Food: Cold Brew Coffee (my first taste, research)

Food: Cold Brew Coffee (my first taste, research)

So I went to the Farmer’s Market at Trail Town on Tanque Verde. It was pretty scant but maybe it was because I went pretty late, in the last half hour.  There were maybe a half dozen booths. But one booth had cold brew coffee from the nano-coffee roaster Lynx.  Yum!  So I asked him how to make it.

He showed me I had to coarse grind it, not fine grind like regular coffee so I took a pic after he ground it.  I should have also taken notes!  I forgot how he told me to make it.  Not to worry, I love mysteries!

Cleo Coyle writes a great coffeehouse mystery series.The last one I checked out from the library, Dead Cold Brew, had a recipe on making … you got it! Cold brew coffee! So I ran back to the library and checked it out again.

So it turns out it’s about the ratio and time.

She recommends 3/4 cups (50 grams) coarsely ground coffee with 4 cups of cold water and suggests a medium dark or dark roast.  Now increased steeping times make the coffee stronger so time can be between 12-20 hours.  Steeping is done in the fridge. She suggests tasting it as 12 hours, then 14 hours, then 16, then 18, then 20.  Stopping, of course, when you like the flavor.  Too long and it’s bitter.  The idea is to find out how strong you like it and stop it there.  However, what you are making is a coffee concentrate so you have to dilute it to taste it.

So I did a quick search around the web to find out what other people suggested. I looked at Merlin Jobst. He says a roughly 1 to 8 coarsely ground coffee to water ratio, letting it steep 18-24 hours in or out of the fridge. Bon Appetit magazine points out common mistakes.  Bon Appetit says that is 1/4 pound of coffee to 4 cups of water. They also suggest 24 hours but you can speed it up if you start with hot water if you need it in 6.

NY Times says 1/3 cup coarsely ground coffee to 1 1/2 cups water at room temperature for 12 hours.  Huh.  I think those guys are in a hurry too. Stumptown Coffee Roasters advocate using this special thingy but I’m going to do it in a glass jar. They say 56 ounces of cold water to 3/4 lb coffee and 12-24 hours in the fridge, preferably 16.

And everybody says you should filter it at least twice! That’s why coarse ground is important — so it’s easier to filter out the grounds.  Cheesecloths and coffee filters are favorite choices. However, a paper towel will do in a pinch

I bought the 13 oz Ethiopian Sidamo from Lynx, a nano-coffee roaster.  It’s a direct trade so it was a little pricey.  $13 which I don’t usually pay for coffee.  I’m a budget sales type of girl.  But it was soooo good!  And you should smell it! It smells awesome. So I splurged.

So I am making my cold brew with the Lynx beans using Cleo’s recipe.  You can download the pdf recipe file here. Scroll down to just after the cannoli cupcake picture to click the link. I am going to use my empty Classico spaghetti sauce jars (after a sniff test, apparently coffee picks up scents pretty easily).

Crosses my fingers.  I hope I don’t screw this up. Be back in 16 hours  (Note: 2am: can’t find my darn coffee bean grinder.  Will have to put this off until tomorrow.   Maybe Carol has one I can borrow)

References:
Farmer's market Fridays 8am-noon 
Trail Dust Town 
6541 E. Tanque Verde 
Tucson, AZ 85715 

Lynx Coffee Roasters
Dead Cold Brew by Cleo Coyle
Cleo’s recipe pdf under the cupcake img
How to make cold brew coffee by Merlin Jobst
Cold Brew Common Mistakes *You* Would Never Make By Rochelle Bilow, Bon Appetit
Cold-Brewed Iced Coffee by New York Times
Brew with Filtron by Stumpton Coffee Roasters

The above Amazon links are Cleo Coyle’s mystery novel Dead Cold Brew, a reference coffee book by Merlin Jobst (64 pgs infographic explaining 25 coffee drinks), and a Bon Appetit magazine subscription.

disclaimer: I signed up as an Amazon associate. I should get a percentage back if anybody buys anything at Amazon through my links. (They don’t decide if they accept you until they look at your site after a first purchase. I haven’t been accepted yet but I hope to be.) Books are 4.5% but other things vary from 0-10%. I am thinking of doing a monthly income report like I saw at a couple of budget blogs but haven’t decided yet. I think Amazon requires the following text but I’m not sure as I’ve looked at different sites and some sites have their disclaimer in their own words. “We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.”

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