Temperatures are rising and cold brew season is officially upon us!
What makes cold brew different than iced coffee?
It requires a little bit of forward-thinking, but the extra time required creates a rich, chocolatey, and highly caffeinated brew that is well worth the extra planning. It’s also fool-proof and incredibly forgivable if you don’t have the freshest coffee or you accidentally let it sit too long. As a bonus, it stands up well to cream and sugar, and acts as a blank canvas that allows your coffee creativity to shine! Scroll down to get our recipe.
COLD BREW AT HOME
To make this recipe, you’ll only need a few tools and a bit of time. You’ll want:
- an 8-cup French Press
- a vessel to pour in to
- a grinder
- a scale
- 4.3oz (by weight) of coffee – (We recommend Market Blend)
- 24 fl oz of clean, filtered water
- a filter (a Chemex filter is preferred but you could also double up on a regular filter)**
**Optional
Method:
- Weigh out 4.3oz of coffee and grind on the coarsest setting your grinder will allow. Pour grounds into a French Press.
- Measure out 24 fl oz of clean, filtered water at room temperature. Pour over the grounds. Give a stir to the mixture to fully saturate the grounds and ensure even extraction.
- Leave for 12-17 hours at room temperature or 20-24 hours in the fridge.
- After the chosen brew time, push the plunger of the French Press down about one inch for stability, but DO NOT plunge the grounds. After all that time brewing, the grounds are very volatile. Do your best not to agitate the grounds to avoid extracting unpleasant flavors!
- Decant into a vessel. We like a cleaner cup, so we decant through a rinsed Chemex filter.
At this point, you’ve got a cold brew concentrate and two options:
Option 1: Keep the concentrate as-is in the fridge
The concentrate will keep for a week (or more) refrigerated. This is a more versatile option, because you can choose to dilute the concentrate a different way every day, to taste. We recommend a 1:1 ratio of concentrate to water, or concentrate to milk (plus ice). You can also use the concentrate in place of espresso in baking recipes!
Option 2: Ready to Drink
After decanting into the vessel, add another 20floz of clean, filtered water to the concentrate. This will yield you about 40oz of ready-to-drink cold brew that will last about 5 days. This is a great option for those who want a quick, on-the-go beverage for the workweek. Divide the cold brew up between a few bottles and keep it in the fridge. In the morning, all you need to do is add a few ice cubes and you’re all set!
