitterness which are both in coffee beans. This fine coffee also might be troublesome when it gets to filtering.
Lots of these particles would get past the separator, therefore, producing an uncomfortable drink. Roughly ground coffee may never produce enough substance to the water during the soak period as the particles could be too big for water to penetrate.
In a scenario where both cases above apply in a single situation, the drink would have lots of acidities; lots of particles in it and also for the huge particles that never steeped enough, the coffee might never get the original taste as it should.
#2 Failing To Follow The Right Ratios
A cold brew coffee is generally a mixture of water and coffee. One reason why different people make different tasting coffee is because of their ratios. For people who love non-concentrated coffee, they can use a ratio of 7:1 of water to coffee. That is quite a soft coffee suitable for everyone.
This is how to make cold brewed coffee concentrate. Use a ratio of 1:1 of water to coffee. This ratio might seem wasteful to some people who think coffee is far much expensive to be measured the same as water.
However, making a concentrated coffee is always safe as one can always dilute it with water to whatever level they would prefer. On the other hand, making a dilute coffee can be tricky and hard to correct.
#3 Cold Brew Coffee Getting Stored For Long
Many would ask, how long is cold brew coffee good for? In this case, it’s good to understand that, an undiluted cold brew could go for approximately 1-2 weeks. It’s also good to understand that the flavor and taste at this point would start changing as well as the nutritional value of the coffee.
Others would wonder, how long is cold brew coffee good for if you add milk to it? In this situation, the cold brew would go bad faster. If anything, milk should always get added when drinking but never during storing.
#4 Cheap Coffee Beans
Earlier on we talked of the ratios to be used when preparing a cold brew coffee. Some people might think it’s better to use cheap coffee beans and even use lots of them rather than buy very expensive ones with huge amounts and end up making very small amounts of the drink. That is a wrong perception.
The cheaper the coffee beans would be, the poor the taste they would produce in the result. That is why one would rather use expensive coffee beans and make a little coffee and then probably dilute it with a bit of water rather than cheap beans that make a bad tasting drink at the end of it all.
#5 Impatience Of The Brewer
Many kinds of coffee types take very little time to prepare. Instant coffee is a good example where in 5 minutes depending on the mode of heat, one can manage to get their coffee ready. With cold brew coffee, patience must apply to the fullest. Pulling out the coffee before fully steeped at times would be dire and end up bearing substandard results.
The steeping for this coffee has to be between 12-24 hours. Less of this will get you a half steeped drink while overdoing it too leads to extraction of excessive products in the coffee that might seem bitter and acidic all through.
The best advice on making the coffee is to make a little amount of it, measure the right ratios, steep the right amount of time and then drink it off in a few days to avoid it spoiling or even tasting funny.
Impatient people are advised to buy the ready to drink from the outlets since making their own would always end up tasting something else.
Benefits Of Cold Brew Coffee Over Other Kinds Of Coffees
Instant coffee drinks might be good to some people because as their names dictate, you can make them as soon as you need them, unlike cold brew coffee which takes not less than 12 hours to be ready. In fact, there are many other benefits attached to it that are absent in instant coffee.
Cold Brew Coffee Have More Caffeine Than Other Coffee
How much caffeine is in cold brew coffee? If this is one of your queries, you should know that it is believed to have a water coffee ratio of 1:60 compared to the normal drip coffee which measures a water coffee ratio of 1:20. That is as a result of the time spent during steeping. The more the coffee soaks in water, the more caffeine gets extracted from the coffee.
Cold Brew Coffee Helps In Weight Loss
A cup of cold brew coffee helps a person to lose weight and increases the after-burn effect after a workout. That is the ability of the body to continue losing weight by burning calories after exercising.
That is an effect that would befit many people in the modern day today as they would wish to lose weight but never get the chance to work out.
Drinking Cold Brew Coffee Increases Brain Boost
A cup of coffee would do a lot to a person compared to other coffees that are just keeping you awake and help you get over fatigue. The caffeine in a cup of coffee increases the flow of blood in the brain hence boosting the cognitive functions in human.
Research carried out in rats show that compounds found in coffee can cause less cognitive deficit and also improve motor function in human beings.
Cold Brew Coffee Is Mild To Everyone
Some people can be very sensitive with the normal drip coffees due to their acidity and heat too. With cold brew, none of these applies in preparing it; hence such people would use this coffee comfortably. If such a person decides to take the normal instant coffee, they might be very selective with the beans they use because some are normally quite robust and acidic.
Moreover, we can use any beans, even the most acidic one as this procedure does not produce acidity in the final product.
A Drink Of Cold Brew Coffee Could Extend Your Life
Scientific research has also proven that just a drink of cold brew coffee could extend your life amazingly. Coffee assists the body in burning the fats, increases insulin sensitivity and decreases the risk of getting dementia. Antioxidants are quite significant to the body, and lots of them are believed to be left behind in coffee after the steeping process.
That only proves that a simple cold brew coffee could be far much better compared to the normal instant coffee or even the regular hot java people always wake up to every morning.
Final Words
Cold brew coffee can be ranked as the best one compared to other coffees prepared in other ways. Although it takes more time in preparation, the final product is the best compared to all these others that can be ready in less than 5 minutes because they have less value to the body.
It would be advisable for a person to get one of the above machines to make cold brew coffee rather than an instant coffee making machine which would be expensive to buy, install and also consumes lots of electricity.
You don’t need any set of skills, and there are no risks attached to it unlike operating an electric or stove coffee machine.
Hi my name is Larry, a coffee aficionado from the US. I have already visited Colombia, Sumatra, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ethiopia and Jamaica in my pursuit of finding the best-tasting coffee beans. I currently write from Bali and enjoy the relaxed life that you can only find in Canggu. Welcome to my coffee world!
