Iced Coffee vs. Cold Brew
IMAGE BY: J. BURNS @JBURNS.PHOTO
The air is getting warmer and the days longer. The sandals are coming out of our closets and our winter coats are going back in. Summertime is upon us, or better yet, Cold Brew Season is already here. Now, cold brew has claimed the hearts of many summertime coffee drinkers around the world, but it hasn’t been long since we were all just as smitten with its preceding coffee cousin, simple iced coffee.
But what is the difference between iced coffee and cold brew, you ask? Allow us to explain.
Iced coffee was most likely invented not by a genius coffee drinker, but instead a lazy one. One who made a regular cup of drip coffee, forgot about it, allowing it to sit to cool on their counter before remembering to come back and drink it. Too lazy to brew another fresh cup or perhaps not wanting to be wasteful, he decided to drink it cold instead. Because it was already cold, he thought, “why not just turn this into a refreshing iced drink to enjoy,” and threw some ice cubes in there to test it out. Little did he know, he had started the cold coffee revolution.
Anatomy of an Iced Coffee
Unbeknownst to some, iced coffee is rather simple in that way. It is a regular drip coffee that has been thrown over ice, sometimes adding a splash of milk, sugar, or a flavored syrup if you’re feeling fancy. Iced coffee was once drip coffee, medium grind, 1:15 ratio coffee to water, and brewed with 200 degree water for a finished cup in about 5 minutes. Sometimes the coffee is allowed to cool before throwing it over ice, sometimes not. Iced coffee will do the trick for quenching one's thirst while caffeinating the consumer at the same time. But because coffee is both an art and a science, the coffee industry decided to step up the cold coffee game a notch...and thus Cold Brew Coffee was born.
Anatomy of a Cold Brew Coffee
Cold Brew Coffee is stronger, more flavorful, less acidic, sweeter, and contains more caffeine than its iced predecessor. Cold brew coffee follows a 1:1 ratio (for concentrate), meaning 1 pound of coffee for 1 gallon of water, and is ground coarse. It steeps in cold water for a full 24 hours. This allows for more flavor and caffeine extraction, while avoiding the bitterness that sometimes results from brewing with hot water. It also creates a fuller mouth feel.
After the 24 hours, you can pour the coffee/water mixture through a filter and into a beverage container for an extremely potent cold brew concentrate. Everyone has their own specific preference, but we recommend cutting the cold brew with purified water for a 2:1 ratio. Two parts coffee, one part water for a strong cup of cold brew. Or to make an iced cold brew latte, cut the concentrate 2:1 with your milk of choice. We recommend oat milk for a full and creamy cup.
Bonus: Make ice cubes out of the same cold brew you’re drinking in liquid form. That way, when the cubes melt, the flavor doesn’t get diluted as well.
Whether you prefer classic iced coffee or cold brew in the summer, we wish you many warm and sunny days to enjoy your favorite refreshing drink. We hope you soak in each and every last ray of summer, before we inevitably transition back into fall and winter, aka hot coffee season.