Why is Cold Brew Coffee So Expensive? How Many Hours Does It Take to Make a Batch?

As the weather gradually becomes warmer, the pre-prepared coffee in FrontStreet Coffee's refrigerator has become the most popular bestseller besides iced Americano. Without much introduction, customers directly say when entering: "Boss, a cup of iced drip coffee!"

Some customers hesitate when they don't know what to drink, so they ask the barista: "What's the difference between that iced drip coffee and Americano?" FrontStreet Coffee answers: "One is made the day before, the other is made now." The customer becomes even more confused, and finally silently chooses the iced Americano because they think it's cheaper~

In most cases, if a coffee shop sells iced drip coffee, it's often the most expensive item among all categories, sometimes even ten or twenty yuan more expensive than Americano or latte. Why is this?

Two Categories of Iced Coffee

All iced coffee on the market can be roughly divided into two categories: one is the hot extraction model where hot water is used for brewing and then cooled with ice, such as iced pour-over and iced Americano; the other is the cold brew type where cold/room temperature water directly contacts coffee grounds, allowing flavor compounds to slowly release, with iced drip coffee being one of the most widely used methods.

As we all know, cold brew coffee, which mainly uses cold brewing processes, utilizes an extraction method of long-time steeping followed by filtration to remove grounds. As long as you have a refrigerator and coffee powder (beans), plus any clean container with sufficient capacity and filter material, you can easily make a cup of iced coffee.

Equipment Requirements

In contrast, making iced drip coffee requires higher standards - it needs a special drip filter device - an iced drip pot. There are many cool designs of this brewing equipment on the market, with prices ranging from tens to thousands of yuan, but the main structure generally consists of three parts: an upper pot with a valve to control the dripping speed of ice water, a filter cup for holding coffee grounds, and a lower pot to collect the coffee liquid.

With the assistance of this device, ice water drops into the filter one by one, reacting with the coffee grounds inside to extract soluble flavor compounds, then falls into the lower pot by gravity until enough coffee liquid accumulates to stop the extraction.

Since only cold ice water participates throughout the entire process, and the dripping speed is very slow (average 1-2 seconds per drop), it takes longer to allow more flavor compounds to fully release to achieve a moderate concentration. Coffee doesn't easily release bitter and other off-flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee's Iced Drip Process

Taking FrontStreet Coffee's iced drip making as an example, they use the Tiamo HG2713 three-layer iced drip pot. FrontStreet Coffee习惯 uses a 1:10 coffee-to-water ratio for production, meaning 60 grams of coffee grounds extract 600ml of coffee liquid, with ice water dripping at a frequency of about 7-8 drops every 10 seconds. Additionally, the drip nozzle sometimes gets clogged by cold, so we need to constantly monitor and adjust it, so the entire process usually takes 5-8 hours, depending on the amount of coffee used and dripping speed.

During the entire dripping process, new cold water continuously passes through the coffee grounds and then filters to form new coffee liquid. Compared to the static cold brew type, iced drip is a dynamic brewing method that extracts and filters simultaneously. Ice water and coffee grounds are not in contact throughout the entire process, so in terms of taste, iced drip from the same coffee beans will be cleaner and clearer than cold brew.

The Aging Process

The end of dripping doesn't mean the coffee is finished, because it still needs to enter the next "low-temperature aging" resting phase to give the coffee a unique fermented taste, which is what we often call the "iced drip flavor."

The operation is very simple: put it in a sealed clean bottle and refrigerate for more than 8 hours. Until the refrigeration fermentation is complete, we can add appropriate ice cubes to the concentrated coffee according to our preferences. The purpose of leaving the coffee in the refrigerator overnight is to control fermentation and avoid spoilage.

Time Investment

Altogether, making a pot of 600ml concentrated coffee liquid takes more than ten hours, which is why iced drip is generally considered the most time-consuming production method. This is also why some coffee shops adopt a reservation system for selling iced drip coffee. (Of course, at FrontStreet Coffee, you can drink iced drip coffee without a reservation, it's just that the flavor will be more random.)

Bean Selection and Cost

To highlight the unique mellow wine-like quality of iced drip while avoiding the off-flavors in the tail section that come from long dripping times, many coffee shops specifically select high-quality single-origin beans rich in fruit aromas. Therefore, compared to the formula beans typically used for espresso, the raw material cost for iced drip is relatively more expensive.

For example, when FrontStreet Coffee usually prepares iced drip, they like to prioritize selecting beans that feature floral, fruity, and fermented wine aromas. With the combination of slow dripping and low-temperature aging, the resulting iced drip not only has the bright charm of fruity acidic coffee but also exudes a fruit wine-like fermented quality - mellow and aromatic yet refreshing.

Yield and Economics

Finally and crucially, the reason iced drip coffee is generally more expensive is largely because it uses more coffee grounds. For example, FrontStreet Coffee needs 60 grams of coffee grounds to make a 600ml pot of iced drip coffee, which can ultimately be sold as 3 cups (about 200ml + ice each). But if following pour-out serving habits, 60 grams of coffee beans can brew 4 cups of pour-over coffee (15 grams per cup).

Of course, price is not the only standard for measuring a cup of coffee. FrontStreet Coffee has also seen extremely cost-effective affordable iced drip that is equally aromatic and delicious. As long as the barista makes it with care and extraction is on point, and the bean quality is good, pricing will more often depend on the coffee shop's target positioning.

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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