It’s that time of the year again. Hot. Summer. It seems that nothing can cool you off. Well, except a well-prepared ice-cold coffee next to your Gulab Jamun dessert. However, making a tasty cold brew coffee can be a bit of a challenge. Dialing in the amount of water and coffee takes a bit of practice and patience. Still, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. And this light comes in the form of yours truly. The recipe here will guarantee to produce a smooth and ice-cold cup of coffee. Every time you make it.
While there aren’t any hidden secrets when it comes to making cold brew coffee, there are a couple of things you should know. No, you don’t need to have the urban skills of a modern barista. No, you don’t need any special equipment besides a big container for making the coffee. However, you should follow the recipe to its fullest and let me know the results.
The First Couple of Steps for Making Cold Brew Coffee
Here’s how you should go about the recipe. For starters, you’ll need to grind the coffee so it has a coarse texture. If you have a burr grinder, you can do this yourself at home, just change your coarseness setting. Otherwise, ask at your local roaster or store, to grind your beans coarse enough to make cold brew. Next, you’ll need to mix the grounded coffee with water. Then, you’ll need to let it mix overnight, or for roughly twelve hours.
Why? Because this way, your ground coffee will slowly infuse with the water, making a powerful, concentrated brew. Of course, you’ll need to strain what’s left of it the next morning, and you’re all set.
How to Sweeten a Cold Brew Coffee
By now, you should have ended up with a tasty cup of cold brew coffee. However, can you sweeten it? While there are many different ways to this, we’ve used the method we found at www.homegrounds.co.
They say you should combine liquid sugar or simple syrup with your cold brew. This is a simple, yet effective method. Why? Because you can combine simple sugar or artificial sweeteners with your coffee. They simply won’t dissolve.
The only stuff that actually dissolves sugars or artificial sweeteners in your coffee is heat; ie the only thing missing from your cold brew. Once you remove the heat from the equation, your sugar will only float around the top and won’t combine with the coffee.
If you don’t like to have a powerful and bitter taste in your coffee, you should combine it with liquid sugar to produce a much better taste. To make liquid sugar, you’ll need to boil it first, and then mix it with your coffee.
If you’re not a fan of the strong and sometimes powerful taste of the cold brew, you can add liquid sugar to any cold brewing method to make it taste better.
Reasons to Make a Cold Brew Coffee
Yes, there is more than one reason to make cold brew coffee. Let’s meet them.
Taste. The cold, slow infusion process means that everything great about the flavor is pulled from the beans. Yes, this includes caffeine. Moreover, cold brew lets your coffee leave behind all the natural chemicals that make your coffee taste sour and bitter. In other words, a cold brew coffee taste is enormously smooth and kinda sweet. What else can you ask for from an iced coffee?
Secondly, cold brew coffee lets you optimize the concentration of coffee in your cup. Meaning you can make it weaker or stronger, according to your preferences. Your initial measure should be one cup of beans per four cups of water. Filtered water that is. This way, you’ll get a pretty balanced but powerful cup of coffee.
Furthermore, this is great for pouring coffee over ice or combining it with milk later on. Even for both. If this measurement is what you’re used to, adjust it up and down based on what you like.
You save time. Making cold brew coffee in batches means you can prepare your coffee for the whole week. You can do this on Saturday or Sunday. Whenever you have more time. Then store in the refrigerator for a simple cup of coffee for the whole week.
Serving your Cold Brew Coffee
It goes without saying that cold brew tastes best when ice cold. However, some people like to heat up their brew. Simply warm a mug with boiling water, add half a cup of cold brew and top it up with boiling water. Heck, you can even use a microwave, though it’s best that you add a bit of water first.
If your coffee is still too strong, we recommend that you add either ice or milk.
More Tips on Making a Great Cold Brew
The best beans for a cold brew coffee are the ones your grind to a coarse texture. If you grind to a sandy power, such as for slow-drip coffees, you’ve gone too far. This will make an over-infused coffee and make it all muddy. The beans should appear like coarse cornmeal. Even a bit coarser. This way, you’ll get a more sweet, clean taste. Especially if you add filtered water.
Don’t neglect the time it takes the coffee to dissolve. You need at least twelve hours. Anything less will leave you with under-infused coffee. Meaning you’ll get a really weak cup. Some even leave the coffee for as long as 15 hours. Play around with the recipe and let me know how you get on. And most importantly, enjoy your coffee.
