Cold-Brew Results
I hadn’t even know it was possible to cold-brew coffee until Marco posted [a picture of his first attempt][m1]. The [article that Marco links to][b1] regarding cold-brewing mentions that Gimme! Coffee has turned to cold-brewing their iced coffees. As far as I’m concerned, if Gimme! likes it, I’m willing to give it a try.
So the story goes: I bought a small amount of beans yesterday morning, having them ground to a medium-coarse grind. (I know, but I don’t own a grinder.) Following directions from [the above mentioned article][b1], I put 1 cup of grounds and 4 cups water into a flip-top glass jar and stirred it around just a bit. 12 hours later (this morning), I filtered it through a fine-mesh tea strainer. Most of my grounds had settled in the jar, so I didn’t even bother trying to filter them. I just poured out as much liquid as I could and dumped all the grounds at the bottom.
I pulled just a straw-full of coffee from the middle of the now . My first thought was that it seemed to be missing something. In fact, Marco’s description isn’t that far off:
Sip… hmm… there’s some coffee flavor there… but where’s the rest of it? It’s not like weak coffee: it’s like a strong-enough version of only the bottom half of the flavor profile.
In fact, you do loose the acidity and bitterness that is typically associated with a cup of hot-brew. As Marco goes on to point out though, this should have been expected:
Taste is in the chemistry, and exposing coffee grounds to hot water releases oils that won’t dissolve at lower temperatures. These oils are full of acidic compounds that give coffee its famous bitter bite.
The thing is though, the result is a very nice, rich coffee flavor. My cold-brew is definitely stronger than a typical cup of hot-brew; it’s more like an espresso without the bitterness. I’ve seen it suggested that you cut cold-brew with same amount of water as you have brew, and I can see why: that would give you something akin to your typical cafe iced coffee. I opted instead to just add a few ice cubes and see how it went.
Surprisingly, my first full glass of homemade cold-brew was really good. Once the ice melted just a bit, the coffee was diluted to just the right level, and the lack of bitterness was actually really pleasant when drinking an entire glass. I did have one problem: my mesh strainer let a bunch of sludge through. It did a good job at filtering out the grounds, but I was left with some sips that had a bit more texture to them than I would have liked. I’d imagine a proper coffee filter would do a much better job.
Overall, I think cold-brew really a preference thing. If you like (or are accustomed to) the acidity that hot-brew gives you, cold-brew will take some getting used to. I wouldn’t say cold-brew is any less coffee; it’s just not the same coffee you’re used to. Still, if my cold-brew does hold up for a week (as it’s supposed to), I’ll be able to pour myself a nice iced coffee every morning before work. Pair that with cold-brew coffee iced cubes and I’d say we’ve got a winning combination.
