Which Has Better Flavor: Cold Drip vs Cold Brew Coffee? Differences in Grind Size, Coffee-to-Water Ratio, and Taste

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What Are Cold Brew Coffee Extraction Methods?

As classic representatives of low-temperature extraction coffee, nothing compares to cold drip coffee and cold brew coffee. Unlike iced Americano or iced pour-over coffee, which require brewing a pot of hot water for extraction before adding ice cubes to cool down, cold drip and cold brew coffee use low-temperature water throughout the entire extraction process, making the extraction time considerably longer. Since many people want to make these two types of coffee at home, FrontStreet Coffee believes that to make them taste good, one must first understand their extraction principles.

What is Low-Temperature Extraction Coffee?

The thermal molecular movement in hot water accelerates the release of heavy molecules (bitter compounds) from coffee, while cold water does the opposite. When extracting coffee with cold water/ice water or in low-temperature environments, not only is the bitterness less likely to be released, but other quality flavor molecules in the coffee are also released more slowly, requiring more time to compensate for the low efficiency.

Therefore, low-temperature extraction coffee typically requires 6-12 hours, allowing the pleasant positive flavor compounds to be better released and dissolved in water, resulting in a richer, more aromatic taste profile.

Grind Size for Cold Drip and Cold Brew Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee typically uses light to medium roast coffee beans for low-temperature extraction coffee, grinding the beans to medium coarseness (similar to sugar granules / 75% pass-through rate on China's #20 standard sieve).

If the grind is too fine, the water dripping from the upper chamber of the cold drip tower cannot pass evenly and completely through the entire coffee bed; for cold brew coffee, clumping can occur when water is added to the coffee grounds. These are reasons that lead to uneven extraction and unbalanced flavors.

Differences Between Cold Drip and Cold Brew Coffee

Cold drip coffee belongs to drip filtration extraction. It uses an ice-water mixture below 5°C, allowing ice cubes to naturally melt and drip through a valve that controls the speed of ice water dripping onto the coffee grounds. The ice water slowly extracts the coffee flavors as it passes through the grounds, dripping out the extraction liquid bit by bit. The complete extraction process takes about 2-8 hours.

To achieve better flavor, it then requires 12-48 hours of cold fermentation. Each extraction has a relatively low ratio (FrontStreet Coffee uses a 1:10 coffee-to-liquid ratio for extraction, meaning 60g of coffee grounds to extract 600ml of coffee liquid). When not diluted with ice cubes, the concentration is extremely high. If the coffee liquid is too strong, add ice cubes according to personal taste to dilute. The taste is excellent.

Cold brew coffee belongs to immersion extraction. It involves mixing room temperature water/ice water directly with coffee grounds, then sealing and placing in the refrigerator for an extraction process lasting 8-12 hours. Unlike cold drip coffee, cold brew coffee extraction is very thorough because of direct contact between grounds and water. After extraction and filtration, it can be consumed directly.

FrontStreet Coffee typically uses a 1:10 to 1:12 coffee-to-water ratio for making cold brew coffee. If using a stronger concentration ratio, such as 30g of coffee grounds with 300g of cold water/ice water for extraction, the final coffee liquid concentration will be quite strong and have a thick texture for most people. We can first add 2-4 ice cubes to the cup, which keeps the coffee cold while appropriately reducing the concentration. This approach ensures both flavor and proper concentration.

If you prefer a lighter coffee, you can adjust the coffee grounds to water ratio to 1:12 or 1:13. Keeping the grind and steeping time the same, the extracted taste will become noticeably lighter and more suitable for most people's preferences.

Flavor Differences Between Cold Drip and Cold Brew Using the Same Coffee Beans

FrontStreet Coffee will use its own freshly roasted coffee beans for this comparative experiment. Only freshly roasted coffee beans have sufficient rich aroma and flavor, which is why all coffee beans sold by FrontStreet Coffee are shipped within 5 days of roasting completion.

For this comparison, we selected a light-medium roast "FrontStreet Coffee Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry Coffee Bean." This coffee bean uses 100% fully mature coffee fruits, resulting in a very high natural sweetness. The natural processing method involves direct drying, allowing sugars to further transform into the coffee beans, accompanied by slight fruit fermentation notes.

When made into cold drip coffee through drip filtration, the flavors exhibit citrus-like acidity, strawberry-like sweet and sour notes with black tea-like characteristics, resulting in a refreshing, clean, and transparent taste. As the storage time increases, the fruit wine-like fermentation notes become more pronounced.

When made into cold brew coffee through immersion extraction, the flavors show citrus-like acidity, mixed berry juice sweetness and fullness, along with black tea-like aftertaste. The texture is rich, concentrated, and clean.

Important Notice :

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