Cold Press Coffee – Easy, Wonderful and Smooth!
By Saintless. Filed in Food |
Cold press coffee is just about the most wonderful thing in the whole wide world! And it’s easy! To make cold press coffee, your only goal is to let coffee and cold water sit together for a while. So, it’s hard to mess up, and doesn’t take much effort.
The first thing you need to do is get out your supplies. I use a French Press, but you could also use cheesecloth. You want to be sure to use a glass container, no matter what you do. Coffee is highly acidic, and you don’t want plastic or metals screwing with your flavor.
When you grind your beans, you want a very coarse grind. It’s ok if your ground beans still have chunks of recognizable beans in them. You definitely don’t want a fine grind. Since it will be sitting around, those larger chunks will release their flavor into the water.
Your taste will vary, but I like my coffee very strong. So, adjust your coffee amount based on what works for you. I use about 3/4 of a cup of ground coffee for my French Press.
After putting the ground coffee into the French Press, add cold tap water. You’ll want to stir it about halfway through adding water, as the beans tend to sit on top and hold air. Use a wooden spoon for this. After you get the water added, stir again. The beans will float on top until they’ve absorbed water, and then they’ll drop to the bottom.
Cover the French Press with plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge for 12 – 24 hours. You’ll want to use a wooden spoon to stir the coffee 1 or 2 times during refrigeration. If you forget about it, it’s not too big of a deal. But, it helps bring out the most flavor in your coffee.
Yes, the Pink Skull and Crossbones coffee mug makes it taste better.
I often drink this straight, but it can also be mixed with alcohol (spiced rum or espresso flavored coffee go well with it!) or watered down to the right flavor for you. If you like cream in your coffee, I recommend using a high-fat cream – half and half at the very least. Although, I’m generally of the opinion that cream and sugar are for people who don’t like coffee. If you’re one of those people, then cold-brew is especially for you! Please try this without any added ingredients before doctoring it up!
Oh, and if you use it in a recipe (such as Julia Childs’ Perfect Mousse) you’ll also want to go strong. I like this coffee cold, but some mornings really call for a hot cup of java, so I do microwave it sometimes. You’ll notice that the result is a very flavorful coffee, without being bitter, or overly acidic, since there’s no heat involved in the brewing process.
Bon Appétit!
Tags: coffee, cold press coffee, French Press
Sunday, May 2nd 2010 at 11:03 pm |
i’ve always wanted to know how to make this. i don’t own a french press. why do i feel like i just told you a deep, dark secret? anyway. it’s something i’ve always meant to google and just never have. thanks for sharing.
Monday, July 12th 2010 at 7:37 pm |
Hi Misty,
I gotta say, awesome post. Not that it’s somehow miraculous or anything, I just found it extremely useful because I am a constant coffee shop goer and coffee and tea product drinker. I usually do school work at these coffee shops but with this, I can save money by making mine taste consistently good and go elsewhere, like the outdoors since now I can tether my phone to my laptop and get an internet signal almost anywhere.
Anyway, thanks for the post, I will be trying this soon.
Vitaliy