18 July, 2018
Coffee Coolers
If like me you love your coffee, but are finding it too warm to drink your coffee hot, I may have found some solutions for you! Surprisingly there are a number of ways to enjoy you coffee cold. There are two broad categories, the first being ‘iced coffees’ where the coffee is brewed with hot water and served over ice, the second being ‘cold brew’ where the coffee is prepared using cold water.
If you like milk based coffee drinks then you may opt for an ‘Iced Latte’. This is simply a double espresso shot served over ice in a glass topped up with milk.
If you prefer filter coffee then you may like the ‘Japanese style ice method’ which is similar to drip coffee methods such as the V60. Hot water is poured over coffee grounds in a paper filter onto a bed of ice. This method cools the coffee, capturing the flavours and is ideal for those wishing to enjoy a bright, complex coffee in a short time. Whereas my basic V60 recipe would involve passing 250g of hot water over 15g of coffee grounds, here you would replace 100g of water with ice and therefore only pass 150g of hot water over the coffee grounds. This would be served once the ice has melted.
Similar to this, and becoming increasingly popular, is the ‘Vietnamese iced coffee’. This is also traditionally brewed directly over ice but with condensed milk at the bottom, giving a sweet and rich flavour. It is usually made with very dark beans or even Robusta! Ideal if you love a caffeine kick!
Another way to cool your coffee down is to enjoy it in an ‘Affogato’, which is Italian for “drowned”. Affogato is an Italian coffee based dessert, with the standard recipe being a scoop of cold vanilla gelato topped (or drowned) with a shot of hot espresso. Look out for a future blog post on the Affogato.
Or how about an espresso and tonic? I’m not too sure about this one?! but some people love it! Simply serve a double espresso over ice and top the glass up with tonic water, garnish with a wedge of lemon. I’m not convinced?!
Cold brew coffee has become increasingly popular, not surprising really in the current heatwave! Like the name suggests, this coffee is brewed using cold water! There are various pieces of kit you can use for this, but it is very straight forward to do using the ‘immersion method’. This means immersing the coffee grounds in water for anything from 6-24 hours. As coffee is less soluble with cold water, the brew time must be increased to extract the flavours. The resulting coffee tends to have a milder, less bitter flavour compared to regular coffee. For this reason it’s very appealing to the health conscious as there is no need to add calorie rich syrups, sugar or dairy products. I make cold brew using a ‘Hario 600ml Mizudashi Cold Brew Coffee Pot’, these are available on Amazon for £15. My basic recipe would be to grind 50g of coffee fairly coarsely and add 600g of filtered cold water. I would leave this infuse for 8-12 hours or overnight and it’s ready to go! Obviously different coffees may benefit from finer grinds and shorter brew times or vice versa.
A good idea is to make a batch of ‘cold brew concentrate’. This uses exactly the same immersion method that I’ve just described, with the only difference being the ratio of coffee to water used. Using a 1:8 ratio of coffee to water, I would immerse 60g of coarsely ground coffee in 480g of cold, filtered water. If you remove the ground coffee after 8-12 hours, you can keep the cold brew concentrate in the fridge for up to a week. This concentrate is a versatile starter for many recipes, such as Tiramisu, or cocktails…..
To make an Espresso Martini, fill a cocktail shaker with ice, add 50ml of vodka & 50ml of cold brew concentrate. Shake and strain into a martini glass, garnish with a coffee bean.
To make a cold brew G&T, fill a tall glass with ice cubes, add 30ml of Gin & 30ml of cold brew concentrate, top up with tonic and finish with a garnish of your choice! If you’re using a nutty Brazilian coffee then lime is the perfect garnish, if your using a more delicate Ethiopian coffee then a slice of mango would work well!
Cold brew concentrate can also be used in place of espresso. Adding hot water to it can make a speedy Americano, which can certainly save time on a busy morning!
These are just some ways to enjoy your coffee cold! They are all recipes I have tried myself, with some ideas and information taken from ‘Cold Brew Coffee’ by Chloe Callow.