So a colleague in office told me that he likes cold brew coffee. I had tried one in Starbucks but was not really impressed by it so I dismissed it as some hipster brewing method for people with too much time. However, I also know this colleague of mine to have quite a distinguished palate - at least for coffee. So if he said cold brew is good, then it must be good. Perhaps the one in Starbucks had not been up to my standard, so I thought I'll try to brew one myself.
The brewing instrument I use this time is a Hario Mizudashi pot. I bought this pot in Batam 6 years ago and used it to brew tea instead.... Well, now I use it to brew coffee.
As for the coffee itself, I used 100% Java Arabica at 100 grams. The ground has to be medium coarse. A good reason for a medium coarse ground is so that the water can pass through the ground coffee and then through the filter when you pour it in. Coffee connoisseurs might say that it is for better taste and less grimy final solution (whether coarse or fine you'll still see some sludge deposit at the bottom of the container). Well, I'll just say use medium coarse ground and let it stay at that.
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| 100 grams of Java Arabica from Excelso |
The mizudashi pot has a capacity of 600 ml, but the markings is only up to 500 ml. So I only fill it up to 500 ml. The recommended brewing ratio is actually 1:8, so I'll make it up later after the brewing is done. Actually I could have used just 75 grams of ground coffee and 600 ml of water which also comes to 1:8 ratio, but I don't see any reason why I shouldn't make for a stronger tasting brew, so I stick with 100 grams since I will be adding milk later on anyway.
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| Looks like mud, but the fragrance is amazing |
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| All in and ready to wrap |
After the pitcher is all filled up, the next step is to cover all openings with a plastic wrap in order to avoid having the mixture absorb all sorts of funky aroma/smells in the fridge.
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| All wrapped up, ready to steep for 18 hours |
After the pitcher is all wrapped up it's time to let the magic take its course inside the fridge. The minimum recommended time seems to vary from each instructional blog I've read, ranging from 12 hours to 18. I chose to go with 18 for my mix.
And just in case the taste could be too strong, I prepared a sugar solution as well. A normal sugar syrup could be sour, so I added vanilla essence in the sugar solution - 3 tablespoons of sugar in 150 ml of water and 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence.
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| Concentrated sugar syrup with vanilla essence |
After the mixture is done, just store it in the fridge too.
After 18 hours have passed, I removed the ground coffee from the pot and added approximately 100 ml of water in. That makes the ratio 1:6.
When drank in that 1:6 ratio, the taste is indeed very strong; different from Espresso or brewed coffee. There's no sourness, strong bitter taste but not overwhelming. In fact, this method of brewing produces black coffee that tastes much better than hot brew, espresso or Moka Pot. I love how the coffee tastes strong, politely bitter with a tinge of sweetness, smooth and full bodied. In all, I agree with my colleague that this cold brew is good stuff.
Since I like my coffee with milk and sugar I added just that. I always prefer using soy milk instead of normal milk, but in this case I have to say that Hokkaido milk which is very thick, creamy and fragrant produces a very pleasant cold latte which, along with my vanilla sugar solution results in an extremely good cold coffee drink!
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| The final drink: cold brew + Hokkaido milk + vanilla sugar |
Next, I will be trying different mix, combining some robusta beans, just for experimenting and see how the taste turns out.
No closing shots this time.
~ Photos taken with LG G5~
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