Smoked Cold Brew Coffee

Smoked Cold Brew Coffee Intro

Smoked Cold Brew Coffee is a decadent treat that not only can boost moods, burn fat, and increase energy levels. In moderation, it can even lower your risk for a variety of serious health issues!

You can imagine how pumped I was when I realized you could take the cold smoking method and apply it to brewing coffee. Combining my two favorite past times into one simple and tasty treat!

Benefits of Smoked Cold Brew Iced Coffee

Low, Low Cost:

Made-at-home smoked cold brew coffee is my absolute favorite way to enjoy coffee on a hot summer morning. The smoky sweet flavor profile is oh so satisfying, plus you are able to save a pretty penny by brewing at home. What’s not to love??

I once had a boss that dropped by our local coffee shops multiple times each day. 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! Total that out over a year, and that really starts to eat into your budget.

After this realization, I decided that I would never let that happen to me! Homemade smoked 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 mission to discover the best process for making at home Cold Brew Iced Coffee.

Simple Tools:

Smoked cold brew coffee is rather cheap and easy to make at home. Who knew that such a simple process could make for a seriously delightful beverage!?

I use a cold brew concentrate system made by Urban Trend purchased on Amazon. I find this concentrate system works best for me, but feel free to try any system that catches your eye!

They all will produce the same results more or less. Perhaps the more important question is how in the world do you smoke cold brew coffee?

How To Make Smoked Cold Brew Coffee

The Right Tools:

Grind Your Own 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 natural oils 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 here, as they will aide in extraction due to the increased surface area.

How To Smoke:

The name of the game is cold smoking. This is a process that introduces smoke flavor without the high temperatures we associate with pellet grills or offset smokers.

The cold smoking process is used when making cold smoked salmon. It is also widely used to add smoke flavor to cheese, as the low temperatures will not melt the cheese in the process.

I purchased this smoker tray directly from amazon. The snake design allows for a constant and consistent amount of smoke throughout the entire process. Highly recommend!

Weighing Your Beans:

You will also need to use a scale to measure out coffee beans by weight. I love my TimeMore Nano 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.

What Temperature To Brew:

Cold brew 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!

How to Serve Smoked Cold Brew Coffee

Serve smoked cold brew coffee black. Or mix in a dairy (whole, 2%, skim) or a non diary (almond milk, oat milk, cashew milk) creamer. You can even through in this simple Keto Pumpkin Spice Syrup for that perfect little taste of fall.

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 to fill the ice cube trays, 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!