What is Cold Brew?

Cold brew is simply coffee that has been brewed with cold rather than hot water and usually involves a long steeping process—anywhere between 12-24 hours. In terms of flavour, cold brew is generally characterized as smooth, low-acid, and heavier than its hot-brewed counterparts. Cold Brew is made by steeping coarse-to-medium ground coffee beans in cold water in a room. The brew then is generally a concentrate and is diluted with plain water before drinking and it is usually refrigerated after brewing.

Although cold brew has been around for centuries, it’s really in the last ten years that it’s become a staple on coffee shop menus and recognizable by most coffee drinkers—a 2019 study by the National Coffee Association shows that 80% of respondents under 40 know what cold brew is and that 20% drink cold brew occasionally. That was not the case in 2010. Communicating the difference between iced coffee and cold brew was difficult, let alone trying to convince people that this thing called cold brew that comes in an amber stubby bottle isn’t beer.

How Do You Make Cold Brew?

Cold brew is a great drink for folks who’ve never brewed coffee at home because precision isn’t as important as with other brewing methods. You don’t need a scale or a kettle or anything. All you need is a brewing vessel, coffee, water, and patience.

If I had to write the simplest recipe for cold brew, it’d be this: grind coffee coarsely, add water, let sit, and strain. One of the unique things about cold brew is that you’re not brewing it to make a final product, but rather a concentrate, which you can dilute to your desired tastes with things like water, milk, or ice, so you can be a little less particular about the exact amount of water and grounds you use. Cold brew uses the time to extract the colour, flavour, and oils, from 12 to 18 hours, ending up in a strong, concentrated form. It is usually diluted before drinking, although serious coffee addicts have been known to drink it “straight”.

At Kafo we use Toddy which uses both a paper filter and a felt disc to produce an ultra-clean cup that’s nuanced and smooth and can hold up well to the additions of milk and sugar. Like the world over, we also believe that the Toddy cold brewer makes a superb beverage with the right coffee & water combination over time.

Cold brew vs Iced coffee: What’s the difference?

Iced coffee is made by pouring regular coffee over ice cubes. It can be straight black coffee or pre-mixed with milk and flavourings such as vanilla syrup. In some stores, the coffee is first blended with the ice in a blender, and this is known as a frappe.

Cold brew is coffee brewed in cold water for hours and is stored under refrigeration. It has a smoother, more intense flavour than iced coffee, and can be served over ice but is not usually blended with ice. It is popularly served with cream and with sweet vanilla cream.

Brewed in cold water, Cold brew is sweeter, less intense, and not as acidic as regular iced coffee, although having said that the aroma and flavour can be stronger and richer.

What Kind of Coffee Should I Use for Cold Brew?

At Kafo, we pick the best coffee for cold brew – Single Origin, 100% Arabica AA. Cold brew tends to have a heavy, chocolatey flavour to it with low acidity, so sometimes baristas tend to favour coffees that lean into those flavours, like ones from high altitudes.

However, coffees with pronounced fruitiness can flourish in cold brew.  In Kafo, I think the acidity of lighter roasted coffee shines in cold brew against the sweet profile that cold water extraction provides, noting that how you drink your coffee might affect what you choose to brew: a lighter roasted coffee does best when enjoyed without milk and a heavier coffee can stand up to milk and sugar. It’s down to personal preference and how coffee lovers take their coffee. We will have a suitable palate for all to enjoy their favourite coffee. 

Perhaps more critical than the coffee we choose is the water we use to brew. Good water is huge. Coffee is ~98% water so it’s super important that we think the water we’re brewing with tastes good. We use filtered water with TDS between 90-150.

Does Cold Brew Have More Caffeine Than Hot Coffee?

Usually yes, but that’s a numbers game rather than a brewing one. There’s nothing inherent to cold brew that makes it a more caffeinated drink than the amount of coffee used to brew it.

Most hot coffee is brewed using 14-18 grams of water per gram of coffee. Cold brew is made using a tighter ratio—Kafo recommends starting with 12 ounces (340g) of coffee to 64 ounces (1814g) of water at 25oC temperature, which is a much higher ratio of coffee to water, than making hot coffee. We then recommend cutting the brewed concentrate with one part concentrate to one part water, which makes the final drink less intense than the concentrate, but still slightly stronger than a cup of drip coffee. Brewing coffee is all about using water to extract flavour (and caffeine!) out of ground coffee, and there’s no magical process that extracts more caffeine when brewing with cold water. So, cold brew is made with more grounds per serving so the result is the caffeine in the cold brew is a little higher than with hot coffee, because more coffee is used to make the same size serving.

Is cold brew stronger than “regular” coffee?

Cold brew is generally smooth with a less bitter taste than regular coffee because the acidic compounds that are extracted during the hot water method are not extracted with the cold brewing method. Cold brew is not actually any stronger than regular coffee provided it is diluted and not drunk in its concentrated form. However, it tastes stronger for a fairly scientific reason: Hot water extracts what is called the “volatile” compounds that evaporate into the air giving that coffee smell and aroma. These are not extracted by the cold brewing method and so do not evaporate but stay in the coffee.

That is why cold brew does not have the same aroma as hot coffee, but since the volatile compounds are “trapped” in the coffee it has a stronger coffee flavour when tasted.

How Long Does Cold Brew Last? 

Cold brew will usually last 30-45 days in the fridge. It all depends on personal taste. I know many coffee connoisseurs who like the tanginess of cold brew coffee even after 60 days. If your coffee tastes funky and don’t like it after a certain date, you finish your cold brew within that date. Simple …

The future of cold brew on this planet

No other coffee drink has disrupted the coffee industry as significantly as cold brew coffee. As a unique brewing method, it furthers the artistry of coffee and makes it more accessible to the general public. Cold brew coffee only seems to grow in popularity, as Grand View Research projects that the global cold brew coffee market will grow at a “compound annual growth rate of 25.1% from 2019 to 2025 to reach USD 1.63 billion by 2025.”  (Source)