Cold Brew

[lindag]

I tried Starbucks (bottled) cold brew coffee yesterday for the first time and was surprised at just how good it was.

Now I'm going to start making my own with the brew packs that Starbucks offers.  It's a nice change from my usual iced tea

[heidih]

Black or with some sort of creamer in bottle you had?

[lindag]

i

13 minutes ago, heidih said:

Black or with some sort of creamer in bottle you had?

 

 

I poured the brew over ice and added some whole milk...delicious.

 

 

[haresfur]

I don't know these brew packs. I use a French Press and brew for a half day in the fridge. I hacked together a cold drip system but it is more of a pain and doesn't seem significantly better, although I need to do a side-by-side test.

 

Cold brew in fizzy water is surprisingly ok.

[Smithy]

3 hours ago, haresfur said:

 Cold brew in fizzy water is surprisingly ok.

 

That IS a surprising concept to me! Please tell more. Do you brew the coffee in cold fizzy water, or do you brew in still water and then dilute with the fizzy stuff?

[haresfur]

4 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

That IS a surprising concept to me! Please tell more. Do you brew the coffee in cold fizzy water, or do you brew in still water and then dilute with the fizzy stuff?

 

Yeah, I don't know where my coffee man came up with it. You use the mineral water to dilute the coffee concentrate.

[barolo]

3 hours ago, haresfur said:

 

Yeah, I don't know where my coffee man came up with it. You use the mineral water to dilute the coffee concentrate.

Sort of like a homemade version of nitro brew maybe? 

[haresfur]

5 hours ago, barolo said:

Sort of like a homemade version of nitro brew maybe? 

 

Probably the only water bottles he had when he first started selling it. They would crack open the screw top, pour a little out, add cold brew then re-cap. They also do cold brew with milk and vanilla syrup, but I'm not big on that.

[rustwood]

I wonder if carbonated cold brew is a thing in Japan and/or Asia.  25+ years ago I did product testing for a canned coffee beverage.  I remember there were many different samples.  They were blind, but it was obvious that they varied in levels of sweetness and carbonation.  I believe there were also various flavor formulations and I suspected there were multiple levels of caffeine.  My vague recollection is that the testing was done in advance of a product release in Japan.  At the time, the notion of drinking cold coffee, let alone carbonated coffee, typically seemed very bizarre to those who were sampling it here in the US.

 

Edited July 22, 2018 by rustwood (log)

[lindag]

I made it to the Starbucks kiosk in the grocery store yesterday and found their cold brew boxes

I used one of the bags in a quart jar (pitchers take too much room in the fridge) and added two cups water.

It is steeping in the fridge now and will be ready about 1PM  when I'll remove the coffee bag and add the remaining water.  I plan to make each packet separately and keep one inside and the other in the garage fridge until I need it.  I'm impressed with the taste of the cold brew.  Previously I just made my iced coffee with coffee K-cups but this is really a lot better.

[chromedome]

Here in Canada, the Loblaw's chain sells ready-to-drink cold-brewed coffee in cartons and in single-serve cans. My GF likes her coffee at room temp (don't ask), so my usual morning routine includes making a cup for her when I first get up so it can cool before she rolls out. I bought a carton of the cold-brew once when I was going away for a few days, so she could get her coffee fix without having to wait.

 

She found it perfectly acceptable, if not as good as our usual brand prepared conventionally and allowed to cool. It was far too weak to my taste, though that was a given.