Are Cold Brew and Cold Drip the Same Thing? Recommended Single-Origin Coffee Beans for Cold Brew

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When it comes to brewing black coffee, everyone might be most familiar with the pour-over coffee and cold brew coffee methods that FrontStreet Coffee most commonly uses. Our common iced coffees include ice drip, Japanese iced coffee, cold brew coffee, and ice extraction coffee—they all look quite similar. So what are the differences between cold brew and other iced coffees? What coffee beans work best for ice drip coffee?

Simply put, iced coffee is heat-brewed and then cooled, served as a cold beverage. Typically, freshly brewed hot coffee is directly mixed with ice cubes until completely cooled before drinking. Cold brew, on the other hand, is extracted entirely in a low-temperature environment, using cold water to fully soak the coffee grounds to extract flavor compounds, with the final coffee liquid obtained through filtration.

Comparing Different Iced Coffee Methods

Next, let's use FrontStreet Coffee's Kenya Little Tomato coffee beans as an example to explore the similarities and differences between various iced coffee methods from multiple perspectives.

FrontStreet Coffee Kenya Little Tomato Coffee Beans

Origin: Thika, Kenya
Processing Station: Asali Honey Processing Station
Altitude: 1550m～1750m
Grade: AA TOP
Varieties: SL28, SL34
Processing Method: K72 Washed Processing

FrontStreet Coffee Pour-over Parameters

Dripper: Hario V60 #01
Dose: 15 grams
Water Temperature: 92°C
Ratio: 1:15
Grind Size: 80% pass-through rate on Chinese standard #20 sieve

Use 30 grams of water for a 30-second bloom, then pour with a small circular motion to 125 grams for the first split. When the water level is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225 grams and stop. When the water level is about to expose the coffee bed again, remove the dripper. (Timing starts from the bloom) Total extraction time is 2'00".

Flavor Description: The aroma has mature tomato and floral notes. The entry brings cherry tomato and dark plum flavors, with bright acidity and a clean, rich mouthfeel. The mid-section has prominent sweetness with a juicy sensation, while the aftertaste features berry fruit notes and brown sugar sweetness, along with green tea aroma.

Black coffee brewed with hot water is best consumed before it completely cools down. According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, most hot-brewed black coffees become noticeably sour and astringent when fully cooled, even becoming difficult to drink. As for Japanese-style pour-over iced coffee, it's best to finish it before the ice completely melts, because once the ice cubes have fully melted, the coffee's flavor will become diluted.

Japanese-Style Iced Pour-over Coffee

The brewing technique for Japanese-style iced pour-over coffee is basically similar to hot pour-over, both using hot water to extract coffee liquid from the grounds. The differences lie in the coffee-to-water ratio and grind size. The water ratio for Japanese-style iced pour-over coffee is 1:10, with an extraction time of 2 minutes. It extracts the floral and fruit acid flavor compounds from the front and middle sections, with fewer compounds extracted in the later stages, resulting in a lower extraction rate than regular hot pour-over. Therefore, a finer grind size than regular hot pour-over is needed to compensate for the insufficient extraction rate.

Cold Extraction Methods

Although the final temperatures of the two coffees mentioned above differ, they both ultimately use hot water to extract coffee liquid from coffee grounds. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce two other types of coffee that use cold water to extract coffee liquid: cold brew coffee and ice drip coffee.

Cold Brew Coffee

The concept of Cold Brew Coffee is similar to cold-brewed tea—large amounts of coffee grounds are directly steeped in water and placed in a refrigerator for long-term low-temperature extraction, taking approximately 8-12 hours. It's also known as ice-brewed coffee. This cold brewing method amplifies the various flavors and aromas of coffee while reducing acidity, making the flavor cleaner and purer. The characteristic of cold brew coffee is that it tastes better the colder it gets, and you can directly add ice cubes without worrying about flavor dilution. In the United States, it's popular to add an equal ratio of coconut water for a different experience.

So how does FrontStreet Coffee make cold brew coffee?

FrontStreet Coffee's cold brew method uses 50 grams of coffee grounds, restoring a liquid ratio of 1:10, so 400 milliliters of cold water and 200 grams of hard ice are added (totaling 600 grams of ice-water mixture, as the water absorption rate of coffee grounds is twice their weight). After stirring well, it's sealed and placed in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Then it's taken out and filtered through paper to remove coffee grounds, and the coffee liquid is sealed in a clean bottle and refrigerated for 32 hours.

After extraction, it can be kept fresh in the refrigerator for 5 days. During the preservation process, the coffee liquid continues to ferment in the bottle, and this fermentation process will create different layers of mellow flavor changes in the coffee. It's generally recommended to let the extracted cold brew coffee rest in the refrigerator for 1 to 3 days before drinking, because during the 24-36 hour overnight resting period, the coffee liquid fully mellows over time, resulting in better flavor.

Cold Brew Flavor: It has a light fermented aroma, with entry notes of cherry tomato, plum, pineapple, and bramble sweet-tartness. The finish features honey and brown sugar sweetness, with an overall refreshing sensation.

Ice Drip Coffee

As everyone knows, cold water extraction extracts much fewer bitter compounds. Using entirely cold water drip filtration, the coffee is 100% saturated and moistened. By extending extraction time and reducing flow rate, the coffee grounds are fully saturated, extracting more small molecular compounds such as floral aromas and fruit acids. Larger molecular flavor compounds like smoky and roasted flavors are difficult to extract. In terms of mouthfeel, it's smoother, with richer aroma and outstanding sweetness.

So how does FrontStreet Coffee make ice drip coffee?

The coffee grounds chamber holds 60g of coffee grounds to extract 600ml of coffee liquid, with a ground-to-liquid ratio as high as 1:10. For the grind size, a slightly finer setting than pour-over coffee is chosen—judging by the #20 sieve, the pass-through rate would be around 85%. The ratio of ice-water mixture used is 1:1, with the throttle valve controlling the flow rate to 7 drops per 10 seconds. The entire extraction process takes approximately 6-8 hours. After extraction is complete, it's bottled and refrigerated for 12 hours before drinking.

Ice drip coffee needs to be refrigerated overnight for fermentation after extraction to make the coffee liquid taste mellower and smoother. However, FrontStreet Coffee recommends consuming it within 3-4 days, because as time passes, especially on the third and fourth days, the flavor will weaken and become very light.

Ice Drip Flavor: Rich juice sensation, with distinct cherry tomato sour aroma on entry. The mid-section carries some grapefruit peel flavors, while the aftertaste brings berry fruit notes and caramel sweetness.

Conclusion

FrontStreet Coffee chose this Kenyan coffee bean for making ice drip coffee and cold brew coffee mainly because the weather is quite hot, and everyone looks for some refreshing drinks with a bit of acidity to cut through the richness. The flavor of this Kenyan bean happens to perfectly match this preference. However, since everyone's taste preferences vary, and the flavors people like are different, if you don't know which coffee beans to choose, follow FrontStreet Coffee's WeChat account and come consult with us.

On a scorching summer day, what could be more refreshing than a glass of cool, refreshing coffee to beat the heat? Don't just think about it—take action now and start making your own cup of iced coffee.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473