Coffee culture

What Coffee Beans Make the Best Cold Drip Coffee? 5 Key Details for Making Cold Drip Coffee

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee
Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Many friends have the habit of making cold coffee during summer. Cold drip coffee is particularly beloved by many. The method for making cold drip coffee is very simple (though time-consuming), but sometimes details are overlooked due to its simplicity. Below, FrontStreet Coffee shares some important details about cold drip coffee!
Ice Pour Over Coffee

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Many friends have the habit of making iced coffee in summer. Among them, cold drip coffee is loved by many people. The production method of cold drip coffee is very simple (though it takes quite a bit of time), but sometimes it's precisely because of its simplicity that details are overlooked. Below, FrontStreet Coffee shares some details about cold drip coffee that we consider quite important!

1. Use coffee beans with a longer post-roast time

In pour-over coffee, we place great importance on the freshness of coffee beans, as this affects the amount of aroma and flavor in the coffee. However, making cold drip coffee places more emphasis on the stability of the beans. Coffee beans closer to the roast date contain more gases, which can cause expansion and release during the drip process, easily leading to channeling effects in the powder bed.

Cold Drip Coffee Setup

Generally, coffee beans for making cold drip coffee are best used about 20 days after roasting. Some friends might ask, won't using coffee beans for this long make the cold drip coffee flavor worse? Cold drip coffee is different from pour-over coffee. Cold drip coffee uses long extraction time; even if there are relatively strong volatile flavor compounds, they will dissipate during the lengthy production process. Cold drip coffee contains more soluble substances. These substances do not evaporate over time. Therefore, many friends also use older pour-over coffee beans for making cold drip coffee.

However, FrontStreet Coffee must add that if you find the coffee beans have gone bad, showing wood chip flavors, burnt bitterness, or stale taste, that indicates the coffee is no longer suitable for consumption.

Dark Roasted Coffee

2. Place a circular filter paper in the powder bed

The purpose of this filter paper is not filtration, but buffering and diffusion. Have you heard of "water dripping through stone"? If water drops continuously on the same spot, it can easily create a hole. The function of this filter paper is to cushion the force of the water drops, while the filter paper also absorbs water and spreads it to the surroundings, preventing center flooding and dry edges.

Filter Paper in Powder Bed

3. Pre-wet the coffee powder

Before the actual dripping process, you can first pre-wet the entire coffee powder layer. This has many benefits: first, it saves time; second, it reduces the risk of channeling; third, it ensures even extraction. Sometimes after production is complete, you might find that some parts of the powder bed are still dry - pre-wetting can prevent this situation from occurring.

Pre-wetting Coffee Powder

4. Use clean ice cubes and water

Water and ice with high calcium content can easily produce white impurities, and these impurities can clog the drip valve, causing the dripping speed to slow down or even stop. This is why sometimes you prepare cold drip before leaving home, only to return and find that very little coffee has actually dripped out. If you have time, check the dripping speed of the cold drip every hour and adjust it promptly.

Clean Ice and Water

5. Store the finished coffee in the refrigerator for 12 hours

After the dripping process is complete, it's best to store the cold drip coffee in the refrigerator for 12 hours before drinking. The 12-hour low-temperature fermentation in the refrigerator will give the cold drip coffee a fragrant fermented aroma, while the original flavors also become richer.

Refrigerated Cold Drip Coffee

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473

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