My Bean Around The World series is offering up some Coffee Lover’s Kitchen recipes today! Not only has cold brew coffee become popular, but it’s the summer season here in the northern hemisphere and many people turn to cold coffee drinks to cool them down. First off, let’s not confuse cold brew coffee with ice coffee – they are not the same. Ice coffee is simply putting ice in your coffee beverage. Cold brew is different and easy to make, so it’s fun to try at home. By using cold or tepid water (not hot) to brew your coffee, that causes the beans to extract different oils and compounds. So you’ll have different tastes from the same beans if all you change is the temperature of the water!
All you need is a mason jar and a metal strainer or French press pot to make your basic cold brew concentrate. In the old days, this was called Toddy coffee. Anyone out there remember this? Use 1 part coffee to 5 parts water. Coarsely grind the coffee and mix it with cold (preferably filtered) water and put it in a jar or French press. Let it sit at room temperature for 12-24 hours and then strain it. Keep it in the fridge and use within 2 weeks time. You can dilute the concentrate 1:2 parts with water or any other liquid such as milk. Of course, adjust this to your personal preference.
Cold Brew Coffee. Image source: http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food-recipes/cooking/a33597/how-to-make-cold-brew-coffee/
Choose good coffee. Try some single-source beans (meaning the coffee beans come from only one country) and then try some blends. They all deliver different tastes based on where the beans were grown. Since I got back from South America, I’ve been partial to Panamanian and Central American beans.
I tried a coffee milkshake! I used 1 cup of the cold-brew coffee, 4 scoops of vanilla ice cream and a tablespoon of chocolate syrup. This was enough for two. Another fun thing to try is making this concentrate into ice cubes! Both are fun treats :)
Cold brew is high in caffeine, so watch your intake! That’s it for today from the Coffee Lover’s Kitchen. My own latte is ready now, so enjoy your day and stay caffeinated! If you’re making your own cold brew, let me know. Any recipes or tricks of the coffee trade to share, please leave a comment. I promise not to share your secrets with tooo many readers :)
If you liked this post, please check out the cities I reviewed in Shelli’s World Coffee Tour.