What Beans Are Used for Cold Drip Coffee, How to Drink Cold Drip Coffee for Best Taste, What Is Cold Drip Coffee

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The reason why cold drip coffee costs more than regular iced coffee is that making cold drip coffee requires more skill and takes more time to extract coffee oils, components, and caffeine.

What is Cold Drip Coffee?

Cold drip coffee, simply put, is a method of extracting coffee using "low temperature" and "slow dripping."

Typically, coffee brewing uses hot water to quickly extract and dissolve aromatic molecules from coffee cells, while cold drip coffee replaces temperature with time. It uses ice water below 5°C, dripped onto coffee grounds, slowly dissolving the coffee's flavor, and then dripping out the final extraction liquid bit by bit.

Making a cup of coffee can be very quick—for example, Espresso takes only 25 seconds, siphon brewing requires 1 minute of stirring, and pour-over coffee needs 3 minutes. However, cold drip coffee often requires several hours of waiting, typically 8 to 12 hours, adjusted according to personal taste and coffee bean type.

So, how do you make cold drip coffee?

POINT 1: Coffee Bean Selection

Cold drip coffee is a concentrated extraction method suitable for medium or medium-dark roasted coffee beans. If you use dark roast or French roast coffee beans, the resulting cold drip coffee will be too strong and bitter.

POINT 2: Coffee Grind Size

The ideal coffee grind size for cold drip is equivalent to pour-over single-origin coffee. Coffee grounds ground at settings 3-5 on a grinder can be used for cold drip, with a coarseness similar to Taiwan Sugar No. 2 sugar. If the grind is too fine, it will cause the cold drip water to pass through the grounds more slowly and prolong the extraction time, resulting in overly strong coffee. If it's too coarse, the water flow will be too fast, resulting in overly weak coffee.

POINT 3: The Golden Ratio of Coffee Grounds to Ice Water

The ratio of coffee grounds to ice water can be adjusted according to personal taste, approximately 1:10-1:12. You can also add a small amount (about 30g) of ice cubes to the ice water to maintain the temperature.

If using fresh coffee grounds that absorb water easily (ground from beans roasted within 7 days), it's recommended to reduce the coffee grounds by 5-10g, letting the grounds fill about 8/10 of the container, to prevent the coffee from expanding and overflowing the grounds chamber after absorbing water.

POINT 4: Tips for Even Extraction!

Before starting the cold drip process, you can use a small amount of room temperature water (for example, 80ml of water for 40g of coffee grounds) and pour it in 3 circles clockwise or in the same direction from the center of the coffee grounds surface. This will moisten the entire coffee grounds, allowing subsequent ice water drops to spread evenly and achieve more uniform coffee extraction. Additionally, placing filter paper or a filter screen on the surface of the coffee grounds has the same effect.

Precautions When Making Cold Drip Coffee

POINT 1: Optimal Dripping Speed

Place coffee grounds in the middle grounds chamber, ice water in the upper pot, and use a stopwatch to adjust the water flow regulator valve to maintain an ice water dripping speed of 5-7 drops per 10 seconds. If the dripping speed is too fast, it will cause flooding and blockage; if it's too slow, it will prolong the overall cold drip time.

If the cold drip machine doesn't have a water flow regulator valve, simply use all ice water and keep the entire setup in the refrigerator throughout the process. The hole design will automatically maintain 5-7 drops per 10 seconds.

POINT 2: Secret to Better Flavor

Freshly made cold drip coffee has a refreshing taste. If you want a richer and smoother flavor, you can seal the container containing the cold drip coffee with plastic wrap or pour it into a clean glass bottle for cold fermentation. The fermentation time depends on the beans used—light roast beans need 1-2 days of cold fermentation, while dark roast beans require 4-5 days. Depending on the coffee bean variety, it may develop wine-like or berry flavors.

Chilled cold drip coffee will have a richer taste!

Here's FrontStreet Coffee's commonly used cold drip coffee recipe: 30g of red wine-processed [FrontStreet Coffee Hartman] + 30g of natural processed [FrontStreet Coffee Flower Queen], with a ratio of grounds:water:ice of 1:5:5, taking about 8 hours. After dripping, refrigerate overnight. When drinking, add ice cubes according to personal taste. It tastes rich in fermented wine aroma with a slight fruit acidity.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473