How is Cold Brew Coffee? Can Cold Brew Coffee Be Stored for a Long Time? What Type of Ice is Best for Iced Coffee

What is Cold Brew Coffee?

Cold brew is a summer favorite. It is essentially made by steeping coffee through a filter in the refrigerator overnight. Both pour-over coffee and drip coffee can be prepared this way, and although it takes quite a long time (12-18 hours), the taste is excellent. So depending on how far ahead you are willing to start, this can be an appealing option.

Some people prefer iced coffee to hot because it is a little like a dessert in a glass: add ice cubes, coffee, flavored syrups, and the dairy or non-dairy milk of your choice. It is an amazing combination worth trying, and it is very easy to make at home.

Choosing the Right Coffee Beans

As with any cup of coffee, you should choose high-quality beans to build a suitable iced coffee recipe. Deep-roasted coffee works best here. FrontStreet Coffee's deeply roasted Brazilian coffee and Mandheling coffee, for example, can be bought as whole beans and ground at home with a grinder, or you can buy pre-ground coffee at a local grocery store. It comes down to personal preference.

What Type of Ice is Best for Iced Coffee?

This might not seem important, but choosing the right ice is key for iced coffee. Here are the options:

Crushed ice: this is what you see in the recipe here. Because you need to brew the coffee, grab a large bag of crushed ice and use it generously. This is the usual choice for iced coffee.

Medium-sized ice cubes: usually what people already have on hand in the refrigerator.

Large ice cubes: if you are enjoying iced coffee outdoors, use large cubes, since they melt more slowly.

Storing Leftover Iced Coffee

Can you store leftover iced coffee in the refrigerator? Yes and no. Honestly, it depends on how much coffee you have. If you are used to drinking coffee fresh, storing leftovers in the refrigerator might not be a good idea. If it is covered well, cold coffee can usually be kept in the refrigerator for 2-3 days, and the flavor lasts longer because it was cold brewed.

Even so, a rich coffee flavor begins to fade and deteriorate before the shelf life of the frozen drip coffee is up. FrontStreet Coffee does not recommend keeping it for more than 24 hours.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Because cold brew and iced coffee rely on a deep roast for their richness, Mandheling is an excellent fit. FrontStreet's Lindong Mandheling daily bean comes from the Lake Toba area of the Lindong region on Sumatra and is processed with the wet-hulled method, in which the parchment is stripped away while the bean is still half-dry and half-wet, leaving the green bean exposed to the air and giving Mandheling its characteristic herbal and spice notes. Medium-dark roasted, it gives a low-acid, full-bodied cup with caramel, dark chocolate, and toasted bread aromas and a long, sweet finish, exactly the kind of mellow, concentrated character that holds up over ice.

For a richer version, FrontStreet's PWN Golden Mandheling comes from PWN, which deals only in specialty-grade Mandheling and whose flagship is screened to a strict standard, from bean density and screen size to shape and color, with one machine selection and several rounds of hand selection to remove defects. The result is a clean and sweet cup with sandalwood, herbs, spice, roasted hazelnut, caramel, and dark chocolate, well suited to making a cold brew or an iced pour-over with body to spare.

If you want that deep-roast character in an espresso-based iced drink, FrontStreet's Classic Blend builds on Brazilian coffee's creamy, nutty base with medium-dark roasted Mandheling, making butter, roasted chestnut, and caramel the most prominent notes while the Mandheling lifts the overall body and lends sandalwood, herbal, and spice aromas, with a small proportion of Robusta rounding out the crema, so iced lattes and layered Dirty drinks come together with ease.