What is the Cold Coffee Brew?
Maybe we should begin by mentioning what the cold water brew is not. It is not an Iced coffee, which is really just regular coffee left to stream out and forced to cold over ice cubes. The cold brew is much more a grander way of achieving the heatless fix of coffee. Cold brew coffee is that perfect solution for a rejuvenating summer drink where you can’t the heat of a regular coffee; and also cannot stand the shabbiness of the iced coffee (no offense).
Cold brewing is an excellent way of extracting the flavor for coffee beans in the most immersive way possible, and the result is an impressively smooth cup of more concentrated coffee. In other words, while the taste might be a bit milder (compared to regular coffee), it has more caffeine content. When running numbers, we found out a typical cup of cold brew coffee has up to 100-200 mg of caffeine. Well, how well you like the sound of this will depend on how much you value caffeine. In any case, if you are the type who is really sensitive to caffeine, you can still make a cold water brew with decaf caffeine, which really does come out well flavor-wise too.
Needless to say, the cold coffee brew is really popular, and we are not surprised that it is all sort of rage at with coffee vendors nowadays. Well, considering the fact that it is really easy to make, we see no reason why you should shell out up to $5 for a cup when you can easily have it brewed yourself. That is why the essence of this article is to address one of the most critical points to a cold water brew; the ratio of water to its brew.
The Perfect Ratio of Coffee to Water for a Cold Brew.
The trick in making a great cold brew coffee is getting the ratio of coffee to water absolutely right. Otherwise, you might be extremely disappointed with what you might end up with. We don’t claim to have found the perfect blend, but we will share with you the ratio balance that has worked for us perfectly over time.
We will begin by quickly informing you that cold brew coffee requires twice amount of coffee as you would need in a regular drip brew. Even though the truth is that the ratio of coffee roots is mostly subjective and may depend on personal taste, a very place to start is to grind three-quarter cup beans for 4 cups of cold water, i.e., the size of a 32-ounce French press. Then, it can be doubled with one and a half cups beans for double the cup of water. As we mentioned earlier, this will come down to your personal choice in the long run.
Thus, we were not surprised to see other brew ratios of water to coffee, and some of them include; one part of coffee to 6 parts of water; one part of coffee to 9 parts of water; we even saw another mixing method that recommends one part of coffee to 3 parts of water. From the foregoing, we can easily deduce that the average workable ratio around is one part of coffee to 8 parts of water. That way, the coffee will not be too strong and not too mild as well.
Apart from getting the water balance right, here are some other tips for the success of a cold water brewed coffee:
• Timing is very crucial:
Unlike the hot water brew, cold water brew relies more of the timing than the temperature. This helps in producing the smooth, mellow and mild texture accompanied with the strong sweet aroma. This is as a result of the solubility of the compounds even in cold water. Thus, it is not wise to get shrewd with the time at all. You need to steep the coffee bean for at least 12 hours. Coffee needs this long stretch of time to infuse the water thoroughly. Over steeping can work adversely too. That is why is the best range of time we will give for steeping the coffee is anywhere between 12-15 hours.
• Filtered water is the best:
Filtered water is best for all kinds of coffee anyway, so there is no negotiation here. It will bring out the clean, sweet flavor of the coffee and ensure that it retains of the goodness. In general, it is a healthier choice.
• Ensure the beans are coarsely ground:
Work the coffee beans in a coffee grinder until they are coarsely ground. Thus, you may need to grind the beans in batches if you don’t have a grinder that contains the capacity at once. You don’t want to grind the beans into a sandy powder like the way you’d have it for a regular hot brew drip. This will make the coffee excessively infused, strained and muddy. The ideal grind is to get about the size of coarse cornmeal or raw sugar.
• Lace your cold brew with coffee ice cubes:
Do you want some over-the-top coffee experience, then you should consider even adding ice cubes to your already cold water brewed coffee. We bet you just got the chills!