What's the Difference Between Cold Drip Coffee and Cold Brew Coffee Cold Drip Coffee Bean Recommendations Water-to-Coffee Ratio Grind Level

Understanding Cold Brew Coffee: Three Methods Explained

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In the scorching summer, listen! The cicadas are chirping on one tree! And the cicadas on another tree are also chirping! In Guangzhou, this damn summer is either steaming, roasting, or boiling like hot water. If you have a glass of ice-cold beverage in your hand, it can instantly lift you from hell to heaven. Recently, many friends visiting FrontStreet Coffee's store have been asking: "Do you have cold brew coffee?"

But do you know that cold brew coffee actually comes in three types: ice drip coffee, iced coffee, and cold brew coffee? What are the differences between them? Let FrontStreet Coffee explain the distinctions to you.

Ice Drip Coffee

What is ice drip coffee? Ice drip coffee is coffee liquid extracted by dripping ice water through coffee grounds. It is said that ice drip coffee was invented by the Dutch. However, ice drip coffee has been in Japan for several hundred years. Ice drip coffee is also known as "Kyoto Coffee" or "Japanese-style slow-drip." In South Korea, almost every coffee shop sells ice drip coffee, and many famous ice drip equipment brands come from these two countries.

The advantage of ice drip coffee is that it uses cold water for dripping, ensuring the coffee is 100% moistened, resulting in a smooth, non-acidic taste. The disadvantage is that it's difficult to control the dripping speed, with 7 drops every 10 seconds being considered optimal.

FrontStreet Coffee's Ice Drip Coffee Making Method

Coffee amount: 60 grams

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:10

Grind size: 85% pass-through rate with China standard #20 sieve

Time: 6-8 hours

1. Place a circular filter paper at the bottom of the filter cup, wet it with water to adhere to the cup walls, and add 60g of ground coffee (FrontStreet Coffee uses China standard #20 sieve with 58% pass-through rate, slightly coarser than pour-over grind). Level the coffee surface, and you can also lightly press the coffee layer using the weight of the tamper itself to make the surface even.
2. Place a filter paper on top of the coffee grounds. The tension of the filter paper helps distribute water evenly across the coffee surface for extraction. Without filter paper, long-term water dripping would create a hole in the coffee bed.
3. Use ice water for "pre-infusion," evenly moistening the entire coffee layer. This step is similar to the bloom in pour-over coffee, improving extraction efficiency and consistency of the final product.
4. Place a 1:1 mixture of ice and water in the water container and adjust the regulating valve to approximately 7 drops every 10 seconds.
5. After brewing, pour the coffee liquid into a sealed glass bottle and place it in the refrigerator to oxidize overnight, allowing the coffee flavors to meld together, resulting in better taste and easier drinking.

So, what coffee beans are good for making ice drip coffee? FrontStreet Coffee would like to share some coffee beans we commonly use for ice drip.

Dark Berry Type:

FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rica Canet Estate Musician Series Mozart - 60 grams

This Mozart coffee bean uses anaerobic honey processing, which naturally has a very special raisin aroma. When used for ice drip coffee, it expresses very distinct blueberry, black grape, and fermented wine flavors, with a refreshing taste and lingering aroma.

Refreshing and Clean Type:

FrontStreet Coffee's Kenya Assalia - 60 grams

The acidity of FrontStreet Coffee's Kenya Assalia is very lively, reminiscent of fruit juice. When used for ice drip coffee, it carries cherry tomato and grapefruit aromas, with a refreshing, light acidity perfect for summer consumption.

Sweet and Delicious Type:

FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesia PWN Gold Mandheling - 60 grams

Few shops use dark roasted coffee beans for ice drip coffee. Those who haven't tried it might think that ice drip made from dark roasted beans would be very bitter, but that's not the case. Using FrontStreet Coffee's ice drip method and placing it in the refrigerator for 24 hours before adding ice cubes, FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Gold Mandheling ice drip coffee presents sweetness with a hint of chocolate bitterness, overall very clear, with a rich fermented aroma that feels comforting.

Iced Coffee

Iced coffee is what we commonly call iced Americano. The method for making iced Americano is very simple and quick: espresso with ice water. The principle of making espresso involves using approximately 9-10 atmospheres of pressure to force water near boiling temperature through finely ground coffee.

The advantage is that iced Americano is truly convenient and quick. However, there are also several disadvantages: first, you need an espresso machine capable of extracting espresso; second, the flavor can easily become diluted as ice cubes melt.

FrontStreet Coffee's Iced Americano Making Method

FrontStreet Coffee's store uses its own blended FrontStreet Coffee Sunflower Warm Sunshine Espresso Blend, which contains 70% FrontStreet Coffee's Honduras Sherry and 30% FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry.

20 grams of coffee grounds, extracted in 27 seconds to yield 40 grams of coffee liquid.

After the espresso extraction is complete, pour ice cubes and water into the cup, and finally pour the extracted espresso into the ice water to complete.

Cold Brew Coffee

Cold brew coffee is exactly what it sounds like - Cold Brew Coffee. The concept is similar to cold brew tea, where a large amount of coffee grounds is directly steeped in water and placed in the refrigerator for long-term low-temperature storage to extract the coffee. The brewing time typically requires 8-12 hours, hence it's also called "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 is, and you can add ice cubes directly without worrying about flavor dilution.

The advantage of cold brew coffee is that due to low-temperature extraction, impurities and bitterness from the coffee beans are not easily extracted. The disadvantage is also obvious - the long brewing time.

FrontStreet Coffee's Cold Brew Coffee Making Method

Using 50 grams of coffee grounds as a standard, in terms of grind size selection, because the water temperature in contact with the coffee grounds is lower than regular pour-over coffee, choose a setting slightly finer than pour-over, which is 65% pass-through rate with #20 standard sieve. Place the coffee grounds in a glass jar, then add 400ml of room temperature water and 100 grams of hard ice cubes (totaling 500 grams of ice-water mixture), with a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:10. Stir the coffee grounds and water evenly with a stir bar, then seal and place in the refrigerator.

After 12-24 hours in the refrigerator, use filter paper to filter out the coffee grounds, obtaining clean coffee liquid. Then use a clean, sealed bottle to hold the coffee liquid and refrigerate for another 4 hours before drinking.

Although low-temperature extraction doesn't easily extract impurities and bitterness from coffee beans, the extraction time is still quite long, and it's still an immersion method. To avoid the coffee liquid becoming too concentrated after extraction, it's recommended to adjust the grind size to be coarser.

So what coffee beans are suitable for making cold brew coffee? Of course, there are! FrontStreet Coffee recommends FrontStreet Coffee's Honduras Sherry, whose cold brew coffee has rich wine aroma, abundant vanilla creaminess, and chocolate cocoa notes.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473