Wednesday, August 03, 2016

Homemade Cold Brew Coffee: WOW!

Yesterday, soon after posting about the pros and cons, differences between perked and French Press coffees, I began preparing for today's cold brewed coffee. Yes, it's not something you can have spontaneously. Cold brewed must be made in advance and kept in the refrigerator. From what I researched it can be kept a few days, so you can try to keep a large glass jar full of it, and then make more when it begins to empty. If that's the case, you need a filter; I'm thinking of using the simple "Low-Tech One Cup Coffeemaker Filter" I bought over a year ago. The online sites I found suggested using homemade ones, like cheesecloth and even tying up the coffee grounds in a stocking, which you pull out when the coffee is brewed. Just don't launder the stocking with detergent, or you'll be tasting coffee and soap.

As you'll see, I used my French Press. Photos to follow with instructions:

1- Put the coffee in the container of the French Press or whatever container you will use. Remember that it must be in the refrigerator at least six hours. Mine was prepared about twenty hours before drinking.

2- Fill with tap water and then stir.

3- Cover before putting in fridge. Since there is no cover for my French Press, I used a plastic bag.
Then the following morning, all I had to do to "prepare" my coffee was to removed it from the refrigerator and filter it with the plunger.

4- It came out looking nice a dark.
5- I pressed the plunger to separate the coffee grinds from the luscious liquid coffee and then poured some into the mug.
Neither photo, with or without flash got the color just right. But just forget the color, the coffee was fantastic!! This is the perfect summer coffee. No need for awful diluting ice cubes and a gazillion times better than the fake ice coffee I tried in New York, which used a coffee concentrate. This cold brewed coffee is also less work than my freezing coffee to be added as ice cubes.

Of course the key is advance preparation. I will have to try it and filter in advance for Shabbat.

The bottom line here is:
SUCCESS!

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