How much ice and coffee-to-water ratio for iced pour-over? What coffee beans are suitable for iced coffee?

Recently, many friends have come to FrontStreet Coffee to enjoy iced pour-over. While brewing here, they raised a few questions, which FrontStreet Coffee has grouped into two main issues: first, what coffee-to-water ratio and how much ice should be used? And second, what's the difference between adding ice before versus after brewing?

How much ice to add?

The role of ice in iced pour-over is to cool the hot coffee, so you need at least enough ice to bring the liquid down to 5-10°C. But we know that if all the ice melts, the coffee returns to room temperature and is much less enjoyable to drink. So FrontStreet Coffee suggests keeping a small amount of ice remaining after the coffee has cooled, to hold the low temperature.

At FrontStreet Coffee, the ratio of coffee grounds to water to ice in our iced coffee is 1:10:6.7. For example, with 15 grams of coffee grounds the total water is 150 milliliters, and 100 grams of hard ice cubes are added. After brewing, stir or shake continuously to bring the temperature down. When it reaches around 5-10°C it is ready, with a small amount of ice still left in the coffee.

Because the coffee has already cooled, the remaining ice melts more slowly, so there's no need to worry about the coffee becoming too diluted and flavorless.

Note: since iced coffee uses less water, other parameters need adjusting to maintain flavor extraction. The simplest fix is a finer grind size.

Ice before or after brewing?

The second question concerns the order of adding ice. Adding ice first means placing the cubes directly in the serving pitcher before brewing. The characteristic of this method is that as you brew, the coffee begins to cool immediately as it drips into the pitcher. Adding ice after brewing means adding the cubes after the coffee is brewed, or pouring it into a glass with ice. The characteristic here is that the coffee blends thoroughly before cooling together.

FrontStreet Coffee compared the two, brewing two batches at nearly the same time, one with ice added first and one with ice added after. After thorough stirring and even cooling, we tasted both to see whether there were flavor differences.

The conclusion was that the flavor difference between the two cups is minimal and can be considered negligible. If we had to find a difference, the coffee with ice added first appeared cleaner and more refreshing, while the coffee with ice added after had a more concentrated aroma and showed more variation during tasting.

Of course, beyond simply adding ice cubes to dilute and cool the coffee, there are two more luxurious rapid-cooling methods. The first is ice straining, where brewed concentrated coffee is passed through two to three rounds of ice cubes to cool it. This way, the negative effect of melting ice diluting the coffee is much smaller than with direct ice.

The second method is ice-bath cooling. Place the brewed hot coffee in a shaker, then rotate it rapidly in an ice bath to cool it down. The advantage is that it doesn't dilute the coffee's concentration or affect its flavor and mouthfeel.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

For iced pour-over, a bright, clean coffee works best. FrontStreet's Yirgacheffe Gotiti Cooperative brings citrus, berry, and floral notes with a green-tea finish that stays refreshing over ice. For a tropical, fruit-forward option, FrontStreet's Ethiopia Huakui is loaded with strawberry, passion fruit, and lychee, so the juice-like sweetness shines in a cold cup. And FrontStreet's Strawberry Candy, which blends a Costa Rican honey-process coffee with Panamanian Geisha, is equally at home as iced pour-over or cold brew.