Three Panama Geisha Iced Coffee Brewing Methods | Affordable Geisha Coffee with Exceptional Flavor

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

Understanding Different Types of Iced Coffee

We commonly encounter three types of iced coffee: cold drip, Japanese iced coffee, and cold brew. They look quite similar—what are the differences between them?

Cold Drip Coffee

Origin

Cold drip coffee was originally invented to extend the shelf life of coffee by extracting it with ice water. Cold drip coffee uses room temperature or below-room temperature ice water to drip-filter coffee over a long period, typically 6-8 hours.

Structure

A cold drip coffee maker consists of three parts: an upper chamber holding ice water, a filter assembly containing coffee grounds, and a lower chamber that collects the extracted coffee liquid. Sometimes, there's also a decorative serpentine glass tube at the front of the lower chamber, allowing the brown liquid to wind its way down.

Extraction Principle

Unlike hot water extraction, cold water extraction yields significantly fewer bitter compounds. With pure cold water drip-filtration, the coffee becomes 100% saturated and moistened. By extending the extraction time and reducing the flow rate, the coffee grounds are fully soaked, extracting more small molecular substances such as floral aromas and fruit acids. Larger molecular flavor compounds like smoky and roasted flavors are difficult to extract. In terms of mouthfeel, the result is smoother, with richer aroma and more prominent sweetness.

Choosing Single-Origin Beans

You can choose coffee beans with more intense flavors, such as Kenya, Yirgacheffe, or Sidamo Guji—beans with strong floral and fruity aromas. The coffee extracted this way will have distinctive character.

Brewing Process

Let's make a pot of cold drip using 30g of Sidamo Guji and 30g of Panama "Butterfly" coffee beans.

1. Coffee-to-Water Ratio

Coffee beans: water: ice cubes, in a 1:5:5 ratio

We typically prefer a coffee-to-water ratio between 1:10 or 1:12. The coffee won't be too strong or too weak—just right. If you plan to serve it with ice cubes, you can adjust according to personal taste. You might want to make it slightly stronger so that after the ice melts, the coffee concentration remains at a palatable level while enhancing the smooth texture and refreshing taste.

2. Grind Size

Cold drip doesn't have strict requirements for grind size. The coffee grounds for cold drip should be ground slightly finer than pour-over, while adjusting the extraction time according to your own grind coarseness.

3. Leveling the Coffee Grounds

First, gently tap the filter to ensure even distribution of coffee grounds inside the filter cylinder, then lightly press flat with a flat-bottom tamper. Remember to press gently rather than forcefully like espresso extraction. If pressed too firmly, it can cause water pooling in the coffee layer, preventing coffee liquid from filtering through. Additionally, we place a filter disc at the bottom of our cold drip maker—unlike pour-over filters which have ventilation grooves—so when coffee grounds are soaked in water, the degassing effect is also affected. Without leveling the grounds, water will easily cause the grounds to float, resulting in uneven extraction throughout the coffee bed.

Placing Circular Filter Paper

Remember to place a piece of filter paper on top of the coffee grounds. The tension of the filter paper helps distribute water evenly, achieving better uniform extraction. Without filter paper, the prolonged water dripping will create a pit in the coffee bed. Besides looking unappealing, water droplets will flow directly through the pit, bypassing the surface layer of grounds, causing the upper coffee grounds to extract fewer compounds within the same extraction time.

4. Pre-infusion (Ice cubes + water, 1:1 ratio)

Similar to the blooming process in pour-over coffee, this improves extraction efficiency and product consistency. Direct cold dripping without pre-infusion might cause uneven moistening of the coffee layer, with some grounds over-extracted while others don't participate in extraction at all.

5. Dripping Speed

Drip-filter with ice water at a rate of 7 drops per 10 seconds for approximately 6-8 hours. This long, low-temperature extraction method ensures the coffee grounds are 100% saturated, effectively removing bitterness and tannic acid. The result is rich, smooth coffee that's not acidic or harsh on the stomach. We recommend refrigerating it for 1-2 days of fermentation and aging, which allows different beans' flavors to fully blend, creating a mellower, smoother taste. The natural process "Guji" combined with wine-processed "Hartmann" has a rich fermented wine aroma with some light fruity acidity, suitable for those who prefer stronger flavors.

If you prefer nutty, cocoa, or dark chocolate flavors, you can blend beans like Colombia Cauca, Tiger Mandheling, or Brazil Queen. These require 3-4 days of refrigerated fermentation for a more acceptable taste. However, after 4 days, the flavors will weaken and become quite bland.

Japanese Style Pour-Over Iced Coffee

Principle

This can be simply understood as iced pour-over, though with some differences in details. By slightly increasing the water temperature, using a slightly finer grind than regular pour-over, and increasing the water-to-coffee ratio, more front and middle-section flavors are extracted in a short time. The coffee liquid drips onto ice cubes for rapid cooling, achieving a chilled effect.

How to Make Iced Pour-Over?

1. Coffee Beans

You can also choose medium-light roasted beans with fresh flavors, such as washed Yirgacheffe, Sidamo Guji, Kenya Asali, "Butterfly" coffee beans, or West Java—beans with fruity, acidic aromas. Use 18g of coffee grounds and 100g of ice cubes. Rinse and dry the filter and paper beforehand. Iced pour-over doesn't require preheating the cup or server.

2. Temperature and Grind Size

Water temperature at 91-92°C, about 1-2 degrees higher than regular pour-over; small Fuji grinder at setting 3, slightly finer than regular pour-over grind.

Why use higher temperature and finer grind? Because iced pour-over uses a 1:8 coffee-to-water ratio with an extraction time of about 2 minutes, it extracts more floral and fruity acidic compounds from the front and middle sections, with fewer compounds extracted from the later stages. The extraction rate is lower than normal pour-over, so we use water temperature and grind size to compensate for the extraction rate accordingly.

3. Brewing Technique

Use 30g of water for a 40-second bloom, stirring with a small spoon during blooming to ensure the coffee grounds absorb water thoroughly and degas properly. Use a small vertical stream of water from an appropriate height, slowly circling until reaching 160g, then stop pouring.

Due to the finer grind, filtration will be slightly slower. With a 1:8 water-to-coffee ratio, there won't be over-extraction with off-flavors. First, the small molecular compounds like fruit acids and floral aromas from the front section are extracted, followed by bitterness from the later sections. With this extraction method focusing on front and middle sections, the overall flavor remains relatively fresh and bright. Once all coffee liquid has finished dripping, shake gently to mix. At this point, the ice cubes will have mostly dissolved, with remaining ice continuing to chill and gradually dilute the coffee. As the ice completely melts, the flavor will become weaker, so it's recommended to drink before the ice fully dissolves.

Cold Brew Coffee

Cold brew coffee is steeped overnight for up to 12 hours. Compared to regular hot-brewed coffee, it achieves a perfect combination of richer coffee flavor with significantly less bitterness. This coffee, which sounds quite labor-intensive, is actually much simpler to make than imagined. Simply put, you soak coffee grounds in cold water, steep it overnight in the refrigerator, and then filter it.

The principle is actually quite similar to cold drip coffee. Cold brew uses cold water for long-term extraction, dissolving only small molecular compounds like fruit acids and floral aromas. The result is more aromatic, smooth, and presents the coffee's best original flavor.

How to Make Cold Brew Coffee at Home?

1. Grind Size and Water-to-Coffee Ratio

Regular pour-over grind size will work. Because of the long, low-temperature extraction, the requirements for grind size aren't too strict. If using a coarser grind, you can appropriately extend the time. Use 20g of coffee grounds, typically with a 1:10 water-to-coffee ratio.

2. Water Temperature

Use 0-5°C ice water. If you use water at 10-20°C for extraction, physically speaking, higher water temperature means more active molecular movement, which will extract more compounds and result in a different taste. Pour the coffee grounds in, stir well, and place in the refrigerator.

3. Extraction Time

Steep for 12 hours. If the time is too short, incomplete extraction will result in insufficient flavor; longer steeping will develop fermented notes, though you'll need to wait patiently. After extraction, it can be kept fresh in the refrigerator for 5 days. The fermentation process will create different layers of mellow flavor changes in the coffee. Generally, it's recommended to refrigerate the completed cold brew for 1-3 days before drinking for better flavor.

4. Filtering

You can use drip filter bags hanging over the cup rim for filtering. Alternatively, use V60 filter paper. Pour the completed cold brew into the filter bag to separate grounds. Wait until it's completely filtered, and it's ready to drink!

Cold brew coffee tastes brighter, fresher, and cleaner, while cold drip coffee has more noticeable fermented notes. Why is this? With cold brew coffee, ice water extracts compounds while fermenting for 12 hours, but the fermentation time is short. With cold drip coffee, aerobic fermentation begins during the 6-8 hour extraction process, followed by 24-36 hours of refrigeration, allowing the coffee liquid to fully mellow, developing a wine-like aroma.

Did you grasp the methods for making cold drip coffee, Japanese iced coffee, and cold brew coffee? Each type of iced coffee has its unique characteristics. You can DIY at home—why not give it a try?

"Butterfly" Coffee Bean Brand Recommendation

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted "Butterfly" coffee beans offer full assurance in both brand and quality. More importantly, they're extremely cost-effective—a half-pound (227g) package costs only about 85 RMB. Calculating at 15g per cup, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, with each cup costing less than 5 RMB. Compared to café prices that often run dozens of RMB per cup, this is truly a conscientious recommendation.

More Promotional Activities

Please stay tuned for our updates.

Our Taobao store: Coffee Workshop FrontStreet Coffee

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473