Homemade Cold Brew Coffee: An Easy Guide

Cold brew coffee is the only way to satisfy your summertime iced coffee cravings without succumbing to the watery or overly bitter varieties. Using this technique always results in a perfectly chilled and silky cup.

There is no magic to making cold brew coffee, and you don't need to be a barista to do it. Except for a pot to brew the coffee in and a strainer, you won't need much else.

How it works is as follows: first, you coarsely grind the coffee, which you can do at home or wherever you buy the beans. Blend the coffee beans with the water and let it steep for 12 hours, or overnight.

The coffee grounds and water will steep together for several minutes, resulting in a flavorful, robust brew. If you wait until the next morning to strain, however, you'll be good to go.

There are some advantages to this coffee-making method:

• By steeping the beans slowly, you can extract all of the delicious coffee flavor (and some caffeine, but don't worry) they contain. )
• However, most of the compounds that give coffee its bitter and sour notes are also removed.
• This explains why cold brew coffee tastes so refined and mildly sweet. Icy coffee? Check.

Cold brew coffee's strength can be modified to suit individual preferences. One cup of dried beans to four cups of water is the starting point. Though it makes a strong cup of coffee on its own, this is ideal for diluting with milk or water before serving over ice. If you find that the current proportion of beans to water isn't to your liking, feel free to play around with it.

Also, it's great that I can get my coffee quickly in the morning without sacrificing quality. On the weekends, I brew a large pot of coffee, leaving it to steep until the evening before I strain it and store it in the fridge for the week.

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Any temperature between ice cold and scalding hot is acceptable for cold brewed coffee. The preparation is identical whether the coffee is to be served over ice or heated in the microwave. Before reheating it for a cup of hot java, I usually dilute the coffee with a little water. Of course, this is another issue of subjective preference.

The flavor is too intense for you. A cup of iced coffee can really pack a punch. In the case of iced coffee, the melted ice is meant to water down the coffee slightly. Just add some water or milk to your glass and adjust the flavor to your liking if it's still too strong.

Are you prepared to try cold brew coffee? Here's everything you need to know to whip up a batch in your own kitchen.

• Over-infused coffee from beans ground to a sandy powder, as is common in drip coffee, will leave the strained coffee tasting gritty and muddy. The texture of your cooked beans should resemble coarse cornmeal, or even be slightly rougher.
• When making coffee, it's best to use filtered water. Making coffee with filtered water yields a cleaner, sweeter cup.
• Tea should be steeped for at least 12 hours; shorter infusion times are acceptable, but should not be abused. To fully infuse the water with the coffee, this amount of time is required. An underwhelming cup of coffee can result from premature straining. Avoid extracting any of the bitter flavors we're trying to hide from by steeping for too long. I wouldn't recommend steeping for more than about 15 hours.
• If you want an undiluted cup of coffee, try chilling it with coffee ice cubes made from your cold brew. Create ice cubes out of coffee to use in your iced coffee.
• Find the perfect temperature for your coffee every time with our recommendations for the best travel mugs.