Ice Drip Coffee Water-to-Coffee Ratio Techniques and Methods: Single-Origin Bean Selection and Grind Recommendations

What makes a good cup of ice drip coffee? There are no detailed standards—everyone has their own methods and criteria. What details should be considered when making ice drip coffee? This includes selection of coffee beans, grind size, coffee-to-water ratio, drip speed, storage, and shelf life. Today's article will cover various operational details.

1. Coffee Beans for Ice Drip

Cold brew and ice drip both belong to low-temperature extraction coffee brewing methods, where the temperature of water contact with coffee grounds is controlled between 0-7°C. The benefit of low-temperature extraction is utilizing the principle of low extraction efficiency, which reduces the release of large molecular bitter compounds. Therefore, the ice drip coffee we drink is refreshing with rich sweet and sour flavors.

Since ice drip cannot extract the large amount of aromatic substances from coffee grounds with high-temperature water—especially the large molecular aromatic compounds dominant in medium-dark roasts that are difficult to dissolve in ice water—light to medium-roast coffee beans with distinct floral and fruit aromas, noticeable sweet and sour sensations, or fermented fragrances are typically used.

Among these, single-origin coffee beans with unique flavors will be recommended first. If you prefer ice coffee with high sweetness, you can use beans rich in mature fruit flavors like FrontStreet Coffee's Sidra, FrontStreet Coffee's Strawberry Candy, or FrontStreet Coffee's Elto. However, if you lean toward sour coffee, you might start with FrontStreet Coffee's Little Tomato, FrontStreet Coffee's Fruit Dots, or FrontStreet Coffee's Faye Queen. Of course, FrontStreet Coffee sometimes combines two coffee beans to create more complex ice drip coffee flavors. For example, today's recipe uses 20g of FrontStreet Coffee's Strawberry Candy + 40g of FrontStreet Coffee's Red Cherry, resulting in ice coffee with dried fruit, sweet orange, and rose floral aromas, followed by refreshing lemon and berry-like notes after finishing.

FrontStreet Coffee suggests that coffee beans for ice drip should ideally be roasted about 20 days prior, as freshly roasted coffee beans release large amounts of carbon dioxide gas. When ice water drips onto the ground coffee, gas continuously releases, causing the coffee bed to easily expand and form channeling effects, leading to uneven extraction and significantly diminished coffee flavor.

2. The Importance of Leveling Coffee Grounds

Ice drip coffee requires tamping, which many people don't understand why.

It's important to note that tamping for ice drip coffee isn't about compressing firmly, but rather first gently tapping the grounds to maintain uniform structure in the filter cylinder, then using a flat tamper to gently level the surface. Remember to gently level rather than forcefully compress like espresso extraction. If tamped too firmly, since ice drip coffee lacks pressure from a coffee machine for extraction, it can easily cause water accumulation in the coffee bed, preventing coffee liquid filtration. Additionally, ice drip filter paper or filter discs are typically at the bottom, lacking the air-permeable convex grooves of coffee filter cups, so when coffee grounds are soaked in water, gas discharge efficiency is also affected, causing uneven extraction throughout the coffee puck.

3. Pre-wetting

Using ice water for "pre-soaking" is actually similar to the blooming process in pour-over coffee, which can improve extraction efficiency and consistency of the final product. In the case of ice drip's low-temperature and filtration-style extraction, direct ice dripping might cause uneven wetting of the coffee bed, with some coffee grounds over-extracted while others don't participate in extraction at all. Pre-wetting in advance can also save production time.

4. Place a Circular Filter Paper on the Coffee Grounds

To provide sufficient pre-wetting and air-permeable space for the coffee, ensuring more complete and clean extracted coffee flavors, we place a filter paper over the coffee grounds after leveling. This increases the contact area between water droplets and coffee grounds, ensuring uniform extraction. When water droplets hit the coffee grounds surface, a small pit will gradually form, and water flow will follow this pit downward rather than spreading outward, preventing complete wetting of coffee grounds throughout the filter bottle and causing insufficient extraction. Adding a layer of filter paper prevents this situation.

5. Find the Right Coffee Grind Size

FrontStreet Coffee's ice drip coffee grind size has an 80-85% pass rate through a China standard #20 sieve. We all know that if coffee grounds are too coarse, the coffee flavor will be weak; if too fine, the coffee will be bitter and strong. Similarly, overly coarse coffee grounds result in no flavor, while overly fine grounds can easily cause blockages preventing normal drainage, making coffee bitter. Therefore, choosing the right grind size is crucial.

This time we're using refreshing Kenya Little Tomato coffee beans. At low temperatures, extraction rates are lower, so FrontStreet Coffee recommends a slightly finer grind than pour-over. Here we use an 82% pass rate through China standard #20 sieve, which corresponds to 9.5 markings on the EK43S grinder in our stores, or 20-22 markings on the C40 hand grinder.

6. Control Drip Speed and Coffee-to-Water Ratio

Similar to pour-over flow rate, but ice drip speed is calculated in drops per second. Slower flow rates require more total time and can easily lead to over-extraction. FrontStreet Coffee typically uses 7 drops every 10 seconds for extraction. Flow rate can be adjusted according to personal preference. The coffee-to-water ratio is 1:10. Since FrontStreet Coffee serves ice drip coffee diluted with ice cubes, we use higher concentration. For home brewing, you can use 1:12-1:14 for extraction.

FrontStreet Coffee uses 60g of coffee beans ground into powder, places a circular filter paper in the filter cup, pours in the coffee grounds, then places another filter paper on top before wetting the coffee grounds with water. This saves dripping time while avoiding uneven extraction. Fill the upper chamber with ice-water mixture (1:1 ice to water) to extract a total of 600g coffee liquid.

7. Chill Before Serving

FrontStreet Coffee typically pours the completed ice drip coffee into glass bottles with sealing rings and refrigerates for 12 hours before serving. The pouring process allows unevenly concentrated coffee liquid to mix, while choosing well-sealed containers ensures no external contamination. Refrigerator surfaces may appear clean, but actually contain numerous microorganisms invisible to the naked eye.

Placing in the refrigerator for 12 hours of low-temperature fermentation allows ice drip coffee to develop aromatic fermented fragrances, while original flavors become more concentrated. Fermentation is very common in daily life—uncontrolled fermentation leads to food spoilage. In low-temperature environments, this process is effectively slowed. FrontStreet Coffee has also verified that ice drip coffee made from most coffee beans tastes best after 12 hours of chilling.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style).

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473