Cold Brew
Hi Bestie!!
I know it’s fall, but I started a long screed, about the Drummond Family, and I casually mentioned cold brew in a sidebar. Frankly, an issue about cold brew is faster to put together, so you’ll get the tangent before the ramble.
Cold brew, by the way, is different from iced coffee. Iced coffee can be any coffee that’s cold. (And iced latte is when it’s espresso over ice and milk.) It can be the Japanese method, which is brewed over ice. Iced coffee can be hot drip coffee from yesterday that was kept in the fridge. (My quibble with the latter is when it’s sold as cold brew.)
I’ve been drinking cold brew every morning since 2011ish when I decided to go all-in and commit to cold coffee. New York Magazine published an article lamenting the cost and humidity’s effect on paper cups, and I threw my hands in defeat before the season started.
I had been drinking hot coffee before that, and occasionally buying hot coffee near work (Starbucks, but often Blue Spoon). Regardless of my cold brew habits, as long as I worked near the Civic Center, I spent money on coffee. Second coffee is the closest we can get to paradise.
It’s possible that one of my tragic flaws is thinking, “I could probably learn myself,” and save what I assume is time and money. This is New York: it doesn’t often save resources to do it myself. Unless it’s cold brew. When it comes to cold brew I am an expert. (Of course, everyone thinks they’re an expert, and there seems to be a lot of variation on grounds-to-water ratio.)
I started with Blue Bottle’s recommended directions, which is still my guiding principle on cold brew. Blue Bottle’s brewing guide has changed, and you’ll find their guide to New Orleans-style iced coffee is different than what I do:
Time: 24 hours
You'll need:
12 ounces/340 grams of coffee
2 quarts/8 cups of cool, filtered water
1 TBL/1 ounce of ground chicory
Grind 12 ounces of coffee (340 grams) on a coarse setting. (Most coffee is sold as 12 ounces. For one-pound bags, use 10 cups water.)
Dump grounds in a non-reactive pot. Glass is preferred but metal is fine. Add ground chicory and mix gently.
Pour 2 quarts of cool, filtered water over the grounds. Pour gently in a circular motion. Stir grounds gently with a spatula (not plastic or metal, if possible) to ensure that the grounds are fully submerged.
Let the coffee bloom for 15 minutes on the counter. You can break up the coffee before you chill it but you don’t have to. I like to give it a second stir.
Cover and chill for 24 hours.
Alternatively, you can let the grounds steep at room temperature for 8-12 hours. The cooler temp will result in a smoother, less bitter coffee.
Remove the coffee after 24 hours. Drain the liquid.
What I make is a cold brew concentrate; many guides include the addition of cold, filtered water to the concentrate so it’s ready-to-drink. Sometimes they include simple syrup too. Both shorten the shelf-life.
I have long attributed putting the coffee into the fridge to Christina Tosi, who published a recipe in Milk Bar Life. I pulled it from a Google Doc, and… it doesn’t match my memory. If this was a crime, I’d be an unreliable witness:
½ lb ground coffee
6 cups cold water
Stir in large pitcher. Cover and chill for at least 12 hours, and not longer than 15.
Strain. Stores 1 week.
In 2019 I started buying Bones Coffee. (If you’ve been on the fence, this link will give you ten percent off your order. I can’t believe I sent a referral link. Again.) I was trying flavors through the four-ounce sample bags. (Now I buy Macamaniac every few months and add a macadamia orgeat. More on that later.) Four ounces is a lot less than two pounds, and I kept a list in my notes of what the ratios should be:
16 ounces (one pound) = 10 cups water
12 ounces = 8 cups water
8 ounces = 5 cups water
6 ounces = 4 cups water
4 ounces = 2 ½ cups water
2 ounces = 1 ¼ cups water
1 ounce = ½ + ⅛ cup water
This has become embarrassingly helpful since purchasing the OXO Compact Cold Brew Coffee Maker, which holds less than the 12 ounces it advertised. OXO recommends a 1:2 or 1:3 ratio of coffee concentrate of water or milk. (This sounds right, I add milk until it’s the right color, which Pantone calls cashew.) OXO also recommends 6 ounces/175 grams of coffee to 24 ounces/700mL of water, with a 16-ounce yield.
I’ve tried a couple of different setups for cold brew. When I brew a pound of coffee, I toss it in a big carafe and filter the grounds into an old coffee sieve or a mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth. This is kind of a nightmare (especially when you can’t use your kitchen sink, which is an inconvenience I’m facing this week) and sort of a mess. I like the OXO coffee maker because it’s compact and filters easily, but it doesn’t make more than enough coffee for a week.
Coffee grounds can be composted! Your community garden can take them, or you can mix them with your soil. Make sure they’re fully dry before mixing with the soil of indoor plants, especially in summer.
If you add simple syrup to the concentrate, it's best served in two days. I recommend adding simple syrup to individual servings. You know I love cherry syrup in Coca-Cola and cold brew. I like to make orgeat, a nut-based simple syrup prevalent in tropical cocktails, in the winter. Macadamia is nice with coconut milk. If I’m going to add syrup to my coffee it needs to be interesting.
You could even make it with cereal milk. Two years ago, we were thinking of creative ways to make coffee and the next day the coffee shop (it was Salt City) had the drink we dreamt of! I tried to make my own Oreo oat milk at home and…it was not as good.
You can also add sweetened condensed milk. I find it’s easier to whisk with milk (or a little coffee) instead of pouring it over ice. (See, Ree Drummond is wrong about everything!) Traditional Vietnamese iced coffee brews the coffee over the sweetener. If you’d like to make Vietnamese iced coffee, I recommend this guide from Nguyen Coffee Supply.
At some point in the summer, I absolutely lose it and go overboard. I’ll buy a tall cardboard box of coconut water and swap it with water. One summer I added cans of coconut milk and cream. If you use a liquid other than water, make sure it’s chilled!
That’s everything you could possibly need to know to make your cold brew at home.
Always your friend!!
Katherine
Dribs and Drabs
Fat Kid Rules the World isn’t on Netflix anymore, but someone uploaded a DVD rip to YouTube. (People are upset! Look at the comments!) I was trying to remember which film Art Alexakis had a cameo in (other than Wild), and darn if I know what it was. I know we’re all Instagram friends–but I may never recover from what a kind man he was in the 30 seconds I talked to him. I hope I don’t become a famous writer because I won’t remember to be so gracious. (I should only write crap because then I’ll be off the hook for affecting anyone’s life!)
(Hey! You matter!! You’re special and I’m so glad you’re here!!)
I saw the Postal Service Tuesday and had to seriously talk myself out of going Wednesday. The sound was incredible, and I loved that the band wore all-black for the Death Cab for Cutie/Transatlanticism set and all-white for the Postal Service/Give Up set. I’m glad my friend reminded me they were on tour.
SOURCES (MLA9)
Hill, Katherine. “Sour Cherries (With a Pancake Recipe).” Too Loud And Too Old, Buttondown, 30 Apr. 2023, buttondown.email/KatherineMHill/archive/sour-cherries-with-a-pancake-recipe.
“How to Make the Best Cold Brew with Vietnamese Coffee.” Nguyen Coffee Supply, nguyencoffeesupply.com/blogs/vietnamese-coffee-brew-guide/cold-brew. Accessed 19 Sept. 2023.
Jampel, Sarah. “When I Can’t Be Bothered with Cold Brew, I Make Japanese Iced Coffee Instead.” Bon Appétit, Bon Appétit, 30 May 2020, www.bonappetit.com/story/make-ice-brew-not-cold-brew.
Kang, Matthew. “Make Your Own Cold Brew at Home.” Eater, Eater, 16 June 2020, www.eater.com/2020/6/16/21292281/how-to-make-your-own-cold-brew-at-home.
Kaplan, Ilana. “Twenty Years Later, the Postal Service Is Still Rocking.” Vanity Fair, 19 Sept. 2023, www.vanityfair.com/style/2023/09/twenty-years-later-the-postal-service-is-still-rocking.
“Make the Highest Quality Coffee, However You Brew.” Brew Guides | Blue Bottle Coffee, bluebottlecoffee.com/us/eng/brew-guides. Accessed 19 Sept. 2023.
Pantone. “Beautiful Browns.” Pantone, www.pantone.com/articles/colors/beautiful-browns. Accessed 19 Sept. 2023.
“Pastry Chef Christina Tosi & Conan Make Cereal Milk Cold Brew Coffee.” Team Coco, 16 Apr. 2015, teamcoco.com/video/christina-tosi-cereal-milk-coffee.
Pokorny, Kym. “Used Appropriately, Coffee Grounds Improve Soil and Kill Slugs.” Life at OSU, 23 June 2023, today.oregonstate.edu/news/used-appropriately-coffee-grounds-improve-soil-and-kill-slugs.
Simon, Lucy. “Cold Brew Is so 2015, Here’s Why You Should Drink Iced Coffee.” Food & Wine, Food & Wine, 31 July 2023, www.foodandwine.com/cold-brew-vs-iced-coffee-7567073.
Tosi, Christina. Milk Bar Life: Recipes & Stories. Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 2015.
“Vietnamese Iced Coffee.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 9 July 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_iced_coffee.