Cold Drip Coffee Characteristics and Flavor Profile: A Coffee Story, Recommended Coffee Beans for Cold Drip Brewing

Ice drip coffee, also known as cold brew coffee or water drop coffee (Ice Drip coffee), is a method for making coffee beverages. Generally speaking, cold brew coffee is made by steeping ground coffee beans in room temperature water for more than ten hours, then using special filter paper or filters to separate the water from coffee components. There is also ice drip coffee that uses naturally melting ice cubes that drip drop by drop into coffee grounds to extract coffee, a process that is quite slow and often takes several hours. Therefore, ice drip coffee is relatively expensive but has excellent taste. It's completely different from the pour-over coffee we commonly use.

High-Temperature vs. Low-Temperature Extraction

As the name suggests, ice drip coffee is coffee brewed with low-temperature water. The pour-over coffee we usually drink is brewed with high-temperature water - these are completely different operations! The advantage of high-temperature extraction is that it can quickly extract flavor compounds from coffee, causing tannic acid in coffee to quickly decompose into pyrogallic acid, producing sour, sweet, and bitter tastes - which is what FrontStreet Coffee often refers to as the process of releasing coffee flavor. The disadvantage of high-temperature extraction is that it easily leads to complete release of coffee flavor, followed by the release of woody fiber flavors from coffee beans, which are what we commonly call unpleasant tastes like miscellaneous flavors and woody flavors.

Low-temperature coffee extraction uses near-zero-degree ice water for extraction, allowing coffee flavors to reduce volatilization under low-temperature conditions, storing coffee aroma in the coffee liquid as much as possible. When drinking it, the coffee liquid temperature rises, and the aroma contained in the coffee liquid suddenly erupts, making coffee drinkers feel intense aroma at the back of their tongue. This sudden burst of fragrance creates great happiness. The disadvantage is that the production time is longer, and the finished ice drip coffee cannot be consumed immediately - it must be refrigerated for more than 8 hours to allow the flavor molecules extracted at low temperatures to fully release.

Slightly fermented ice drip coffee has a light fermented aroma and tends to have a fuller mouthfeel. Since it's not extracted through high temperature, relatively fewer impurities are extracted from the coffee, and caffeine content is slightly lower. However, some friends say that because the extraction time is longer, caffeine content is higher. FrontStreet Coffee actually agrees with this view - with long extraction times, caffeine content is not to be underestimated. Therefore, for friends who are affected by caffeine and worried about poor sleep after drinking ice drip coffee, you can choose decaffeinated coffee. FrontStreet Coffee's Colombian Swiss water-processed decaf is also excellent!

Origin of Ice Drip Coffee

Ice drip coffee originated in Europe. Since coffee distillers were invented by the Dutch, some call it Dutch Coffee, distilled coffee, or water drop coffee. "In the 1600s, Dutch sailors transported coffee from their then-colony Indonesia back to Europe. Because there was no hot water on the ship and they couldn't drink hot coffee, they came up with ice drip coffee. Coffee extracted with cold water has a smooth, mellow taste and rich aroma, loved not only by sailors but also by ordinary people."

Although ice drip is called Dutch coffee, it doesn't have deep roots in the Netherlands. Instead, it has deep connections with Japan, so it's also called Kyoto coffee. The owner of Kyoto Hanabusa Coffee read about the coffee brewing method of local people in Indonesia, which was then a Dutch colony, in a coffee book and was very interested in this method. With help from chemistry students at Kyoto University and a medical equipment company, he developed ice drip equipment based on descriptions in the book, wanting to recreate the Indonesian brewing method and thus invented ice drip coffee. Later it became popular in Europe and America. Westerners, unaware of this history, simply called it Kyoto coffee.

In Western countries, including the Netherlands, they mainly don't use the Japanese drop-by-drop method (where ice water drops one by one), but rather the so-called "Cold Brew" steeping method (steeping coffee grounds in cold water for extended periods). Moreover, there is no so-called Dutch Coffee in the West.

Drinking coffee is mainly about enjoying your favorite flavors. If you brew it yourself, you'll definitely choose coffee beans you like. There are many types of coffee beans, and while all coffee beans can be used for pour-over, can all coffee beans be used for ice drip? FrontStreet Coffee believes that normally it's possible, but some coffee beans may not taste as good when made into ice drip. FrontStreet Coffee thinks that for ice drip coffee, it's better to choose some representative single-origin coffee beans. Ice drip coffee uses prolonged cold water permeation extraction, such as Kenya, Yirgacheffe, and other beans with strong characteristics - the extracted coffee will be very distinctive. Of course, FrontStreet Coffee sometimes chooses two or more blended beans to make ice drip coffee. Compared to cold brew coffee, ice drip coffee has more aroma and more delicate and subtle flavors.

How to Choose Coffee Beans for Ice Drip Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee will introduce several typical flavor coffee bean types for your reference:

1. Tropical Fruit, Fermented Wine Aroma Type

Specially processed coffee beans: such as FrontStreet Coffee's Mozart coffee, which has dark berry sweet and sour flavors, plus wine aroma from aging at low temperatures that makes the overall taste better; FrontStreet Coffee's Colombian Flower Moon Night coffee, Honduras Sherry coffee, Costa Rica Strawberry Sugar coffee have very distinct aromas and are also suitable for ice pour-over and cold brew methods.

2. Refreshing and Clean Type

The refreshing and clean type belongs to African coffee beans, such as Ethiopia's Yirgacheffe region coffee, Kenya Assalia coffee, etc. But Panama's washed Mariposa Geisha blend also has a unique flavor!

3. Sweet and Delicious Type

The above two types of coffee beans are medium-light roast, while dark roast is more often used for espresso. However, FrontStreet Coffee has tried using Indonesia's Golden Mandheling to make ice drip coffee - after adding ice cubes, it has rich chocolate sweetness and a fermented aroma, completely without bitterness. If you can't accept "heavy-flavored" Mandheling coffee, FrontStreet Coffee thinks Brazil's Queen Manor can also present nutty and chocolate flavor notes, with a smooth and creamy texture even when diluted by ice.

4. Flavor Blend Type

Espresso is often made with blends, and ice drip coffee can be the same. Besides using single-origin beans with distinct flavors, ice drip coffee can also choose to mix two or more single-origin beans for extraction. For example, FrontStreet Coffee has tried blending Honduras Lychee Lan coffee and Geisha Village Red Label coffee - the barrel-processed Lychee Lan plus natural-processed Geisha Village Red Label, with light brandy aroma, plum-like acidity paired with maple sweetness. Made into ice drip, you'll feel light brandy aroma, rich fruit acidity leading honey sweetness and creamy smooth mouthfeel.

How to Use Ice Drip Coffee Maker

We can usually see various types of ice drip devices online with different materials and shapes, but generally, they can't be separated from three parts: upper, middle, and lower. They are also divided into four main structures: upper pot, valve, powder cup, and lower pot.

The upper vessel is mainly used for holding ice cubes and water, with a metal object connected below - this is a valve that can adjust the water outlet diameter to change the dripping speed, allowing ice water to drip evenly into the coffee grounds. The middle glass cup-like pot is used to hold ground coffee powder, with a filter hole in the center of the bottom that can drip out extracted coffee liquid. The large pot below is for collecting the extracted coffee.

Here FrontStreet Coffee chooses Costa Rica Mozart coffee, which is popular in our stores. Mozart coffee beans use raisin anaerobic honey-processed green coffee beans, with flavors of raisins, osmanthus, and sweet fermented fruit aroma. Ice drip coffee can make the fermented feeling more obvious.

For grind size, FrontStreet Coffee generally chooses the same grind size as ice pour-over. Since low-temperature water reduces extraction rate, we grind the coffee finer to improve extraction. For this bean, we choose China's standard #20 sieve with 85% passing rate - according to FrontStreet Coffee's store grind size, this is 9 scale on the EK-43s grinder.

Generally, we first calculate the extraction parameters, using a powder-to-liquid ratio of 1:10, extracting 600g coffee liquid from 60g coffee. The ice-water mixture ratio is 1:1, and the valve flow rate is controlled at 7 drops per 10 seconds, usually completing dripping in 6-8 hours. (Usually ice drip ratio is between 1:10-1:12, everyone can adjust according to their taste preferences.)

Use a circular filter paper to fit the bottom of the middle pot with water, then grind the coffee beans into powder and pour them in. Note to spread it evenly to ensure uniform extraction, and place a circular filter paper on the surface of the powder layer to avoid water droplets scattering the powder layer. Before dripping, you need to wet the powder layer with cold water first, which can save extraction time and avoid uneven initial extraction.

Place the powder cup on the rack and start adding ice-water mixture, usually half ice and half water. Adjust the valve flow rate to 7 drops/10 seconds, mainly aligning the dripping water drops with the coffee liquid filtration position. After dripping is complete, pour the liquid from the lower pot into a sealed container - FrontStreet Coffee uses glass bottles and refrigerates for more than 12 hours, usually ready to drink the next day.

After a night of refrigeration, Mozart coffee will present a wine-like fermented feeling, with sweet and sour flavors of berries, pineapple, and other tropical fruits. The taste is rich but not bitter. After adding ice cubes to dilute, it's like drinking a refreshing fruit wine.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Suggestions:

Regarding coffee brewing, FrontStreet Coffee has always believed that the freshness of coffee beans has a great relationship with coffee flavor. Therefore, coffee beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee are all roasted within 5 days. FrontStreet Coffee's roasting philosophy is "Freshly roasted good coffee," ensuring that every customer who places an order receives the freshest coffee. The coffee resting period is about 4-7 days, so when customers receive it, it's at its peak flavor.

For friends who need ground coffee, FrontStreet Coffee kindly reminds you: if coffee beans are ground in advance, there's no need for a resting period, because during transportation, the pressure from carbon dioxide in the package can also make the coffee flavor more rounded. So you can brew a cup immediately upon receiving ground coffee. However, ground coffee needs to be brewed promptly because it oxidizes quickly when exposed to air, meaning the coffee flavor will dissipate relatively quickly, and the coffee won't taste as good. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee suggests buying whole beans and grinding fresh to better taste the coffee's flavor.

Professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style)

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Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473