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I got hip to Cold Brew Coffee a little over a year ago when I tried it at The Seed, in Boca Raton, FL. Since I live in hot, muggy, blast furnace Florida I’m not a huge fan of piping hot coffee. Plus I have this tendency to burn my tongue on basically anything above 84 degrees Fahrenheit (that’s about 28.9 degrees Celsius for my readers from other lands). Anyway, I like my drinks cold! So I was intrigued and what I tasted is what I imagine the coffee gods had always intended coffee to taste like smooth, perky, and in my particular order’s case, SWEET! When I found out that cold brew coffee was less acidic and therefore less harsh on your digestive system (can you say acid reflux?!) <see Science Shows Why People Who Drink Cold Brew are Doing it Right – Mic.com >, I was sold!
The problem was that buying it every day from The Seed or even later Starbucks when they started selling it was proving pretty expensive. So I did some research and discovered that actually making your own cold brew isn’t very hard at all.
I went out and bought the Primula 50 oz Cold Brew Carafe Brewer at my local Bed Bath and Beyond but you can find it at Walmart.com for about $17 and I got to work.
The actual hardest part about making cold brew is really picking out your coffee beans and making sure you grind them correctly. You can use any coffee you like under the sun, just make sure you grind your coffee on a coarse setting or the french press setting depending on the grinder you’re using.
Once you’ve picked out your coffee and ground it up you’re ready to get the show started!
- Fill your coffee filter in your cold brewer up. The number of scoops can vary depending upon the size of the particular brewer you choose but will probably be between 6 to 8.
- Place your filter into the carafe (that big glass pitcher that makes up your brewing system).
- Fill your carafe with water. You’ll probably want to use filtered or spring water for health and taste purposes.
- Seal up your carafe and place in the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours. The longer you let it steep the stronger your brew will be, but I don’t recommend going over 24 hours.
- Once you’ve let it sit for the required time, you pull out the filter with the grounds in it.
- The Primula comes with a nifty tool to stir your brew to help with any settling that may have happened from it sitting around. If you use another brewer you can always just use a large spoon or whisk to stir your coffee around.
Once your coffee is brewed it’s fantastic for about 4 to 5 days but will still be drinkable, provided you haven’t diluted it, for about two weeks.
Which brings me to the important part…how the heck do you serve this concoction!
Depending on where I’m going I usually either pour my coffee into my Contigo Snapseal Thermos when I’m heading to work (it keeps stuff freezing for hours)
or pour into my recently found Aladdin Mason Jar tumbler. It seems the Aladdin Mason Jar tumble that I found at Home Goods (also saw it at my local TJ Maxx). *Update: These days I use my favorite Ello Tumbler. *
To prepare my brew I usually pour one part coffee, one part water, and leave a little room for whole milk. I use Sugar in the Raw liquid cane sugar as my sweetener because it’s just easier to mix up all the ingredients than using granular sugar. You can also use liquid stevia if you’re avoiding sugar. Once I’ve gotten all my ingredients in my vessel of choice I then shake it up real hard and my coffee is ready!
Now if you’re wondering if this is going to perk you up in the same way that hot brewed coffee will, the answer is yes and maybe more so because cold brew coffee is actually more concentrated than hot brewed, that means a little of it goes a long way! That’s why most people like to dilute it with some water.
What I know for sure is that I don’t burn my tongue anymore and my cold brew gets me going in the morning. If you’d like to learn more about the process of cold brewing and mistakes to avoid please check out this article Common Cold Brew Mistakes You Would Never Make.
Let me know if you give it a try and if you’ve got questions about how to make this tasty brew that maybe I didn’t answer in this post, don’t hesitate to hit me up in the comments!
