What Coffee Beans Make the Best Cold Brew Coffee | Cold Brew Coffee Recipe Guide

Cold drip coffee is extracted by slowly dripping pure ice water through freshly ground coffee powder at a constant speed to create coffee essence, which is then naturally fermented through eight hours of refrigeration. Cold drip coffee offers a rich and pure taste, pleasant sweet and sour notes, and a refreshing coolness, making it one of FrontStreet Coffee's most popular beverages during every scorching summer.

What is the principle behind cold drip?

Before diving deep into cold drip coffee, FrontStreet Coffee needs to briefly introduce two common methods of low-temperature coffee extraction: Cold brew coffee and Cold drip coffee.

Cold brew coffee, also called cold immersion coffee, as the name suggests, involves steeping coffee powder in cold or room temperature water, then placing it in a low-temperature environment like a refrigerator for the extraction process. This method is relatively convenient, requiring only a sealed container. Cold drip coffee, on the other hand, is a process where ice water is slowly dripped through coffee powder at a constant speed for extraction. After the dripping is complete, the coffee needs to be refrigerated overnight for fermentation before consumption. Since the dripping process typically takes 6-8 hours, if you want to enjoy specific coffee beans, you need to make an appointment with FrontStreet Coffee in advance, as FrontStreet Coffee needs to start preparing ahead of time.

After coffee beans are roasted, they produce some high-molecular compounds that mostly present bitter flavors. When we usually brew coffee with hot water, it increases the solubility of various high-molecular compounds, resulting in stronger bitterness. During the low-temperature coffee extraction process, the water temperature used is lower, and when it comes into contact with coffee powder, the solubility of bitter substances is reduced, while other flavor compounds are slowly released, resulting in a sweet taste with weak bitterness.

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 at home, but have encountered various questions. FrontStreet Coffee will first demonstrate how to make cold drip coffee using our cafe's standard as a reference and answer these questions.

While the coffee equipment market today offers a wide variety of options, cold drip towers still consist of three main parts: an upper chamber for ice water (connected to a valve that adjusts water drip speed), a filter cup for coffee powder, and a lower chamber to collect the filtered coffee liquid. What you'll see at FrontStreet Coffee is the Tiamo HG2713, which has an additional circular flow guide glass tube. You can choose based on your needs and budget.

FrontStreet Coffee's cold drip coffee grind size has an 80-85% pass rate through a Chinese No. 20 standard sieve, with the store's EK43s setting at 10. We all know that if coffee is ground too coarse, the coffee flavor will be weak; if ground too fine, it can easily cause blockage and prevent normal drainage, which in turn makes the coffee bitter. Therefore, choosing the right grind size is crucial.

This time, FrontStreet Coffee is using the refreshing Kenya Assalia coffee beans. Since the extraction rate is lower at low temperatures, FrontStreet Coffee's barista recommends using a slightly finer grind than pour-over coffee, here using a standard sieve pass rate of 85%.

Similar to pour-over flow rates, but cold drip flow rate is calculated by 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. Everyone can adjust the flow rate according to their preference. The coffee-to-water ratio is 1:10. Since FrontStreet Coffee's cold drip coffee is served diluted with ice cubes, we use a higher concentration. If making it at home, you can use a ratio of 1:10 to 1:12 for extraction.

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

Recommended coffee beans for cold drip

Regarding the choice of coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee believes you can select different processing methods or roast levels according to your preferences, provided the beans are within their optimal flavor period (2 months). The extraction characteristics of cold drip coffee can highlight the wine aroma, fruit fermentation notes, 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 Aroma - FrontStreet Coffee's Elida Estate Catuai Coffee Beans」

This coffee bean originates from the renowned Elida Estate in Boquete, Panama. The region's geology consists of nutrient-rich black soil, producing coffee beans with rich fruit aromas. The washed processing highlights the coffee's clear pink floral notes, peach-like juiciness, and citrus acidity. Cold drip coffee made by FrontStreet Coffee with these beans presents rich layers of peach, sweet orange, and grape.

「Fermented Wine Aroma - FrontStreet Coffee's Honduras Sherry Barrel Coffee Beans」

This Honduras Sherry coffee bean undergoes whiskey barrel fermentation processing, presenting rich vanilla, cream, and whiskey aromas, making it a very popular coffee bean on FrontStreet Coffee's menu. When made into Sherry cold drip coffee, it displays rich fermented wine aroma along with honey-like sweetness.

「Rich Fruit Tea Type - FrontStreet Coffee's Natural Process Hawaii Coffee Beans」

The natural process Hawaii coffee beans use mature coffee fruits with pulp sugar content as high as 30%. Fructose ferments under sunlight, allowing the inner beans to develop rich fruit sweetness. Cold drip made with these coffee beans has vibrant berry and passion fruit sweet and sour notes, with obvious juiciness and a black tea-like fragrance in the aftertaste.

How long can prepared cold drip coffee be stored in the refrigerator?

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

Additionally, when we open the bottle cap, external bacteria can easily invade and cause the coffee to spoil. For the sake of ensuring coffee flavor and health considerations, it should not be consumed. Cold drip coffee prepared at FrontStreet Coffee has only a three-day flavor window.

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 (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