Cold Brew Iced Coffee

Cold Brew Coffee Intro

Cold brew iced coffee has been shown to boost mood, burn fat, increase energy levels, and (in moderation) can even lower your risk for a variety of serious health issues. Made-at-home cold brew coffee is my absolute favorite way to enjoy this tasty tropical bean.

In my opinion, there is nothing better than a nice strong ice cold coffee on a hot summer day. Easy on the wallet and rich in flavor, you can have café grade cold brew straight out of your own kitchen. With the right equipment and very little amount of effort, you too can forgo the drive-thru coffee once and for all!

Benefits of Cold Brew Iced Coffee

Coffee is a great source of caffeine. Caffeine can improve your mood, increase productivity, and aid in digestion. Coffee can also be quite expensive.

I once had a boss that frequented coffee shops 2 or 3 times each day of the week. While that $5 coffee on its own does not seem like a lot, it sure adds up quickly. My boss was easily spending over $400 a week on drive-thru coffee alone! Spread that out over a year, and that really starts to eat into your budget.

After coming to this realization, I decided that I would never let that happen to me! What I discovered, is that homemade cold brew coffee is a super delicious beverage for a fraction of the price. With a rather simple process, there was no reason to buy retail coffee again. I then set out on a personal mission to discover the best process for making at home Cold Brew Iced Coffee.

Tools for Making Cold Brew Coffee

Homemade cold brew is rather simple to produce, inexpensive, and makes for a seriously delightful beverage. I use a cold brew concentrate system purchased straight from Amazon.

I find a concentrate system works best for me, but feel free to try any system that catches your eye. They all will generally produce the same results more or less. Perhaps the more important question then which cold brew system to use, is should you grind your own coffee beans?

Grinding Your Beans

You definitely will want to grind your own beans. Cold brew coffee will come out best when using fresh coarsely ground coffee beans. This is due to the fact that the oils present in coffee beans are strongest directly after grinding. Pre-ground coffee is admittedly very convenient, but can become quite stale after opening, losing the aroma and potency that make coffee so great!

Another disadvantage of pre-ground coffee is the inability to change the coarseness of the ground coffee . Freshly grinding your coffee beans will allow you to fine tune the grind size. Larger grounds are best, and will aide in extraction due to the increased surface area.

Types of Coffee Grinders

There are a variety of ways to grind fresh coffee beans; including travel grinders, manual grinders, and electric automatic grinders. Each have their pros and cons, but some options are better than others.

Unless you just absolutely love the process of manually grinding your coffee beans, automatic seems the way to go. These days, there are quite a few different types of automatic coffee grinders. Blade Grinders, Burr grinders, Conical Burr Grinders, and Direct Drive Grinders are the most common. Of all these grinders, Burr grinders are generally regarded as the best for consistent grind size – which is essential for producing the best flavor during coffee extraction.

Weighing Your Beans

You will also need to use a scale to measure out coffee beans by weight. I use a digital food scale purchased from Amazon, but any type of scale the measures in grams will work fine.

For my concentrate recipe, I use a 250 grams of coffee to 1300 ml of water ratio. Your cold brew system may operate differently, so always go with the manufactures suggested ratio when in doubt.

How to Serve Cold Brew Coffee

Cold brew Iced Coffee can either be extracted in the fridge or at room temperature. Fridge extraction typically takes about 24 hours, where as room temperature extraction will be cut in half at 12 hours. In my opinion, neither have an obvious edge over the other in taste. What does matter though, is how you serve your cold brew coffee!

Serve cold brew straight. Or mix in dairy (whole, 2%, skim) or non diary (almond milk, oat milk, cashew milk). My absolute favorite way to enjoy cold brew is with a splash of oat milk. The subtle malty flavor and creaminess of the oat milk compliment the cold brew coffee wonderfully!

When serving straight (no creamer) I like to include a few cold brew ice cubes. Instead of using water when preparing the ice cubes, I will substitute in the last few ounces from my previous cold brew batch. This is great because instead of watering down your coffee as the ice melts, it will actually replenish the cold brew as you go!