What is cold brew? Guide for beginners
Cold brew will give you a cool cup of coffee on a summer day without having to suffer from the fact that the ice melts the coffee flavor. What is cold brew?
What is cold brew?
Cold Brew is a method of brewing coffee in which ground coffee beans are soaked in water at room temperature for more than 20 hours.
The cold brew method takes the longest – about 20 – 24 hours. But it’s also one of the simplest home brewing methods to make and requires no specialized equipment.
How to make cold brew?
The standard cold brew recipe is laid out as follows:
CÀ PHÊ + NƯỚC LẠNH + THỜI GIAN (8 – 24 giờ) = COLD BREW
Cold Brew is usually made by steeping coffee in cold water or cold environments for a long period of time. This slow, low-temperature brewing gives conditioned coffee a subtle flavor that is distinctly different from hot brewing with the same beans. The flavors present in Cold Brew can be floral aromas, blended with mellow sour fruits.
Cold brew coffee is brewed in a dilute form for a mild flavor. So while filter coffee and most drip coffees have a brew ratio of about 1:17 coffee to water (e.g. 15 grams of ground coffee mixed with 255 mL of water). Cold Brew is often made at a higher ratio to suit tastes and flavor needs.
Compare Cold Brew and Iced Coffee
Iced coffee used to be mostly just normal drip coffee, or espresso coffee with ice cubes added to make the drink colder. In terms of form, these two types of coffee are both “cold” when enjoyed. But in essence, there is a slight difference.
“Flash chill” coffee, also known as “quick brew” coffee, is a recently popular innovation on iced coffee. These “lightning” methods take two steps to increase the quality of your iced coffee:
+ Reduce the ratio of water to coffee to calculate the amount of ice added to fit, otherwise it will dilute the coffee.
+ Instantly cools hot brewed coffee by pouring it directly into the ice container.
Unlike this type of coffee, the “cold” nature of Cold Brew is slow-brewed for a longer time. It is different from instant chilled iced coffee, which is specially brewed hot to extract additional layers of flavor. Along with that are other natural coffee compounds that are not completely extracted during the cold brewing process.
Benefits of drinking Cold Brew
Some benefits can be mentioned immediately, such as:
– Convenience because the brewing process does not require complicated
– Contains less acidity
– Keep all the health and energy benefits of hot coffee
– Great method to reuse old coffee beans
Cold Brew coffee drinkers also often like another feature of this coffee, which is the slight acidity due to its low acidity. Cold Brew coffee has a less sour taste than hot brewed coffee from the same beans. The taste is very mellow, not only on the palate, but also good for your stomach.
Usually, temperature greatly affects the extraction process. Cold brew will retain the good acids that hot coffee is more or less limited. This not only results in a coffee with an aromatic, smooth, and mellow flavor, but it can also keep for days and still taste fresh.
Not only is cold brewing convenient and easy on the stomach, but like all coffee, it also has a number of healthy compounds:
– Chlorogenic acid
– Antioxidants
Cold Brew Strength
One of the biggest myths about cold brew coffee is that it’s always “strong” (or bold) and high in caffeine. This is not entirely true, because it is made with a higher ratio of coffee and water. That makes the extracted “concentration” likely to have significantly less caffeine than the same amount of hot brew.
Just like drip coffee, the strength of cold brew varies from place to place and from product to product. It basically depends on the desired strength of the producer or the coffee shop.
The best coffee to make Cold Brew
Due to different extraction times and methods, the taste of Cold Brew coffee is more demanding on the quality of the beans used.
Let’s come to 43 Factory Coffee to enjoy a delicious cold brew!