3 delicious cold brew coffee recipes
Ready to don your shades and prep a cup of coffee that’s suitable for a lounge-y afternoon spent sunbathing? The summer months are just about to start and, already, we’ve been incredibly lucky with all of the gorgeous sunshine that we’ve already had this year. The sun has *touchwood* got his hat on, and we want our fellow coffee lovers to be summer ready.
There’s very few things out there that could make us give up our morning coffee (preferrably a delicious V60 pour over or Aeropress) - the weather would have to get a hell of a lot hotter than it is now for us to be giving that a miss. But, what about a treat for those long lazy afternoons basking in the sunshine? That sounds like a sensational addition to our summer days!
The world of coffee is all about swish innovations and clever twists on staple brews and, when it comes to a cooler brew for the summer months, the coffee community does not disappoint. Cold brew coffee is a modern cafe staple. With these recipes that are designed for home brewing, you can cut down the normal arduous process (which would normally take hours) that would be required to make a proper strong cold brew, to one that takes just a couple of minutes.
Below, we’ve created a brief round up of 3 scrummy cold brew coffee recipes for you to take your luxe speciality cuppa outside - creating the ultimate sunbathing experience. Who needs the Amalfi, right?
AeroPress Cold Brew Coffee
An AeroPress makes for a wicked strong shot of coffee, perfect for providing a strong chilled coffee concentrate. It’s just about the easiest method you can find to make a delicious, luxurious cold brew coffee.
It’s a quick and easy cold brew method - Brew an Aeropress but aim for a high strength brew. The idea here is to brew a concentrate quickly that can then be diluted. A good starting point would be to up-dose. As an example try 20 grams of coffee to 200ml of water (our usual ratio would be more like 14g to 220ml).
Once brewed add either iced water or plenty of ice (if you want to keep it strong) to the coffee. And there you have it - an iced coffee that’s dead easy to make, without forsaking any of the quality, deep aroma or richness of your traditional hot brews.
Flavoured V60 Cold Brew
A V60 cold brew makes for a great base, from which to whip up a few different novel summer cold brew drink ideas.
All you need to do is brew your regular V60 style of coffee but as a stronger concentrate as we will brew it over ice. Stick to using hot water to pour over your grounds, as the ice will cool it down while enabling you to keep your coffee strong. Serve the drink with lots more ice, and you’ve got a quick and easy iced coffee.
If you usually use a recipe like 20 grams to 330ml of water try replacing 100g of water with ice cubes. So, brew using 20 grams of coffee with 220ml of water. You might want to make the grind a bit more fine in order to keep the brew fairly slow. Brew directly over ice and then chill for a few minutes in the fridge or freezer.
If you fancy taking your brew to another level (and you don’t think extra flavourings are speciality coffee sacrilege), we think a V60 iced coffee makes for the ideal starting point from which to add in a few tasty flavours. Here are a few of our recommendations for yummy additions to a cold brew. Some may sound a little crazy but these are some of the ideas we've come across!:
- Coconut milk
- A dash of chai syrup or a few spoonfuls of a strong chai tea brew
- Vanilla extract
- A generous drizzle of salted caramel sauce
- A few mint leaves
- Mix up a glass of half cold brew, half lemonade, to satisfy your inner child
- A spice infusion - try cinnamon or cardamom
- Top with a drizzle of honey
- A dollop of chocolate sauce, mixed in
Affogato
It’s an indulgence, but these little caffeinated treats are getting us through lockdown right now.
All you need to do is fill a wide glass (you could even use a martini glass if you’re feeling a little bit fancy) with two generous scoops of quality vanilla ice cream. Then spoon over roughly 100ml of piping hot coffee, so that the ice cream is just turning lovely and soft. Quickly top with chocolate shavings and then dash outside so that you’ve got plenty of time to enjoy it in the sunshine. This is best served with an espresso so if you happen to own a La Marzocco Linea Mini or any other espresso making equipment you are in the best position to make this!
We love this made with a fruity, juicy natural processed coffee. Natural processed coffees like our Rwanda Liza and Bwishaza tend to have delicious strawberry and cherry notes and these pair very well with vanilla ice cream.
This is how we’d make a timeless, classically Italian affogato, but if you’re feeling creative, you could switch up the ice cream flavour for cookie dough (now that’s a pudding), add a little drizzle of honey, or even sprinkle the ice cream with a little bit of cinnamon for a tasty spice kick.
If you’ve got a belter of a summer coffee recipe that you feel like our list could do with, tag us in your home brew creations on social media, we love seeing how our customers are putting their luxe Horsham Coffee Roaster beans to good use during the warm weather.