Is Dark Roast Coffee Good for Iced Pour-Over? How Much Ice Should You Use for Iced Pour-Over Coffee?

The Challenge of Dark Roast Cold Brew

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Most people still prefer light roast coffee beans for cold pour over, while relatively few enjoy dark roast cold pour over coffee. In conversations with several coffee enthusiasts, FrontStreet Coffee got some answers: "Dark roast cold pour over coffee tastes like drinking iced Americano, both bitter and watery."

Indeed, in daily brewing, hand-poured iced coffee made with light roast coffee is relatively easy to brew into a refreshing, pleasantly acidic, less bitter flavor profile that feels comfortable. However, using dark roast coffee beans for cold pour over makes it slightly more difficult to achieve a pleasant, comfortable taste. If you're not careful, you'll end up with obvious bitterness and a thin, watery texture.

Because of this, in the cold pour over field, the sweet and sour characteristics of light roast are clearly more popular than the bitter notes of dark roast. However, with the proper brewing approach, dark roast coffee can still deliver a refreshing and comfortable performance when making cold pour over.

Understanding Cold Brew Method

Cold pour over is a brewing method derived from hot pour over. Compared to hot pour over, it only extracts the early to middle stages of coffee, then uses ice cubes to rapidly cool the hot coffee into iced coffee. To extract more substances with limited water, the usual practice is to use a slightly finer grind for cold pour over compared to hot pour over.

With light roast coffee, because the sweet and sour substances are concentrated in the early to middle stages, even without the later stages, it can still express a sweet, sour, and refreshing taste. Dark roast coffee's main characteristics are its rich body and caramel aroma. When making cold pour over, the aroma aspect won't be as prominent, and the body won't have an advantage. If too much ice is added, the coffee becomes bitter and watery, making it very unpleasant to drink.

Brewing Technique for Dark Roast Cold Pour Over

Therefore, to achieve a refreshing yet substantial body with dark roast coffee, attention must be paid to the pouring method and the ratio of ice.

FrontStreet Coffee uses Golden Mandheling coffee beans for demonstration. This Yellow Diamond bean is the darkest roasted coffee bean on FrontStreet Coffee's menu, with flavor characteristics of nuts, caramel, pine, rich body, and high clarity.

The coffee amount is still 15g as standard, with a medium grind (75% pass-through rate on a #20 sieve), slightly finer than hot pour over. Water temperature is 88°C (medium-high for dark roast beans).

The water amount is 150ml (coffee-to-water ratio 1:10), and FrontStreet Coffee suggests using 75g of ice (5 times the coffee amount). You can also follow FrontStreet Coffee's approach of using a 120g large ice block for cooling and then removing the ice to avoid residual ice melting and affecting the taste.

FrontStreet Coffee uses a "30-30-30-30-30" pouring method with 5 segments of 30ml each. After the first 30ml pour, bloom for 30 seconds. For the second segment, use a small water flow in a small circle around the center to pour 30ml. Wait until the coffee bed shows a central depression, then continue with the same method for the third 30ml segment, and so on, until all five segments are poured.

After the coffee liquid finishes dripping, remove the filter cup, shake the sharing pot to let the ice fully and evenly blend with the coffee liquid. At the same time, feel the temperature of the sharing pot with your hand. When the temperature drops, separate the ice and pour the coffee liquid into the cup.

This dark roast cold pour over results in a coffee flavor that is primarily bitter, but the bitterness quickly dissipates upon entry. The body is relatively clean and refreshing, without any watery sensation.

Important Notice :

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