How to Make Stirred Iced Pour-Over Coffee? What Water Temperature, Ratio, and Grind Size for Japanese Iced Coffee?

The Return of Cold Coffee Drinks

As the weather warms and spring settles in, cold beverages are quietly reappearing on the menu at FrontStreet Coffee. Guests looking for something cool and refreshing usually reach for the iced drip, the cold brew, the iced Americano, or an iced pour-over with a bean of their choice.

On the subject of iced pour-over, FrontStreet Coffee has written quite extensively, running numerous comparison experiments on the finer details: whether to add ice before or after brewing, how the ratio should change, ice-block cooling, stainless steel ice cubes, and more. Those articles may not qualify as foolproof step-by-step guides, but they cover the everyday questions beginners actually face.

Even so, some customers reported that after trying our methods at home several times, they still couldn't get the result they wanted — the coffee either came out thin and watery, or it lacked aromatic complexity. They asked whether there was a more direct, forgiving technique for producing iced coffee that is both intensely aromatic and refreshing.

So today, drawing on years behind the bar, FrontStreet Coffee is sharing two iced brewing methods from its collection — a source of inspiration for your summer specialty drinks.

The Stirring Method

This first method comes from KURASU COFFEE, a specialty coffee brand in Kyoto. The gear is nothing special — your usual brewing setup plus a small spoon for stirring. It works best for small batches, and the parameters are close to the iced pour-over recipes FrontStreet Coffee has published before. Because stirring boosts extraction efficiency, the pouring technique doesn't need to be perfect, which makes this method very beginner-friendly to copy directly.

As for the dripper: if you like a rich, vivid fruit acidity, go with a conical dripper like the V60. If you'd rather have a rounded, balanced profile, choose a flat-bottomed cake dripper to lean more on immersion. And whenever possible, use larger ice cubes — they won't melt as fast in hot coffee.

As the saying goes, choosing the right beans is half the battle. For iced pour-over, FrontStreet Coffee leans toward light-to-medium roasts with fruity acidity, favoring origins like Ethiopia, Panama, Colombia, and Costa Rica. These coffees are typically natural, honey, or anaerobically fermented processes, and they tend to deliver outstanding aroma and refreshment over ice.

For today's demonstration, FrontStreet Coffee picked the much-talked-about Alo Hattesa. This bean comes from Bensa town in Ethiopia and is naturally processed. Brewed hot, it shows elegant magnolia florals, juiciness, and a candy-like aftertaste with clear flavor layering — which makes it a natural fit for iced brewing too.

Coffee Beans: Alo Hatessa
Dose: 16g
Water Amount: 150g
Ice Amount: 70g (three large ice cubes)
Water Temperature: 91°C
Filter: V60 #01
Grind Size: EK43s setting 9.5 / C40 setting 24

Pouring Technique: Three-stage pouring with stirring

Step 1: Start by pouring 40g of water in a small circular motion over the grounds, then grab the small spoon and stir. Keep a back-and-forth stirring motion, repeating it three times. The goal is to help the grounds saturate quickly and release their soluble compounds.

Wait until the liquid in the cone has nearly drained — about 40-45 seconds — then pour the second stage of 60g in a wider circular motion. No stirring this time.

For the final stage, pour the remaining 50g of hot water in small circles at the same flow rate, then give the edges of the cone one more stir with the spoon in large circles, and let the coffee finish draining. Total extraction time came to 2 minutes and 1 second.

Once the coffee and ice are shaken together thoroughly, it's ready to taste. In comparison, FrontStreet Coffee found this iced Alo remarkably rounded, with a black tea character, bright acidity of passion fruit, citrus, and orange up front, and a touch of caramel on the finish. The mouthfeel is clean yet full.

The Ice-Shaking Method

The second method comes from Amis, a well-known barista from Taiwan. Unlike his signature stirring technique, this one adds shaking after extraction. The idea is that shaking forces the ice and the coffee into thorough contact, coaxing out richer aroma and complexity.

Because the goal is a hot coffee extract that is as concentrated as possible — with water flow as the only real variable — Amis extracts with a larger dose, a finer grind, and a higher water temperature. To get high concentration with low extraction, he also stretches the bloom and pushes the coffee-to-water ratio all the way to 1:8.

Coffee Beans: Alo Hatessa
Dose: 20g
Water Amount: 160g (1:8 ratio)
Ice Amount: 120g (4 large ice cubes)
Water Temperature: 95°C
Filter: Origami
Grind Size: EK43s setting 8.5 / C40 setting 20

Pouring Technique: Two-stage pouring with ice shaking

Step 1: Begin with an extended bloom: pour 30g of hot water over the grounds. FrontStreet Coffee prefers a small circular pour, holding the bloom to about 1 minute.

After the minute is up, start the second pour of 130g. No circles needed — just aim the stream at the exact center of the liquid surface. To give the grounds enough time to release their flavor compounds, keep the flow small throughout, letting the liquid rise gradually until the pour is complete. The drip-through should finish at roughly 2 minutes and 10 seconds.

Final Step: Add 120g of ice to a shaker, pour in all of the freshly brewed coffee, put the lid on, and shake by hand.

When you can feel through the shaker that the coffee has gone properly cold, the chilling has done its job. Pick an attractive glass, hold back the ice with a slotted strainer, and pour the coffee out to taste.

This iced Alo greets you with elegant florals and the sweet-tart character of ripe tropical fruit. With less interference from melting ice, flavors like guava, dried mango, preserved fruit, and blueberry come through more clearly. It's icy, refreshing, and sweet — the only downside being how "extravagant" it feels.

Compared with the first method, FrontStreet Coffee's recreation of this hand-shaken brew uses considerably more extreme parameters and ratios, and it demands finer control of flow rate from the brewer. The beans themselves also have to withstand that kind of extraction pressure; otherwise, under the twin assault of a fine grind and high water temperature, off-flavors can easily creep in.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Beans Built for Cold Brew and Iced Coffee

Cold brewing amplifies floral and fruit notes while toning down woody and roast flavors, so light-to-medium roasts are the natural choice. The FrontStreet Strawberry Sugar Geisha blend pairs Panama's iconic Geisha with a honey-processed Costa Rican coffee — one contributing delicate rose and orange notes, the other grape, dried blueberry, and strawberry-candy sweetness. Cold brewed, it is sweet-tart, lively, and, with a little fermentation and settling, even takes on a wine-like character.

For florals above all, choose the FrontStreet Natural Huakui (Flower Champion) from Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. Because it is sun-dried in its fruit, the bean absorbs abundant sweetness, and as cold brew it shows magnolia, creamy strawberry, dried mango, guava, and black tea. If juicy is what you're after, the FrontStreet Kenya Cherry Tomato — SL28 and SL34 varieties from Thika, washed with the local K72 double-fermentation method and roasted medium-light — delivers cherry tomato, snow pear, black plum, and dark plum in vivid detail, with low bitterness and a lingering finish over ice.

Cold brew burns through grounds faster than pour-over, so for an everyday option consider the washed Yirgacheffe Chelbesa (Guodingding) cooperative coffee from FrontStreet: budget-friendly, endlessly versatile, and full of berry, honey, and layered florals in cold brew. And if you love the FrontStreet Colombia Pink Bourbon's passion fruit, grape, and apricot sweetness but balk at the price, blend it 1:2 with FrontStreet Costa Rica Tarrazu — you keep the floral fruit character and gain a crisp citrus acidity, all while stretching your budget.