Cold-Brewed Coffee
By tinychoices | August 26, 2008
Directly on the heels of our Cold-Brewed Iced Tea post comes this fabulous guest post by our fabulous friend Jenn Cass:
One of my tiny choices: a greener cup of coffee.
A few years ago I heard about some of the horrible practices (slavery and deforestation among them) of the sugar and coffee (and chocolate) industry and decided to buy fair trade and organic sugar and coffee (and chocolate) whenever possible. They now even make a “carbon-free” sugar but I don’t know what exactly that means. Although I admit to buying prepared products containing non-fair trade/organic items on occasion, I really do make a big effort not to buy these ones. Around the same time I heard about the sugar/chocolate/coffee horror stories, I read about cold-brew coffee, tried it out, and have been a convert ever since. There are generally two methods of cold brewing: 1) Full strength method; and 2) Coffee concentrate, which is described below. The basic idea behind both methods is that time, not heat, will brew the coffee. Essentially the coffee grinds are soaked in water for 8-10 hours at room temperature. Not only does cold brewed coffee taste deliciously smooth, it saves energy as you aren’t heating up water for the brewing and if you’re making iced coffee, aren’t then cooling it down again. It also results in waste reduction- cold brew coffee lasts about 14 days once brewed so you can drink what you need as you want it. As a bonus, cold brew coffee has slightly less caffeine and is less acidic than hot-brew so it’s better for your mind and body.
A few more steps to make your coffee greener:
- Use a reusable filter or French press. (I use a gold tone cone filter.)
- Use a reusable travel mug. It keeps your coffee warm or cold, but no need for the throwaway paper or plastic cup.
- Use organic milk or cream.
- Compost your coffee grounds.
Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate:
Makes 9 cups of concentrate, so about 30 cups of full-strength coffee.
There is a contraption to make cold brew coffee called The Toddy (whose recipe I modified to make this one), but it’s basically a gigantic $40 plastic coffee filter. And it requires special throwaway filters. To which I say no thank-you.
Ingredients:
- 1 pound of (coarse to medium) ground coffee (approximately 60 heaping tablespoons or 75 level tablespoons or about 5 cups)
- 10 cups of water
Instructions:
- Put the coffee in a pot. (I usually use a normal hot-brew coffee pot, but any medium sized container will do.) Pour the water over the grounds in a circular motion, being sure to get the grounds wet. Stir up the grounds and water if you don’t think they’ve all become saturated (A chop stick is great for this.)
- Let the coffee sit for 8-12 hours, either on the countertop or in the refrigerator.
- Pour the coffee/water mixture through a coffee filter and into the container you want to store your coffee in. If you are using a French press, you will depress the stopper and pour out the coffee. Now you have your concentrate.
- To make a cup of coffee from concentrate, you can either add hot or cold water. Typical proportions are 1 part concentrate to 3 parts water, milk, or cream. You will most likely find a slightly different ratio that you prefer.
Topics: Food | 13 Comments »
fantastic! i think we’ll try this at home though it may be hard to the break the programmed coffee pot addiction that we seem to have … but, the kicker might be the deletion of said coffee pot from the limited countertop that we have in our kitchen … oh, man, reason alone to do this.
:)
Thanks for the cold coffee recipe – I’ve always wondered how to make it!
I’d further suggest taking some extra time and drinking your coffee at home. Not only is that a green choice, but it makes for a much more relaxing and less stressful morning. :)
my husband and i were just discussing getting a toddy maker so we could do this. i guess we don’t need the fancy equipment after all. thanks!
[...] Cold-Brewed Coffee [...]
that is great! I am definitely going to try for iced coffee / lattes. I was wondering the other day about making “sun coffee” as we make sun tea and it’s so hot and sunny in Northern California that the water practically boils anyway!
[...] November 19, 2008 at 5:22 pm | In WIP, food | following the lead of my pals over at tiny choices, i started a batch of cold-brew [...]
[...] Maybe not the best time to start something, but it was worth it this morning. Here’s the recipe I [...]
there is a great coffee shop in DUMBO i of course can’t thing of the name of it at the moment but they make wonderful cold-brewed coffee the owner is such a nice guy, years ago when it first opened he showed my husband and myself how it works. Anyway…… you should check it out it’s called Coffee Box @ Retreat.
Coffee Box @ Retreat
147 Front Street
#203
Brooklyn, NY 11201
(718) 797-2322
http://www.retreatnyc.com/
Cold brewed coffee is delicious! Especially in the summer when used to make iced coffee. I dump my used grounds directly under my roses and rhododendrons.
[...] again (hallelujah!), and now that the weather’s getting warmer, my thoughts turn to the cold brew coffee discussion we’ve previously had here at [...]
Toddy Coffee is amazing. It’s a very inexpensive system, and the filters are reusable. It’s takes the mess out of making cold brew concentrate and cold brew coffee.
Wonderful! Tried this today and am sitting here, sipping my first cup of cold brewed coffee…delicious!
Elisabeth, let us know your ratio! :)