Should I Add Ice Before or After Pouring for Iced Pour-Over Coffee? Which Tastes Better?

Summer's Not Over Yet! Perfecting Your Iced Pour-Over Coffee

Autumn has arrived! I've already had my first cup of milk tea! But why is the weather still so hot!

Since summer hasn't ended yet, let's continue exploring the recent hot topic: For iced pour-over coffee, should you add ice before or after brewing? What impact does removing the ice have?

The Cooling Effect of Ice in Iced Pour-Over

Unfortunately, iced pour-over coffee is not brewed using ice water. Because ice water doesn't have enough heat to extract the aromatic compounds from coffee, we can only use hot water for brewing. This is where ice takes on the primary role of cooling the coffee.

However, ice also has a side effect — it dilutes the coffee. Imagine this: if we use the standard hot pour-over ratio of 1:15 for brewing, then add ice to cool it afterward, for 15g of coffee grounds, you would need 225ml of water. Then, to cool this 225ml of water, you would need at least 150g of ice. The ice will melt and become water, changing the ratio from 1:15 to 1:15+, meaning the final concentration of your iced coffee will be significantly diluted.

Therefore, before making iced coffee, we need to plan the appropriate ratios in advance to ensure that the ice can cool the coffee while maintaining its concentration as it melts.

For example, FrontStreet Coffee uses a 1:10:7 ratio of coffee grounds to water to ice. For 15g of coffee grounds, this means using 150ml of hot water plus about 100g of ice. Many friends might think the final coffee will be quite weak, right? Actually, it won't be!

This is because FrontStreet Coffee uses large solid ice cubes weighing about 25g each. Each iced pour-over only requires 4 cubes to reach our target of 100g. After brewing, the ice won't completely melt, meaning you'll actually get about 200ml of coffee liquid with about 20g of remaining ice (some hot water is absorbed by the coffee grounds). The coffee concentration tastes just right.

(Image showing the weight of pour-over coffee with ice removed after brewing)

When Should You Add Ice?

Regarding when to add ice, there are obviously only two options: before brewing or after brewing! Adding ice beforehand is our standard approach, where the coffee continuously contacts the ice during brewing for cooling. Adding ice afterward means pouring the brewed coffee over prepared ice to combine.

Is there a significant difference between these two timing methods? Under completely identical conditions (referring to grind size, coffee-to-water-to-ice ratio), there isn't much difference. If we had to identify a subtle distinction, pour-over with ice added beforehand tends to be cleaner and more refreshing. Meanwhile, pour-over with ice added afterward has more concentrated aromas and more concrete flavors. Therefore, both methods are perfectly acceptable.

So, if the continuous melting of ice dilutes the coffee, would it taste better if we filter out the ice after brewing?

This depends on how much ice remains after brewing. Each time, the hardness and size of the ice cubes will vary slightly. If only a small amount remains, it might melt completely before you have a chance to remove it. If large ice cubes remain, filtering them out is indeed a good option to effectively reduce dilution. However, for coffee shops, product consistency is crucial. Sometimes filtering out ice and sometimes not will lead to inconsistent products. So, the choice between the two approaches depends on your personal preference.

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FrontStreet Coffee

No. 10, Bao'an Qianjie, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473