Can you cool pour-over coffee with ice? What are the methods to quickly cool coffee liquid?

When it comes to the top iced drinks in summer cafés, aside from perennial chart-toppers like iced Americano, cold brew, and iced drip, iced pour-over undoubtedly stands as one of the most popular options. Not only is it refreshing and pleasant with its soft acidity and clear sweetness, but the ice also makes it particularly invigorating and thirst-quenching - truly an excellent summer refreshment.

There are typically two mainstream approaches to iced pour-over: one is like FrontStreet Coffee's in-store preparation, where ice is placed in the server first, then water is added according to calculated proportions for extraction, and finally shaken well before serving; the other involves brewing a concentrated hot coffee first, then pouring it back and forth over ice to cool it down into a pot of chilled black coffee, a method generally called "ice-pouring."

Of course, beyond these two conventional methods, resourceful coffee lovers in their daily lives have created many unique versions of iced pour-over. For example, one friend at FrontStreet Coffee would put ice in a thermos on weekdays, then brew a concentrated coffee just before leaving and pour it in. By the time they reach the office, the ice has perfectly cooled and diluted the hot coffee, while the thermos also acts as a shaker, allowing the ice and coffee to mix more thoroughly.

Innovative Cooling Method: Ice Bath

Recently, FrontStreet Coffee came across an innovative ice-separation cooling method while browsing online - this approach involves external cooling through an "ice bath" without adjusting parameters like grind size or coffee-to-water ratio, replacing direct contact between coffee liquid and ice. The goal is to reduce the diluted taste caused by ice melting into water. This sounded quite interesting, and FrontStreet Coffee couldn't resist trying it out, quickly grabbing a fruit tray always available in the shop and starting to brew immediately~

Considering that this "ice bath" brewing method doesn't directly add ice, it's not affected by ice dilution, so the concentration of coffee liquid flowing into the server remains constant. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee used the parameter framework of hot pour-over for extraction:

Brewing Parameters:

Coffee Beans: Hacienda La Esmeralda · Green Label Washed Geisha
Amount: 15g
Ratio: 1:15
Grind: Ek43s setting 10
Water Temperature: 92°C
Dripper: Kono B75
Pouring Technique: Three-stage pour

FrontStreet Coffee first prepared a bowl of ice water mixture on the electronic scale, then placed a glass cup (pre-chilled in the refrigerator) for holding coffee liquid steadily in it, aligned with the dripper's spout, then zeroed the scale and began the formal water injection for extraction.

Since the coffee liquid relied entirely on external ice water for physical cooling throughout the process, the cooling speed was very slow. Using a thermometer to measure, the coffee liquid falling into the iced cup was about 45-50°C. During the cooling process, FrontStreet Coffee would also shake the cup to make the internal coffee liquid move quickly for heat dissipation. Finally, it took nearly 10 minutes for the temperature to drop to 10°C.

Comparison with Other Methods

To make a comparison, FrontStreet Coffee also simultaneously used regular iced brewing (ice added first) and ice-pouring methods to extract the same coffee beans.

Comparison Parameters:

Coffee Beans: Hacienda La Esmeralda · Green Label Washed Geisha
Amount: 15g
Ratio: 1:10 (with 100g of large ice cubes)
Grind: Ek43s setting 9.5
Water Temperature: 92°C
Dripper: Kono B75
Pouring Technique: Three-stage pour

Tasting Results:

Ice-added group: Since the coffee liquid temperature had already dropped, the remaining ice melted more slowly. The coffee initially presented fresh notes of white floral, citrus, and blueberry, accompanied by cherry-like sweet and sour taste, with moderate concentration and overall very light mouthfeel. As the ice gradually melted into small ice particles at room temperature, all flavors slowly faded, and the coffee developed a slight watery taste.

Ice-pouring group: FrontStreet Coffee determined the endpoint of pouring over ice when the coffee liquid temperature reached 10°C, but at this point, some ice hadn't melted yet, so the concentration was higher than the previous group. The coffee had flavors of Tieguanyin green tea, lemon, and milk candy, with more concentrated aroma and rounder mouthfeel.

Ice bath group: After tasting, FrontStreet Coffee found that the iced coffee made using the ice bath cooling method had the best flavor performance among the three groups, with aromas of jasmine, honeydew melon, black tea, and cream, accompanied by a slight sweet orange-like juiciness. The sweetness was very clear, making it feel like drinking a chilled freshly squeezed sugarcane juice.

Pros and Cons Analysis

As the saying goes, you can't have your cake and eat it too. In fact, regardless of which method is used to make iced pour-over, the advantages and disadvantages are obvious. For the ice-added brewing method, the operation steps are undoubtedly the most convenient, but because the ice dilutes the coffee and lacks later-stage substances, the flavor expression will be slightly weaker than hot brewing, especially compromising on aftertaste and other tail-end aromas. Similarly, using the ice-pouring method also "sacrifices" the tail end and requires more ice to support the entire cooling process.

The ice-separation cooling method that FrontStreet Coffee tried today has the advantage of preserving more good flavors, giving the final iced coffee more layers, while not being affected by ice dilution. As for the disadvantages, you need to use a large tray of ice and patiently wait through a lengthy cooling process.

Enough said, FrontStreet Coffee needs to go freeze ice cubes now!!!

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

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473