How to extract the essence of coffee while also enjoying a refreshing drink on hot days? One method for a delicious, cold beverage is cold brew, which involves steeping coffee in cold water. How do you make it? How long does it take to make cold brew, and what are its characteristics?
Homemade cold brew - it's simpler than you think
Steeping coffee in cold water is incredibly easy. Interestingly, it doesn't have to be made exclusively with coffee – you can use tea instead. When made with coffee, cold brew tastes different from hot-brewed coffee. First and foremost, such a beverage is free of bitterness and acidity; instead, the middle notes are most prominent. Cold brew is sweeter and milder in taste, making it an ideal solution for people who, for example, experience stomach irritation after drinking espresso.
We can also treat homemade cold brew as a base for experimenting with other flavors. Naturally, we can add milk or ice to it, but also other additions – a slice of lemon, a favorite syrup, and in a "richer" version, liqueur, ice cream, or whipped cream. Serving cold brew can be great fun, combining your favorite coffee with new textures and aromas.
What kind of coffee should you use for cold brew? Since we are not looking for bitterness or acidity in this drink, it is better to opt for sweeter varieties of specialty coffees available at LaCava. Coffees from Ethiopia, such as Limu Bru, would be a good choice. However, if you don't have time to prepare the drink, you can reach for our macerated and canned Nitro Cold Bru.
How much caffeine is in cold brew?
Although it may seem that cold brew would not differ in caffeine content compared to espresso or other coffee varieties, it turns out to be quite different. For example, a 250 ml filtered coffee can contain 95-200 mg of caffeine depending on the type of beans (Robusta has twice as much caffeine as Arabica), while cold brew will contain about 150-240 mg of caffeine for the same volume. What causes these differences? The biggest influence on the amount of caffeine in this case is the brewing time. Cold brew needs at least several to over a dozen hours, so the extraction provides more caffeine.
Cold brew - how much coffee is needed? How to make cold brew?
Cold steeping coffee does not require specialized equipment. However, it's worth having a grinder if you want to grind the beans precisely. Making cold brew at home requires medium to coarsely ground beans. Water is also essential. As with other brewing methods, it's worth ensuring that the water for cold brew is filtered. This allows for a better maceration result. Unfiltered water will make the cold brew have a cloudy, heavier taste and will certainly lose all its qualities.
Cold brew and hygiene
An extremely important issue with cold macerated coffee is proper hygiene. Why is it so crucial? This method of "brewing" coffee simultaneously creates an excellent environment for the growth of microorganisms such as bacteria, mold, and yeast. Therefore, we cannot prepare this beverage without first ensuring the cleanliness of our equipment and accessories (it's worth scalding them), but also that our hands are clean. We also avoid, for example, coughing towards the container or the coffee.
Cold brew - recipe
How to choose the coffee and water proportions? There are at least several ways to do this. You can use a 1:4 ratio (i.e., for every 100g of coffee, add 400ml of water), but this is a customizable matter. Once you have the coffee prepared (e.g., in a jar), pour water over it and make sure all the coffee is covered. Cover the chosen container and place it in the refrigerator. Again, the maceration time affects the final taste of the drink. You can remove it after just 10 hours, or after more than 12-14 hours.
Depending on the time, we get a slightly different taste. The longer it steeps, the more bitter the cold brew usually becomes. When maceration is complete, pour the drink into a new container through a fine sieve to prevent grounds from entering. It is not recommended to squeeze the remaining coffee grounds, as this releases the most bitter notes. This homemade cold brew can be stored for approximately up to seven days.
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