The onset of summer has been a slow transition this year, delaying the reactionary change that causes some of my regular customers to switch from hot beverages to iced drinks. Iced coffee is a menu item that is popular and yet quite often ignored by the coffee community because there is no expectation of quality. Canned iced coffee is very prevalent in markets such as Japan but like most packaged products it is altered with high amounts of preservatives and sugar. This allows producers to use the lowest grade of coffee possible in order to produce a coffee flavored beverage that is quite inoffensive but in no way represents what a good cup of iced coffee can be.
Brewing good iced coffee is possible but there are many different methods of achieving a well- balanced cup that abides to fundamental principals of brewing, namely freshness. There are 3 techniques that I actively use to produce 3 completely different flavor profiles of iced coffee that you can choose from based on the type of flavors that you enjoy.
1) Cold Brew or “Toddy” Method
Cold brewing is a process that involves soaking coarsely ground coffee in cold water for an extended amount of time, usually overnight for use the next day. You then filter out the grounds and serve cold. Some coffee houses choose to brew at double strength and pour the final product over ice or add chilled milk to achieve a flavor balance. The acidity is reduced by about 70% using the cold brew method because the brew is completed without heat. There is still a great amount of flavor solids in the cold coffee but the intensity of the brew seems quite mild because of the chemical profile created from leaching the coffee from the beans as opposed to a heated brew. Cold brew has a fairly good shelf life if kept refrigerated, although it loses it’s luster after a few days and is best served as fresh as possible.
Stumptown has recently utilized the cold brew method for use in their stubby-bottled ice coffee. They include an expiry date to emphasize the importance of freshness.
2) Cold Drip Method
The cold drip method is achieved by slowly dripping room temperature water over a bed of finely ground coffee for a period of 6 to 8 hours. An apparatus controls the flow of the dripping water, which is important because the flow of the drips affects the flavor of the final beverage. The water from the cold drip process is not in constant contact with the ground coffee, which differs from the full-immersion process of the cold brew method. The flavor of the cold drip coffee is quite bold and almost alcoholic in flavor. Most iced coffee in North America is served as a large portion, but I find that cold drip iced coffee is very satisfying as a 5oz portion served over ice. There is enough flavor to cut through the ice and the small portion allows you to enjoy the brew before its ferment-like tastes become obnoxious.
3) Concentrated Brew Over Ice
You can use any hot brewing method to produce a concentrate that is poured over ice resulting in a balance. Using a larger amount of coffee ground slightly finer than a standard brew produces the concentrate. The amount of hot water used to brew the coffee is also decreased because the ice adds to the volume of the final beverage. Coffee brewed in this manner has a brilliant acidity that you don’t get in other iced brew methods because they lack the use of heat to extract the coffee. I choose to serve coffee produced in this manner over ice because the acidity adds to the perceived brew strength. Coffees with a naturally higher acidity seem to shine using this method.
Although a brewer is my method of choice, any brew method can be utilized to produce a concentrate to pour over ice.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Can you get the Stumptown stubby in Vancouver?
Not that I’m aware of. I had a friend bring some back for me when he took a trip down to Portland. I believe that they bottle them at one of the locations and date the expiry for a week after it’s bottled. Shipping to Canada would take 2 to 3 days leaving a small window to sell them and add to the cost of what is certain to be expensive packaging. They’ve definitely set the bar… I’m also not sure if Stumptown Seattle has them but I imagine that they do.
dopio on ice… my iced beverage of choice.
Hi Colter,
At your cafe I have had the cold drip method. It is delicious, as you said, for the first 3/4 of the cup. Near the end, though, it does taste obnoxious. That notwithstanding, it remains my drink of choice during the summer.
At my home in Salt Spring, our drinking water while safe tastes dirty and creates a coffee that tastes different than coffee does in Vancouver. This started me thinking about what waters combine best with which coffees? For instance, does an fruity tasting coffee brew best with glacial water? Does a dark, earthy tasting coffee brew best with the muddy tasting waters of Saint Mary’s lake? Our water in Salt Spring certainly seems to be deleterious on the flavor of fruity coffees.
There might be room for the creation of a unmapped territory of coffee knowledge.
Water is definitely an x- factor in any sort of brewing. Every cafe that I’ve ever worked in has had some sort of filtration system that filters out imperfections. There are even some systems that add a concentrate of minerals to a reservoir in order to remineralize the filtered water before it goes into the espresso boiler. We are lucky to have fantastic water here in Vancouver but I’ve never actually read any research on what is considered to be optimal water for brewing. I’ll try to find something for you.
Thanks. Perhaps you can tell me face-to-face about that research next week.