Cold brew coffee – the frequently asked questions

Even though we only make cold drip coffee we do receive many questions from people with regards to cold brew coffee. Although cold drip coffee and cold brew coffee are completely different brewing methods we are familiar with both. In this article we’ll therefore try to answer some of the commonly asked questions about cold brew coffee. Some of your questions might have been answered in more depth in different articles already so if you’re looking for more information on a certain topic make sure to check the in depth topics on these subjects.

 

 

What is cold brew coffee?

Cold brew coffee is a method in which ground coffee is steeped in cold or room temperature water overnight. It’s gained a lot of popularity worldwide because it produces a black ice coffee that is a lot more smooth than a cooled down warm coffee and is a lot more easy to make at home than a cold drip coffee but has a lot less complexity and flavor. Next to regular cold brew coffee it is also possible to drink nitro cold brew. Cold brew coffee is also great to use in coffee cocktails. 

 

 

Why cold brew coffee?

There are quite of few points to make for everyone should try to make some cold brew coffee at least once. Although the amount of reasons and arguments are vast, I’ll try to point some out below.

    • Cold brew to experiment

      First of all it is great to try a product you’ve probably been drinking your whole life in a completely different fashion. If you’ve reached this page this means you are most likely someone that favors coffee and is interested in getting the most from it. If you like coffee you’ll probably appreciate the cold version as well. And do keep in mind, coffee that is brewed with cold water is not the same as a cooled down warm coffee; we all know what that tastes like.. If your in doubt whether you’d prefer to brew your own cold brew, cold drip or whether you just want to buy some check out this page.

     

    • Cold brew in summer

      A second argument is quite logic and is related to being able to enjoy your cup of coffee cold instead of hot. The number of coffee drinking in almost each country is quite immense and not without a reason. Coffee tastes great and powers you up when needed. Still, especially when summer hits, you can get quite fed up with drink a warm cup of Joe. This brings me to the second reason why drinking your coffee cold is great, the coffee will cool you down instead of heat you up. Pretty logical if you ask us.

batavia cold drip coffee glass of black ice coffee-min
coffee infused oatmeal snacks

    • Cold brew for health

      Thirdly, drinking cold coffee can help you when you suffer from drinking warm coffee. In the last years there have been quite some articles describing the undesired effect of unfiltered coffee on bad cholesterol. As cold brew has to be filtered before consumption this negative effect of drinking coffee won’t be present in cold brew. Furthermore, due to the lower acidity of cold brew, it is a great way to be able to consume coffee when drinking a warm coffee usually leads to stomach problems. If you mainly drink your coffee for the caffeine kick you should definitely try cold brew coffee. It’s easy to bring along and will bring you more caffeine per serving than you’re regular hot cup of coffee. I think there’s no further need for explaining that black coffee will beat any energy drink any day of the week like a stroll in the park.

  • Caffeine content of cold brew coffee / cold drip coffee

    The final argument for drinking a black ice coffee is to get a great energy boost. Cold brew coffee will save you whenever you’re in need of a pick-me-up. A lot of people tend to think a cold brew will contain less caffeine than a warm brewed coffee. The logic behind this is that cold water will be less successful in extracting caffeine. This is absolutely true if you would brew both pots of coffee in the same amount of time. This however is not the case as both a cold brew and cold drip are brewed at very slow rates. Even though the cold water extracts caffeine less easy, more caffeine will be extracted due to the length of the brew. For our bottled line of cold drip coffees the caffeine content is almost 90mg per 100 ml of coffee. You can imagine that a 125ml bottle containing 107,5mg of caffeine will wake you up if you compare it to the 40mg of caffeine that a shot of espresso would give you.

Nutritional values cold brew coffee

As cold brew is still quite new there’s quite some questions about the nutritional value of cold brew. Especially the subject of how much caffeine is extracted is a hot topic when we’re on trade fairs or talking to customers but fortunately we’ve managed to clear this topic up a little above. Regarding the other nutritional we can be quite short. The difference in energy, carbohydrates, protein and sugar are neglectable. Furthermore, as the cold coffee is filtered, cold brew and drip won’t contain harmful fats that are present in for instance espresso that lacks filtration.

 

 

Which cold brew coffee systems are available?

 Although specialized contraptions for making cold brew are available the easiest way to do it by far is with everything you probably already own. From there we’ll move on to two different available systems to fix your hunger for a cold cup of coffee.

    • DIY cold brew coffee

      Basically anyone that ever drinks a warm cup of coffee will have all the ingredients for brewing a pot of cold brew coffee readily available in their homes. All you need is a storage container in which you can soak the coffeegrinds, a coffeefilter, and a second container to pour the coffee in after the brew. If you’re reading really carefully, some water to brew the coffee with might also be convenient. You want to know exactly how to do it? We’ve got a detailed cold brew recipe that you can follow step by step here. When you’ve been doing some more brews and home and have determent you’re a fan there are some cold brew systems that will make your life a little bit more convenient. You’ll find some below.

     

    • Toddy cold brew system

       Probably the most famous of all cold brew systems is the Toddy cold brew system. The system offers everything you need to brew cold brew coffee at home. The toddy kit has a brewing container, a filter, a plug and a coffee container. You just insert the rubber plug into the brewing container put in the filter. After this you add your ground coffee and water and put it in the fridge. You can vary with the brewing time but when the alarm goes, make sure to pull the plug underneath the storage container to let the coffee in the brewing container filter through the filter and into the coffee container. When this has finished you’re cold brew is done.

  • Cold drip coffee maker

     Even though cold drip and cold brew are not the same brewing method the cold drip towers are so often wrongly mentioned amongst the cold brew coffee makers that we’ll give a short description here. For brewing a cold drip coffee the fresh coffee is placed on top of a bottom filter in the middle compartment of a dutch coffee maker. On top a paper filter is placed so the water will be dispersed evenly over the coffee grounds. After this the top reservoir is filled with cold water and ice cubes. The drip rate can be set by turning the control valve. The brew in a small machine is usually finished quite fast (for a cold extraction) at around 5 hours. The larger machines usually should be brewed a bit slower at around 8 hours.  If you want to learn more about the difference between cold drip coffee and cold brew coffee you check out this article.

     

    We hope this article has helped to answer some of the questions there might be regarding cold brew coffee. If you have still got unanswered questions make sure to let us know!