Can Dry Ice Be Used for Pour-Over Coffee? Can Dry Ice Replace Regular Ice in Iced Pour-Over?

In the comment section of FrontStreet Coffee's tweet shared two months ago (link here), many friends suggested using dry ice instead of regular ice to make iced pour-over coffee. The purpose behind this suggestion was to experience the complete flavor profile of coffee in iced pour-over.

"If you want to taste the most complete coffee flavor in pour-over coffee, it's best to choose hot pour-over coffee." This is the advice that FrontStreet Coffee always gives when customers ask whether a particular coffee bean is suitable for iced or hot brewing. The reason is simple: hot pour-over uses more water, resulting in more thorough extraction. Iced pour-over requires adding ice to rapidly cool the coffee in a short time. However, the melting ice dilutes the coffee concentration. If we don't want to drink a cup of coffee with weak flavor and thin body, we need to obtain high-concentration coffee through "high concentration, low extraction" to offset the dilution caused by ice melting.

The reduced water volume decreases extraction efficiency, reducing the amount of dissolved substances, resulting in relatively incomplete coffee flavor. This is why some friends initially asked whether stainless steel ice cubes that don't melt could replace regular ice for making iced pour-over. As expected, this attempt failed. Stainless steel ice cubes, for various reasons (details can be found in that article), couldn't cool the coffee to the ideal temperature quickly. At this point, many friends suggested in the comments to use "dry ice" for iced pour-over making, which cools quickly and doesn't cause dilution.

What is Dry Ice?

Logically speaking, although dry ice can indeed provide rapid cooling effect without causing dilution, it is not suitable for making pour-over coffee, especially for coffee shop production.

Regular ice is formed by water condensing into solid at low temperatures, meaning ice is the solid state of water. After absorbing heat, it returns to water. Dry ice is completely different! Although its name contains "ice," it's vastly different from the ice cubes we use daily. (The small piece on the left in the picture is dry ice)

Dry ice is a solid made from carbon dioxide, simply put, it's solid carbon dioxide. FrontStreet Coffee believes everyone is quite familiar with carbon dioxide, as the gas we exhale during respiration is carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide has no liquid form under standard atmospheric pressure (though it can form liquid under specific high-pressure conditions), but it directly condenses into solid when the temperature drops below -78.5°C. When the temperature rises above -78.5°C, solid carbon dioxide directly sublimates into gas. Because solidified carbon dioxide looks quite similar to regular ice, and during the process, carbon dioxide skips the liquid phase during transformation - meaning it doesn't turn into water when heated - people aptly named it "dry ice." (Note: Daily use of dry ice requires both low temperature and high pressure for production)

Uses of Dry Ice

In fact, dry ice is quite common in daily life because its uses are very extensive. As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned earlier, dry ice directly sublimates into gas, and during this process, it absorbs a large amount of heat from the surroundings. This causes water vapor in the air to condense into water droplets due to temperature drop, forming smoke. Many performances such as concerts, stage plays, and even some restaurants and bars use large amounts of dry ice to create magnificent smoke effects. Additionally, because the sublimation process of dry ice absorbs a lot of heat, lowering the surrounding temperature, dry ice can lower food temperature through direct or indirect contact, serving preservation and cooling effects. At the same time, since it doesn't liquefy, there's no need to worry about food being soaked or concentration being diluted.

Why Dry Ice Isn't Suitable for Pour-Over Coffee

After learning all this, FrontStreet Coffee believes everyone now fully understands the structure and function of dry ice, and it can indeed cool coffee quickly without diluting the concentration. So, the question arises: why does FrontStreet Coffee say it's not suitable for making pour-over coffee?

It's simple: because it releases carbon dioxide after sublimation! When we put dry ice into coffee, although the coffee cools rapidly, the dissolved carbon dioxide combines with the coffee, so what we ultimately get is not a cold cup of pour-over coffee, but a cold cup of carbonated coffee. Even though the cooling purpose is achieved, the essence of the coffee has changed, and it's far from our needs. Therefore, dry ice naturally cannot be used for our purposes.

Alternative Methods and Final Recommendations

Some friends might suggest at this point: "Wouldn't cooling it in a water bath work?" While that's true in theory, this operation would be very cumbersome and not very efficient. FrontStreet Coffee believes there's no need to engage in such complex behavior just to compensate for this small part of flavor. The key point is that regular ice can achieve this effect, so there's absolutely no need to use dry ice.

Therefore, don't get tangled up - stick to regular ice for making pour-over coffee~ But for friends who really want to try using dry ice instead of ice to make coffee, you can refer to these three points shared by FrontStreet Coffee:

1. Ratio: Use a 2:1 ratio of coffee liquid to ice, meaning 200ml of coffee liquid with about 100g of ice to achieve rapid cooling effect. (This recommendation refers to freshly brewed coffee at 70°C)

2. Bean Selection: Not all coffees taste good as "carbonated versions," especially those with overly prominent acidity or bitterness. Therefore, we can choose coffee beans with higher sweetness for making carbonated coffee! For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Geisha Blend · Strawberry Sugar, or FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopia · Flower Queen both have relatively abundant sweetness~

3. Safety Precautions: Be sure to pay attention to all safety precautions for using dry ice! Dry ice is quite dangerous in various aspects. Therefore, be sure to review the safety precautions for dry ice before use to prevent accidental injury.

4. Usage: Don't pour too much dry ice at once, or prepare a taller container for making coffee. Otherwise... the embarrassment will be beyond words...

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