How to Make Cold Brew Coffee
After years of spending £3 after £3 at coffee shops whenever I needed caffeine, this summer I’ve finally fallen in love with home made coffee. I realised it’s not only possible, but not even that difficult to make coffee at home that tastes just as good (if not better) than the coffees you buy when you’re out. And one of the best and easiest ways to do that, especially in summer months, is by making your own cold brew coffee.
You will need:
- 250g lightly roasted, coarsely ground coffee
- 1x large mason jar (min. 1.5 litre)
- 2 x large coffee filters
- 1 x weighing scales and large bowl
- 1 x thin mesh sieve
- 1x mixing utensil
- 1 x pouring jug
- 1L water
Part 1: Steep it
First of all, place your mason jar onto the weighing scales and reset the weight to zero:
Then take your coffee and pour roughly half of it (125g) into the mason jar:
Add approximately 700ml of water to the coffee grounds and gently mix, but don’t stir. The goal is to make sure all the grounds are immersed in the water.
Leave this to sit for about 5 minutes. By mixing half the batch first and then adding the second a bit later, the steeping process is more successful and the final brew has more flavour.
After waiting 5 minutes, add the rest of the coffee and then top the mixture up with about 350ml water. Again, making sure all the grounds are immersed in the water.
Finally, fasten on the lid and leave the mixture at room temperature for 12 hours.
Part 2: Strain it
The first thing you’ll want to do after leaving the mixture for 12 hours is take the lid off and smell the coffee. If you did it right, you’ll have the nicest smelling mixture you’ve ever smelt. All you need to do now is strain the grounds out of the coffee to leave you with your delicious cold brew concentrate.
Other tutorials I’ve seen suggest all kinds of method for straining, but I found that using a coffee filter for both the first and second strain leaves you with a perfectly smooth concentrate with no sediment.
To strain the coffee, place your large coffee filter in the thin mesh sieve and slowly pour the mixture in, scooping the coffee grounds as you go. Be careful with the large clumps, they can splash into the sieve and make a mess.
This process will take quite a long time, so it might be worth doing something else while you wait. Once it has finished, place a new filter in the sieve and repeat the process.
Once the second strain has completed, you’ll be left with a delicious cold brew concentrate. Pour this into your clean mason jar and leave it in the fridge to chill. You can serve your cold brew on ice, filling the glass up half way with the concentrate and then fill up the rest with cold water. If you like, you can also add a splash of milk.
Happy brewing! :)
