It’s been a really hot summer, so hot in fact that sometimes the prospect of having to endure a hot beverage outweighs the want for the caffeine it contains. Cold brew is a really simple method of making cold coffee, as long as you can give it a little bit of patience. It takes a little bit of adjusting with to get some of the method right for the beans you’re using, so we did some experimenting with Mr.Exclusive so you can dive in!
Before you start, you’ll need:
- A Jar – big enough to fit as much cold brew as you want to make
- A container – same size as your jar
- Chemex paper filters – these are ideal, you can use paper towel as well if you don’t have anything else but it’s definitely worth investing
- A sieve
- A grinder – or pre-ground coffee
- A scale – if you want to get technical about ratio
- Something to measure water – also for ratio
This is how...
Measure out the beans, you’ll be shooting for a 1:8 coffee:water ratio. This means that for the 340g of coffee measured here, i’ll be looking to add 2720ml of water.
Grind the beans to the thickness of about a breadcrumb. Pre ground coffee is fine to use, as is cutting open a few pods and using the coffee in those. If you do go with pre ground, the potential for over-extraction is increased, this is when the more bitter solubles in the coffee will also be extracted.
Measure out your water to the ratio, using less water will result in a much stronger brew and more will obviously result in a slightly mellower flavour. We think that 1:8 is right on the mark but that’s just our opinion, so play with it in subsequent batches to adjust to your own flavour preference. Give the jar a good stir so all of the coffee grounds have been properly soaked.
Leave it in the fridge. This is called steeping and it will reward you for your patience, however leaving it for too long can also increase the potential for over-extraction. We’ve found that 36-48 hours is optimal. It’ll look like this when it comes out of the fridge. (image to the left)
The ol’ strain and drain. Pour the jar out into a container through a metal sieve to catch the bulk of the grinds
The metal sieve won’t catch everything, so setup with your paper filter to carefully filter out the finer grounds that are still hiding in the coffee. We’ve used a chemed here to do the filtering part but it’s not essential – it’s perfectly fine to filter straight back into whatever you want to keep it in.
and PRESTO! - Drink up!
You don’t have to drink it all straight away, it’ll stay good in your fridge for 3-5 days
Despite the detail in these instructions, you may have realised by now that all we are really doing is soaking coffee in the fridge. It’s quite an easy process, it’s just a little bit more elaborate than popping an ESE pod into a machine and pressing a button (although I guess most coffee is!). The result is a bit like a long black, but without the bitterness and a much smoother consistency, some people like to adjust with milk – much like you would a tea. Happy drinking!