Recipe for cold brew coffee

The warm summer months are a fantastic time to start exploring cold brew coffee recipes! Brewing cold brew coffee using great quality, freshly roasted speciality coffee will result in a far superior product than the usual iced coffee offerings found in the supermarket or at the usual chain coffee shops. 

We've put together a few tips and recipes for cold brew coffee to help you get the best summertime iced coffee experience!

Iced cold brew coffee

Choosing the best speciality coffee:

The first essential thing to consider is the coffee you plan to use to make your iced coffee. Most iced or cold brew coffee is made using coffees with nutty, chocolate or roast flavours, which means they combine well with milk but seldom taste great on their own. We recommend choosing coffees with bright, fruity tasting notes. Many of our best coffees will showcase amazing summer flavours that include tropical notes, berries, citrus fruits and great sweetness. Many also taste great with milk; think strawberries and cream-type flavours! These types of speciality coffee will allow you to produce cold brew coffee that has more sweetness and summer-like flavours than a typical shop-bought cold brew coffee. Here are a few tips for getting started:

• Always use freshly filtered water
• Grind coffee fresh before brewing
• Use freshly roasted coffee within 4 weeks of the roast date
• Choose coffees with distinctive flavour notes

Recipe for cold brew coffee - hot coffee over ice:

If you'd rather not wait 12 hours to slow infuse your coffee, then the iced V60 or Aeropress method is definitely for you! This method is also fantastic for making a single iced coffee and is our personal favourite. This method of making cold brew involves brewing your coffee using a V60 or similar filter coffee maker and using ice cubes to chill the coffee immediately. In our experience, the coffee might not be fully chilled, so it could benefit from a short amount of time in the freezer or can be served over ice cubes to help to drop the temperature further. The following method is a great starting point:

1. Grind 20grams of coffee using your usual filter grind. Grind a bit more fine than usual to slow down the brew.
2. Brew the coffee using 220ml of hot water. You could brew your coffee using an Aeropress, V60 or similar filter coffee method. The idea is to make a stronger concentrate brew.
3. Add 100g of ice cubes to the brewed coffee.
4. If required, chill in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes.

Hario V60 is perfect for brewing iced filter coffee

We love this method of making cold brew coffee as it perfectly captures the flavours found in the coffee and works very well with fruity, juicy coffees.

Recipe for cold brew coffee - slow infused:

Perhaps the most common and well know recipe for cold brew coffee is the slow-infused method. This involves using a set amount of coffee on a coarse grind infused in cold water and then filtered. The length of infusion can vary and depends on the desired coffee-to-water ratio and final strength of the coffee. We recommend trying the following coffee recipe as a starting point:

1. Grind 250g of fresh roasted coarse ground coffee.
2. Add the ground coffee to 2 litres of fresh filtered cold water.
3. Infused the coffee for 12 hours.
4. Filter the cold brew coffee through a paper filter. You could do this using a V60 with filter paper or a filter basket from a filter coffee machine.
5. The resulting coffee will be a concentrate that should have a great strength of flavours.
6. Use the concentrate and dilute this with cold water or milk to taste.

The cold brew slow infusion method is fantastic for making a large batch of iced coffee for coffee shops or to share with friends at home or at a party. The cold concentrate will last for a few days and could even be frozen for use at a later date!

Other great summer coffee drinks:

Affogato:

The above two methods are fantastic for making cold brew coffee that captures the great flavours found in our fantastic single-origin coffees. There are many other great ways to enjoy your coffee during the warm summer months, and the Affogato is one of our favourites! We find this works best using espresso brewed coffee. If you brew espresso at home, then the method is super simple. Simply add a double espresso shot to some vanilla ice cream and enjoy! 

If you don't have a way to brew espresso coffee at home, you can substitute the coffee with a cold brew concentrate. 

Coffee milkshake:

Who doesn't love an ice-cold milkshake in the middle of summer!? Coffee makes for one of the best flavours to add to a milkshake, and we promise they taste even better when you've used really good quality speciality coffee. The best method for this is to use a strong cold brew concentrate as the base for the milkshake. You can then add your ice cream of choice (this works very well with some of the amazing vegan ice creams now available) and any milk you choose. Blend these together and enjoy!

We hope our range of recipes for cold brew has been helpful! Remember to make sure you use freshly roasted, fruity, juicy, speciality coffee to get the very best from these recipes! But remember, if you prefer nutty darker roast coffees, don't shy away from experimenting. If it tastes good, then it is good!