How to Brew Drip Bag Coffee as Iced Coffee? How to Make Cold Brew with Drip Bags? Can Drip Bag Coffee Be Brewed Cold?

Making Iced Coffee with Drip Coffee Bags

In the scorching summer heat, coffee lovers often find their seasonal ritual beginning with a refreshing glass of iced coffee. Recently, FrontStreet Coffee has been sharing various methods for making iced coffee, and today's sharing is no exception. Today, FrontStreet Coffee will demonstrate how to use drip coffee bags to make two different types of iced coffee, as not all friends are willing to go through the trouble of preparing professional coffee equipment. Therefore, we'll use the most convenient and simple drip coffee bags to create two iced coffees that would typically require specialized equipment (though perhaps the second one doesn't need it)! One is pour-over iced coffee, and the other is cold brew coffee~

How to Make Pour-Over Iced Coffee with Drip Coffee Bags

As we all know, iced pour-over is a brewing method derived from the framework of hot pour-over. The conventional approach involves adding ice cubes to the hot pour-over process to quickly obtain a glass of iced pour-over coffee. However, because the melting of ice cubes dilutes the coffee's concentration, we need to adjust relevant parameters to offset the impact of ice melting on coffee concentration.

Traditional drip bag coffee and pour-over coffee share similar brewing methods, so we can apply the iced pour-over model to making iced drip bag coffee. Reducing water amount and adjusting to a finer grind are the parameter adjustments FrontStreet Coffee makes when brewing iced pour-over. Reducing water increases coffee concentration to offset the dilution effect of melting ice; while using a finer grind compensates for the decreased extraction efficiency caused by reduced water, ensuring the coffee maintains high concentration while achieving adequate extraction.

While we can reduce the water amount for brewing drip bags, drip bag coffee uses pre-ground coffee powder, so we cannot adjust the grind size of the coffee powder. Therefore, what we need to adjust during brewing becomes: water temperature. Increasing water temperature can enhance the dissolution rate of hot water - the higher the temperature, the faster the flavor compounds in coffee dissolve. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will demonstrate how to use drip bags to make pour-over iced coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee's drip bags contain 10g of coffee powder, with extraction parameters as follows: water temperature 93°C (90°C for dark roast beans), coffee-to-water-to-ice ratio 1:10:6, which translates to 10g of coffee powder with 100ml of hot water and 60g of ice. However, since ice doesn't melt completely immediately, as long as you don't take too long to drink your coffee, having a bit more ice is actually fine~ The brewing method is as follows:

Step 1: Prepare a tall glass (a short glass with large capacity also works), and first place ice cubes in the glass.

Step 2: Hang the drip bag on the glass.

Step 3: When the water temperature reaches the target, begin brewing. First, perform a bloom by pouring 20ml of hot water for 25-30 seconds.

Step 4: After the time is up, divide the remaining 80ml of hot water into four portions of 20ml each, pouring in small streams with circular motion. Remember to wait until the previous pour has completely filtered through before adding the next portion of hot water.

Step 5: As the final pour of hot water completely filters through, we can remove the drip bag and end the extraction.

Step 6: Use any tool to stir the coffee to ensure uniform concentration and temperature. After stirring, you can begin enjoying your drink~

How to Make Cold Brew Coffee with Drip Coffee Bags

Cold brew coffee is relatively simpler because its production doesn't involve too many parameters to consider, nor does it require deliberate control of water flow, making the operation very straightforward. However, we need to prepare an additional sealed bottle, and the amount of coffee powder used will be greater. Regarding parameters, we can adjust them based on whether we plan to add ice when drinking. If you intend to add ice to maintain its low temperature when drinking cold brew, we can use a 1:10 coffee-to-water ratio for production - the principle is the same as iced brewing, so I won't elaborate further here; if we don't plan to add ice when drinking cold brew, we can use a 1:12 coffee-to-water ratio.

Since FrontStreet Coffee's single drip bag contains 10g of coffee powder, if we use a 1:10 ratio for production, the final amount of cold brew coffee liquid will be around 80ml. For most people, this isn't a satisfying quantity. Therefore, it's best to use 3-5 drip bags at once to make cold brew coffee; otherwise, such a long waiting time for only half a glass seems hardly worth it. Anyway, everyone can decide based on their own needs. Here, FrontStreet Coffee will use four drip bags for demonstration.

Step 1: First, take out the drip bags, tear open the seal, and pour the coffee powder into a sealed bottle - remember to keep the drip bags themselves.

Step 2: Pour an appropriate amount of room temperature water. Since FrontStreet Coffee is using 4 bags with 40g of coffee powder, following the 1:10 ratio, we need to add 400ml of water.

Step 3: Use any tool to stir the coffee powder and water until all coffee powder is saturated in the water.

Step 4: Tighten the bottle cap for sealing, then place the entire bottle in the refrigerator to chill for 8-12 hours. (The longer, the stronger the concentration)

Step 5: When time is up, take out the coffee, then support the previously saved drip bags over a cup.

Step 6: Pour the coffee through the drip bags to filter out the coffee grounds, and至此，the cold brew coffee is ready.

Once the coffee liquid is filtered, we can add ice cubes and enjoy the delicious cold brew coffee! It's worth noting that any filtered cold brew coffee not intended for immediate consumption should be poured into a sealed bottle and returned to the refrigerator to prevent spoilage. The shelf life is about five days - as long as the coffee is consumed within five days, the chance of spoilage is very minimal (unless you open it very frequently)~

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