How Long Does Cold Brew Coffee Last? | What Are the Unique Characteristics of Cold Brew Coffee's Flavor?

Cold drip coffee is a coffee essence extracted by slowly dripping pure ice that melts into small water drops at a constant speed through freshly ground coffee powder, then naturally fermented through eight hours of refrigeration. Cold drip coffee has a mellow taste, pleasant acidity and sweetness, and is refreshingly cool, making it one of FrontStreet Coffee's must-have popular drinks during hot summer days.

How to Make Cold Drip Coffee at Home?

Many coffee enthusiasts who have fallen in love with the taste of cold drip coffee have purchased cold drip equipment to try making it at home, but have encountered various questions. FrontStreet Coffee will first use our café's standard as a benchmark to demonstrate how to make cold drip coffee and answer these questions.

Although there are various coffee devices on the market today, cold drip pots still consist of three main parts: an upper chamber for ice water (with a valve to adjust drip speed), a filter cup for coffee grounds, and a lower chamber to collect the filtered coffee liquid. What you see at FrontStreet Coffee is the Tiamo HG2713, which includes an additional circular glass tube for guided flow. You can choose according to your needs and budget.

FrontStreet Coffee's grind size for cold drip coffee achieves 80-85% pass-through rate with a China #20 standard sieve, using an EK43s setting of 10. We all know that if coffee grounds are too coarse, the coffee will taste weak; if too fine, they can easily cause blockages that prevent proper drainage and make the coffee bitter. Therefore, choosing the right grind size is crucial.

This time, FrontStreet Coffee is using refreshing Kenya Assalia coffee beans for brewing. Due to lower extraction rates at low temperatures, FrontStreet Coffee's barista recommends using a slightly finer grind than pour-over, here using an 85% pass-through rate with the standard sieve.

Similar to pour-over flow rate, but cold drip flow rate is calculated in drops per second. The slower the flow rate, the longer the total time required, and it's more likely to result in over-extraction. FrontStreet Coffee typically uses 7 drops every 10 seconds for extraction, but everyone can adjust the flow rate according to their preference. The coffee-to-water ratio is 1:10. Since FrontStreet Coffee serves cold drip coffee diluted with ice cubes, we use a higher concentration. For home brewing, you can use a ratio of 1:10 to 1:12 for extraction.

FrontStreet Coffee makes cold drip using 60g of coffee beans ground into powder. Place a circular filter paper in the coffee grounds cup, pour in the coffee grounds, and finally place another filter paper on top, then moisten the coffee grounds with water. This can save dripping time while avoiding uneven extraction. Fill the upper chamber with an ice-water mixture (1:1 ratio of ice to water) to extract a total of 600g of coffee liquid. Finally, pour the filtered coffee liquid into a sealed container and refrigerate for 12 hours before drinking. FrontStreet Coffee typically drips during daytime business hours, places it in the refrigerator in the evening, and it's ready to enjoy with ice cubes the next day.

How Long Can Dripped Cold Brew Coffee Be Stored?

Freshly dripped coffee liquid has a relatively weak aroma and thin taste, so it needs to be sealed and fermented in a low-temperature environment. This allows the coffee's flavor compounds to become cleaner, mellower, and fuller, enhancing the coffee's aroma and sweet aftertaste, as well as its wine-like notes. As storage time increases, the degree of fermentation also increases. Cold drip stored for more than five days actually has negative effects on taste, so it's not necessarily better the longer it's stored. FrontStreet Coffee recommends consuming within 5 days when stored in the refrigerator.

Additionally, when we open the bottle cap, external bacteria can easily invade and cause the coffee to spoil. For both flavor and health reasons, it should not be consumed. Cold drip coffee produced at FrontStreet Coffee has only a three-day optimal drinking period.

Which Coffee Beans Are Suitable for Cold Drip?

Regarding coffee bean selection, FrontStreet Coffee believes you can choose coffee beans with different processing methods or roast levels according to your preferences, provided they are within their optimal drinking period (2 months). The extraction characteristics of cold drip coffee can highlight wine-like notes, fruit fermentation sensations, and fruit aromas in coffee. If you're unsure which coffee beans to choose, you can refer to the several varieties listed by FrontStreet Coffee.

Refreshing Floral and Fruity Type — FrontStreet Coffee's Flower Sequence TOH Washed Champion Coffee Beans

These coffee beans come from the Guji Uraga region of Ethiopia. The region's geology consists of nutrient-rich black soil, producing coffee beans with rich fruity aromas. The washed processing method highlights the coffee's clear floral and citrus flavors. Cold drip coffee made by FrontStreet Coffee with these beans is like a glass of iced honey pomelo tea - refreshing and grease-cutting in summer, with an enticing sweetness.

Fermented Wine Aroma Type — FrontStreet Coffee's Honduras Sherry Barrel Coffee Beans

These Honduras Sherry coffee beans undergo whiskey barrel fermentation processing, presenting full vanilla, cream, and whiskey aromas, making them one of the most popular coffee beans on FrontStreet Coffee's menu. When made into cold drip coffee, they present rich fermented wine notes along with chocolate and cream flavors. There's also another coffee bean from the Honduras region called Lychee Orchid, processed using brandy barrel fermentation, with distinct fermentation characteristics and lychee aroma, plus honey-like sweetness that leaves a long-lasting aftertaste.

Rich Fruit Tea Type — FrontStreet Coffee's Natural Process Flower Queen Coffee Beans

Natural processed Flower Queen coffee beans use ripe coffee fruits with pulp sugar content as high as 30%. The fructose ferments under sunlight, allowing the inner beans to develop full fruit sweetness. Cold drip made with these coffee beans has active berry and passion fruit acidity, with noticeable juiciness and a black tea-like aftertaste.

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

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