Cold brew coffee is the new coffee craze. It’s delicious, convenient, and cheaper than going to the café every day. Making cold brew is pretty simple; all it requires is prep time.
However, if you’ve ever tried to brew coffee at home, you might notice it doesn’t taste the way they make it in your favorite coffee spot. Want to know how to make the perfect cold brew for your mornings? Here is the secret to making the best cold brew coffee at home!
Get Quality Beans
Your coffee will only taste as good as its beans. The beans you choose determine if your coffee tastes rancid, sharp, nutty, or sweet.
Medium to dark roast coffee best suits cold brewing. Cold brewing coffee is also an excellent way to use older beans. Using older beans takes more time for extraction, but you can get a sweeter and deeper taste with older coffee beans.
Rise and Self-Grind
Grinding your coffee yourself ensures the freshness and purity of your coffee batch. Pre-ground coffee often sacrifices aroma and flavor.
Grinding your own beans allows you to control the level of fineness. The coarser your grounds, the longer you can steep them without the coffee getting too bitter. With a bit of elbow grease, you give yourself maximum freshness, aroma, and fineness.
Choose the Right Container
Do you find that your coffee sometimes has a metallic taste to it? The flavor of where you make your coffee can sometimes leach into your coffee.
This happens when the material finish deteriorates due to use. Other causes include poor manufacturing or a reaction with the coffee itself.
Cold brewing coffee means storing it in an airtight container for long hours. Make sure to choose a neutral and inert material like glass or ceramic.
Get the Right Water to Coffee Ground Ratio
Coffee ratios are important with the perfect macchiato vs latte. On the other hand, cold brewing is pretty forgiving. Try out various water to coffee ratios to customize your coffee’s concentration.
Cold-brew is far more concentrated than your typical hot brew drip coffee. A 1:8 ratio yields the ideal cold brew. If this is too weak for you, lessen the volume of water until you reach your desired strength level.
Good Things Take Time
To make cold brew coffee, you slow-steep the coffee grounds in room temperature water and refrigerate it. This liberates the flavors, aroma, and oils. You take away the acidic conversion that occurs in hot brewing.
Expect a smoother and sweeter taste since it is less acidic from the extraction medium. Remember, the longer it steeps, the more concentrated your coffee. Use a double straining method to get the smoothest brew.
Don’t Forget to Dilute
The extraction method of cold brew coffee makes every ounce of cold brew two to five times more concentrated than hot brewed coffee. This allows a lot of wiggle room for drink customization for cold brew coffee at home. Unleash your inner barista and mix your cold brew with milk, syrups, and spices at home!
Making the Perfect Cold Brew Coffee at Home
Learning how to cold brew coffee at home allows you to have the coffee experience without leaving the house. Start with quality beans and experiment with time and water ratios. Cold brewing is one of the most forgiving methods, since you don’t have to monitor steaming or temperatures.
Thank you for reading our article! Head over to our other blogs and become your very own home barista. Start your morning right with a cup of cold brew Joe.