Does Cold Brew Need to Be Sealed for Long-Term Storage? Do Both Iced Coffee and Cold Brew Require Coffee Ice Cubes?

Cold brew is the drink of the summer. At its core it is simply coffee steeped slowly in the refrigerator overnight, a filter bag works well for this. Both pour-over and drip coffee can be prepared this way, and while the process takes quite a long time (12 to 18 hours), the taste is superb. If you are willing to plan your iced coffee a day ahead, it is a genuinely attractive option.

Some people argue iced coffee is even better than hot coffee because it is something like a dessert in a glass: ice cubes, coffee, flavored syrup, and a dairy (or non-dairy) milk of your choice. It is a wonderful combination worth trying, and it is remarkably easy to make at home!

As with any cup of coffee, high-quality beans are the foundation of a good iced coffee recipe. Many people lean toward dark roasts here, for example, dark roasted FrontStreet Coffee Brazil or FrontStreet Coffee Mandheling. You can buy fresh whole beans and grind them at home, or pick up pre-ground coffee at your local store. Either way works; it comes down to personal preference!

What Type of Ice is Best for Iced Coffee?

It might not seem important, but choosing the right ice is actually key to a great iced coffee! Here are the main options:

Crushed Ice: This is the type used in the recipe above. Since you are making coffee, grab a large bag of crushed ice and use it generously.

Medium-sized Ice Cubes: This is usually what you already have in your freezer!

Large Ice Cubes: If you are drinking your iced coffee outdoors, go with large cubes, they melt much more slowly.

Can You Store Leftover Iced Coffee in the Refrigerator?

Yes and no. Honestly, it depends on how much coffee you have left. If you are used to fresh coffee, refrigerating leftovers may be a letdown. That said, cold coffee that is well covered can usually keep in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days, and it holds its flavor longer when it was cold brewed rather than chilled after brewing.

Generally speaking, for both flavor and food safety, FrontStreet Coffee recommends finishing any coffee extracted in a low-temperature environment, iced drip or cold brew alike, within 5 days, counting from the day it was prepared. Sealing the container matters too: an airtight bottle keeps out the fridge odors that cold brew readily absorbs.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

For a cold brew with real character, FrontStreet recommends its PWN Golden Mandheling, the flagship lot from Indonesia's PWN company. Sumatra's humid climate, year-round humidity of 70% to 90%, annual rainfall topping 2000mm, makes the African-style 2 to 3 week sun-dried process impossible, which is why the island developed its signature wet-hulled (giling basah) method: the parchment is stripped off the beans while they are still half-dry, exposing the green beans to the air to speed up drying. This is precisely what gives Mandheling its wild, earthy, herbal character and heavy body.

PWN sources only high-grade Mandheling green beans and applies rigorous sorting, beans of 18 mesh and larger, fewer than 3 defective beans per 300-gram sample, meeting the top G1 grade, plus three rounds of hand sorting and one machine pass. The result is an exceptionally clean, sweet cup with low defect rates. Authentic Golden Mandheling is exported mainly to Japan and the United States, so genuine PWN-stamped lots are limited.

FrontStreet roasts its PWN Golden Mandheling medium-dark to highlight black chocolate and caramel while keeping Mandheling's untamed herbal notes. For brewing, FrontStreet suggests water at 87 to 88°C, 15 grams of coffee at a 1:15 ratio, a coarse-sugar grind, and a three-pour technique: a 30ml bloom to saturate the grounds and let them degas, a second pour of 100ml to lift the bed and draw out the golden crema, and a final gentle center pour of 95ml to boost sweetness. The finished cup shows thick body, caramel sweetness, and chocolate and nut flavors, qualities that carry beautifully into cold brew and espresso alike. If you want the same profile in an espresso blend, the FrontStreet classic blend layers medium-dark Mandheling over creamy Brazilian nuts, adding butter, roasted chestnut, caramel, sandalwood, and spice notes plus a touch of Robusta for richer crema.