Cold Brew Coffee: Best Cold Brew Ratio and How To Make Cold Brew Coffee

Looking to switch your daily routine up a little? Feeling the heat of the summer? Cold brew coffee is a wonderful way to enjoy coffee, and perhaps even discover new flavor dimensions in your favorite coffee beans.

If you've been buying pricey, fancy cold brew coffee from a coffee shop, or even if you already have the best home coffee machine, this guide will introduce you to the joys of making cold brew at home using equipment you already have. If you don't own a cold brew coffee maker, we suggest you go out and buy one before summer!

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What is Cold Brew Coffee?

Instead of using hot water, you make cold brew coffee by steeping coffee grounds in cold water or room temperature water for 12-24 hours. The resulting coffee (usually a concentrate) is a rich, syrupy smooth brew with little acidity. More importantly, cold brew coffee isn't as demanding as an espresso or a pour-over coffee in terms of cost, equipment, or skill.

Cold brew coffee has been gaining popularity due to its simplicity, and numerous health claims have been made about it. However, we believe in sharing only accurate and scientifically backed information. Based on our knowledge and experience, cold brew coffee has no health benefits over your regular cup of coffee. But if you're trying to cut down on sodas or alcohol, this will certainly be a healthier choice!

Difference Between Cold Brew and Iced Coffee

Iced coffee isn't much of a joy to drink: it tends to be watery and weak, since you're basically diluting coffee that was meant to be served hot in the first place. Even coffee that's brewed hot and then chilled without ice isn't very pleasant to drink, because cold temperatures magnify acidity and dull sweet flavors. Try eating chilled fruit straight out of the refrigerator vs. letting it warm up on the counter for 15 minutes, and you'll know what we mean.

Cold brew, on the other hand, is brewed with cold water to begin with. Scientifically speaking (bear with us a little here), the chemical reactions and flavor compounds extracted from the coffee are naturally quite different. Cold brew coffee recipes have also been tweaked over time to provide what we desire from a cold beverage: It's light, sweet, and refreshing. The best part? It's ridiculously easy to make. If you're not a fan of iced coffee, this will change your mind. If you do like it, you'll love cold brew coffee.

How to Make Cold Brew Coffee

Cold brew coffee is one of the most popular beverages ordered, whether at cafés like Starbucks or at a specialty coffee shop. That said, it's usually pretty expensive considering how easy it is to make compared to hot brewing methods like pour-over/drip coffee or using an espresso machine. Here's a cold brew coffee recipe that's as basic as it gets:

Basic cold brew coffee recipe: what you'll need

• 8oz whole coffee beans of your choice
• Coffee grinder
• A large mason jar, carafe, or French press
• A nut milk bag, cheesecloth, or fine-mesh sieve
• 8 cups (64oz) cool/cold filtered water 

1. Prepare your cold brew coffee grounds

Cold brew coffee needs to be made with the best coffee for cold brew. Then, you'll need coarsely ground coffee that's around the size of raw sugar. This prevents the coffee from getting bitter as it's immersed for a long time.

Most pre-ground coffee in stores will be too fine for your needs, so you'll need to specifically request for a cold brew coarse grind when ordering coffee beans, or get whole coffee beans and grind them yourself with a coffee grinder. 

2. Decide on your cold brew coffee ratio

When making cold brew coffee, you'll need to use higher coffee to water ratio. There are two reasons for this. First, due to the nature of the coffee extraction process, the brew usually has a milder taste. Second, people often add ice or milk to cold brew, so it needs to be more concentrated to begin with.

Our recipe here uses a ratio of 1 part coffee to 8 parts water. That means 1oz coffee to 1 cup (8 fluid oz) of water. Alternatively, if you prefer to go by weight, use 100g of coffee to 500g water. We recommend making your cold brew in big batches as the flavor does vary when you brew a small vs. large amount. Plus, it takes a long time to make so you might as well be efficient about it!

This should give you a nice balanced cold brew coffee concentrate that you can serve with ice or milk to make a better-tasting iced coffee, and you can tweak the ratio by adding water to make it stronger or milder.

Pro Tip: Although you don't have to be exacting over water temperature here, remember that water quality has a huge influence on the taste of your final product. It's best to use distilled or filtered water for brewing, especially if you live in a region with hard water or heavily treated tap water.

3. Steep your coffee

Place your coarsely ground coffee in your mason jar/carafe. If you're using a French press to make your cold brew, simply pour the grounds into the French press, insert the plunger, then add water. Start your timer for at least 12 hours or simply leave it overnight.

If possible, keep the mixture at a consistent cool temperature. It's best to store it in the fridge, especially if your kitchen is typically warm or has large temperature fluctuations throughout the day. Don't leave it next to the oven or anywhere it might heat up!

After some time, pour out a little of your brew to test its flavor. 12 hours is the minimum, and at this point it's likely to still taste weak and watery compared to your usual cup of coffee. Don't leave it for more than 24 hours, though - when steeped for too long, your brew will end up over-extracted, tasting bitter and astringent.

4. Strain the coffee and enjoy

Once your cold brew coffee taste is to your liking, it's time to strain the coffee. Slowly pour the coffee through a piece of cheese cloth or a nut milk bag, or filter it through a pour-over coffee maker with a filter (like the Chemex or V60). This will take some time, but resist the urge to rush the process by squeezing or forcing the coffee through your strainer/filter.

Once your cold brew concentrate is filtered and ready to serve, you can cut it to your desired strength. Or, feel free to add a splash of milk or cream to your coffee and savor your very own cold brew. 

What To Consider When Making Cold Brew

As you learn to make cold brew coffee, you may find that your brews just don't seem to taste as *magical* as the ones you've tried at a coffee shop or purchased online. However, commercial brewers have certain resources that are difficult to acquire at home, such as:

Quality water

If you're familiar with coffee brewing, you already know that water quality plays a vital role in the resulting flavors of your brew. When it comes to cold brew, this becomes even more important. Professional baristas use extensive filtration systems to ensure their water contains the right minerals. You can replicate this by getting specialty products like Third Wave Water.

Quality ground coffee

While cold brew coffee is easy to make, it's essentially ground coffee immersed in water. Once you've perfected some recipes, the only way to get better tasting cold brew is to invest in better coffee beans. Get freshly-roasted coffee beans instead of something off the supermarket shelf, and use a good coffee grinder that allows you to fine-tune the grind size for different beans.

Pro Tip: If you want to make the best cold brew coffee, we recommend our Maineiac Blend for a balanced, flavorful and crisp refreshing drink.

Controlled steeping environment

If you're experimenting with cold brew coffee just for your own enjoyment, it won't matter if you use 60°F or 70°F water. It also won't matter if you leave the coffee on your counter or in the fridge. But after enough brews, you may start to notice each batch tastes different. This is when you'll realize that having as few variables as possible (besides different coffee beans) matters. Commercial brewers also try to minimize exposure to oxygen when brewing.

Additives

You may not like to hear this, but your favorite bottled cold brew coffee may not be as pure as you think. Some mass-market brands may add flavorings or preservatives to reduce manufacturing costs or enhance shelf life of their cold brew, and this no doubt alters the taste of the drink. 

Cold Brew Ratio

In order to make the best cold brew, you'll need to figure out how strong you like your coffee. We typically recommend a ratio of one cup of ground coffee to four cups of water. Depending on your preferences and the machine you use, you can simply adjust that ratio as needed.

Best Cold Brew Coffee Maker

Crafting cold brew coffee at home is as simple as putting coffee and water together, but you can make it even more hassle-free and avoid having to wrestle around with cheese cloth or strainers. Just get a purpose-built cold brew coffee maker! Here are some of the most popular ones, and our thoughts on them.

1. KitchenAid Cold Brew Coffee Maker

Simple and practical, the KitchenAid cold brew coffee maker can make 28oz (1.06 kg) or 38oz of coffee concentrate for easy drinking. It even comes with a handle and tap so you can easily carry it around and dispense the desired amount for drinking.

Pros:

• The entire coffeemaker uses glass and stainless steel parts so there's no risk of chemicals or unwanted compounds leaching into your coffee

Cons:

• There have been occasional reports of leaking from the tap; make sure you purchase from a retailer that allows returns 

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2. Cuisinart Automatic Cold Brew Coffeemaker

Cuisinart is an established leader in kitchen appliances, and the DCB-10 shows why. Instead of taking a whole day to make cold brew coffee, this automatic cold brew coffee maker produces your perfect cup of cold brew in less than 30 minutes!

It does this by spinning the ground coffee that you add to the machine, thereby agitating the coffee mixture and increasing the rate of infusion. And by "your perfect cup", we mean that the Cuisinart DCB-10 lets you choose between mild, medium, and bold strength settings for your coffee.

Pros:

• Makes consistent-tasting cold brew coffee that doesn't require hours of manual labor

Cons:

• Use of agitation to speed up brewing means coffee tends to come out muddy and with more astringent flavors
• Many users have complained about the flimsy coffee filter

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3. Toddy Cold Brew System

This is the exact system Starbucks uses to make their cold brew, so it's entirely possible for you to make your own cold brew at home. While it isn't much of a looker, it's simple and straightforward to use if you want to start learning to make cold brew without investing too much into it.

Pros:

• The large felt filter really does give a smooth and less acidic coffee
• Easy to clean out spent coffee grounds if you use the paper filter bag (or a nut milk bag)

Cons:

• Plastic brewing container feels flimsy (and some people have broken the handles from the weight of the cold brew)
• Rubber stopper is a hassle to unplug and can get messy 

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4. OXO Brew Compact Cold Brew Coffee Maker

We actually prefer the OXO Brew Compact over its more popular sibling, the 32 ounce version. While it has only half the brewing capacity (16oz), it simply has fewer moving parts, looks sleeker, and is just as easy to use. If you prefer to make a cold brew concentrate and dilute it as you drink, this will be perfect for you.

Pros:

• Uses a stainless steel mesh for clean filtering - this gave us a clean, smooth brew even from darker roast beans

Cons:

• Coffee will not filter through if your grounds are even slightly too fine - if your grinder is already at its maximum setting, that means you're stuck
• Glass carafe is on the thin side  

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5. Dash Cold Brew Coffee Maker

The Dash Rapid Cold Brew makes an even bolder claim than Cuisinart: It can make cold brew coffee in just 5 minutes. The technology behind is it pretty cool: it uses a siphoning system to rapidly run water through your ground coffee, so the result is a cold brew that's as fast as a hot one.

Pros:

• The carafe appears to magically fill itself, which is pretty fun
• The coffee is well filtered, with great clarity and little sediment
• Customer service is apparently fantastic

Cons:

• Most of it is plastic; it feels very light and cheaply constructed
• The base, with its exposed electrical parts, can be dangerous in a wet kitchen. If you spill anything on the base, be careful to unplug it and wipe it dry with a paper towel.

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6. Takeya Cold Brew & Iced Coffee Maker

Need the traditional cold brewing process with all those delicious natural coffee flavor extraction to your cup? The Takeya cold brew & iced coffee maker could well serve your cravings.

This shatterproof and dishwasher-safe coffee maker is a product that is backed with 55 years of Japanese design heritage and some renowned skills and expertise by coffee experts.

Lightweight & Easy to Handle

The new deluxe cold brewer is made from high quality BPA-free Tritan and is a stain, cloud and odor proof product. The airtight lid also makes it a leak-proof coffee maker and is perfect for storing or shaking on the lid side.

Smooth Taste with Less Acidic Feels

One of the outstanding features of this coffee maker is its ability to give you cold-brew cups of coffee with all the natural flavors and very less acidity. The final taste is a smooth, well-balanced and a full-bodied concentrated drink that is perfect for both, cold brew and iced coffee.

Fine Mesh Filter Keeps Grounds Out of Your Cup

The filter of this coffee maker is perfectly designed to keep all the unwanted coffee grounds out of your cup. Efficient filters is not something that you will find in a lot of coffee makers within this price range.

Pros

• Price affordability
• Fine mesh coffee filter keeps grounds out
• Dishwasher safe
• BPA-free product
• Less acidic and balanced taste

Cons

• There is no fill line on the pitcher, so you need to watch out for the water level
• Since it has a pretty low price, the built quality is not something that would last for a relatively longer time 

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7. Bean Envy Cold Brew Coffee Maker

The Bean Envy is another good choice for home cold brewing, in fact, our favorite. The 32 oz. capacity is adequate for a family or even for a small workplace setup. This beverage brewed from this coffee maker gives you 70% less acidic per brew as compared to a traditional iced coffee.

Make Your Cold Brewing Fun & Easy

This cold brewer is quite convenient, quick and easy to use. All you have to do is pour your favorite coffee, add water and let it brew between 12-24 hours. The FDA food grade filter makes sure there is no mess whatsoever.

Enhanced Build Quality & Design

The design and build quality is a lot better than what you might get from other products in this category and price bracket. The 304 stainless steel filter and lid, shock-resistant borosilicate carafe and a non-slip base design – all this makes it a durable product.

Less Acidity, Better Final Taste

With 70% lesser acidity per brew than the traditional iced cup of coffee, Bean Envy has mastered the art of manufacturing the perfect cold brewer that gives you high quality brewing and delicious cold brew beverages.

Pros

• 32 oz. quantity perfect for homemade cold and iced coffee
• Comes with a non-slip silicone base design
• Easy to operate
• Easy to clean
• Decently priced

Cons

• Some users have reported that the rubber gasket keeps slipping off
• The filter has holes on the sides instead at the bottom, makes it a little harder to clean as compared to rival products

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8. Willow & Everett Cold Brew Coffee Maker

This cold brewer gives you a good, decent quantity of cold brew coffee while maintaining delicious and delightful taste. The stainless steel spout and custom designed filter adds more to the convenience and better brew quality.

Once you get this product, you won’t be buying those expensive drinks at the coffee shops anymore.

Keep Your Coffee Fresh for 2 Weeks

The perfectly-designed lid ensures freshness for up to 2 weeks since it has been brewed. This is a big sigh of relief, especially when you are too occupied throughout the week and only have the weekend to brew your cold coffee.

Quantity Enough for 16 Cups

The capacity of this brewer is good enough to brew 16 cups of coffee at once. At the same time, it is designed in a way to perfectly fit in your refrigerator.

Adjustable Steel Spout & Custom Designed Filter

The adjustable stainless steel spout makes it an easy-to-use brewer. You can control the flow of the liquid from a slow drip to a powerful stream.

The custom designed filter is made using fine mesh that makes sure there are no coffee grounds or reside that can pass on to your cup.

Pros

• 1 gallon capacity, perfect for 16 cups
• Sealing lid keeps the coffee fresh for up to 2 weeks
• Comes with adjustable steel spout and custom designed filter
• No mess
• Easy cleaning

Cons

• Some consumers of this product have reported below average customer service by the manufacturer

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9. Kitchentoolz Premium Coffee Maker

Need a home cold brewer than can serve your cold brew coffee needs for both small and large scale brewing? Well, in that case, this coffee maker is the product for you.

Easy Pour Spigot

This coffee brewer comes with an adjustable pour spigot that makes it easy to maintain the flow of the cold brew coffee.

Easy Cleaning

The dishwasher-safe glass takes all the hassle away as far as cleaning is concerned. The custom easy-rinse filter adds more to the washing convenience.

Keeps Coffee Fresh & Delicious

The airtight screw-on lid ensures coffee freshness and also avoids any spills, eventually avoiding any mess in your fridge or on the table.

Perfect for Family Occasions and Events

With a 2 gallon capacity, this coffee brewer works well especially during family gatherings and dinners, where you need large scale brewing at once. This brewer can make around 32 servings at once.

Pros

• 2 gallon capacity
• Comes with an airtight metal filter to maintain freshness
• Brews around 32 cups at once
• Better after sales support than rival products
• Easy to use and clean

Cons

• Some users have reported issues with filter and glass design, they are weak as compared to competitor products within the same range
• At times it might drip if the liquid is at full capacity

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10. Shanik Cold Brew Coffee Maker

If you are looking for a sleek design, strong built quality, hassle-free cleaning and the perfect taste to your cold brew, the Shanik cold brew coffee maker might just be the right option for you.

This device ensures all the freshness and aroma remains intact when you have that first sip of your cold brew coffee. Furthermore, it also lets you make your favorite iced tea as well. No, we do not discriminate against tea drinkers, we just chuckle a little behind your backs. 

Stainless Steel Design

Using the best quality materials, this coffee maker has a stainless steel filter to ensure durability, quality brew and rust-free washing and cleaning.

Silicone Base for Added Safety

The glass-made coffee maker can be vulnerable to an accident if the base is too stiff or hard. The silicone base keeps the glass from breaking, eventually keeping you safe and extending the life of the product.

Silicone Lid Keeps Coffee Fresh

In addition to the base, this coffee maker also comes with a silicone lid that assists in an airtight seal in order to keep your tea or coffee as fresh as possible. If you take out one cup and decide to consume the rest later on, this lid will help maintain the same freshness and taste.

Easy Cleaning & Washing

Nobody wants to buy a coffee maker that requires too much work and effort in order to clean it up, right? Well, the Shanik cold brew coffee maker comes with extra-long cleaning brushes that cleans of all the coffee residue for easy and effective cleaning.

Pros

• 48 oz. liquid capacity
• Comes with a handle and spout for easy handling
• Stainless steel compact design
• High build quality
• High brew quality
• Easy and quick cleaning
• Perfect gift choice for your loved one on a special occasion

Cons

• The silicon base should have had better fitting than it actually does. At times, it might come off and that increases work
• Not recommended if you are using too finely ground beans 

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Cold Brew Recipe

Once you've achieved the right concentration and taste you'd like from your cold brew, you can customize it in endless ways. You'll never have to order a Starbucks cold brew ever again! Depending on which cold brew recipe you attempt, you'll notice that anyone can become their own barista!

Adding flavor to your cold brew recipes

If you're a purist, adding flavors to your brew may feel absolutely blasphemous. But many people have tried these just for the fun of it.

• Add herbs and spices like cinnamon, ginger, or mint for brewing
• Add flavorings like vanilla extract, sweet cream, or cocoa powder after brewing
• Tweak your cold brew coffee ratio depending on the beans you're using
• Make cold brew coffee ice cubes that you can throw into milk or sparkling water for an instant flavored beverage 

Pro Tip: It's best not to add flavorings before the brew or use flavored coffee when you make cold brew coffee. These flavorings usually contain aromatic oils that will make your cold brew concentrate oily and rancid, and will clog up your filter when you're straining your brew (especially if you're using a paper coffee filter).

Starbucks Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew

The reason why Starbucks's vanilla sweet cream cold brew is so deliciously refreshing is because they mix it up themselves. If you want a similar taste, you'll have to skip the standard vanilla-flavored creamers (which may contain any number of preservatives and additional chemicals) and make your own.

Ingredients

• 2 cups half-and-half (or 1 cup whole milk + 1 cup heavy cream)
• 1/2 cup condensed milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (not vanilla essence)

Steps

1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl.
2. Stir to mix thoroughly. Even better, whisk to create a smooth mixture.
3. Pour 1/4 cup of sweet cream (more if you like) over your iced cold brew. 

You can store your vanilla sweet cream for a maximum of 1 week, but we bet you'll easily be able to finish it up! 

Starbucks Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew

This is another Starbucks copycat drink that will actually taste so much better at home, because you can use real pumpkin puree instead of flavored pumpkin spice syrup. We'll admit this is a bit more troublesome, but perfect for getting into the festive mood.

Ingredients

• 2 cups half-and-half (or 1 cup whole milk + 1 cup heavy cream)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin puree
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice mix (or mix ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves)
• 1.5 tablespoons vanilla extract

Steps

1. Combine all ingredients, except vanilla extract, in a saucepan. Whisk mixture well over medium heat.
2. Remove from heat and whisk in the vanilla extract.
3. Strain through a fine mesh strainer and store in the fridge.
4. Before serving, froth up your pumpkin cream using a milk frother. Pour 1/4 cup of pumpkin cream (more if you like) over your iced cold brew coffee.

You can store your pumpkin sweet cream for a maximum of 1 week. Because you're using pure pumpkin puree, the cream may spoil more quickly - do not risk keeping it for longer, or throw it away the moment it tastes off. 

Cold Brew Ice Pops

Love coffee so much you want to have it for dessert? Make cold brew coffee popsicles! The addition of milk and sweet toppings of your choice will make these popsicles a lovely treat on a hot summer night. The addition of condensed milk or creamer also adds texture to the popsicles so that they're less icy.

Ingredients (for 8 popsicles)

• 2 cups cold brew coffee
• 1/4 cup condensed milk (or any creamer, such as the vanilla sweet cream above)
• 8 tablespoons baking toppings (chocolate chips, strawberry/mint chips, honeycomb, caramel bits, marshmallows, cookie crumbs)

Steps

1. Place 1 tablespoon of baking toppings in each popsicle mold.
2. Mix condensed milk with coffee and fill each mold to the top.
3. Cover the molds and insert popsicle sticks. Freeze until solid.
4. Remove popsicles by immersing the molds in warm water (not hot) for one minute. Make sure the water doesn't go over the top of the molds.

Enjoy your special dessert! 

Cold Brew Coffee Soda

If you feel like adding some fizz to your favorite drink, this coffee soda recipe is for you. It's ridiculously simple, too. You can use whatever type of carbonated water you like, but we prefer not to use club soda because while it's carbonated, it contains neither the minerals of sparkling water nor the sweetness of ice cream soda or tonic water.

Ingredients

• Ice cream soda, sparkling, or tonic water
• Cold brew coffee concentrate

Steps

1. Mix equal parts cold brew concentrate with carbonated water of your choice (depending on the sweetness and flavor you prefer)
2. Stir and enjoy! 

Cold Brew Tea: A Tasty Alternative

If you've got a cold brew coffee maker and you're hoping to find more uses for it, try cold brew tea! It's the same, simple method you'd use to make cold brew coffee. There are just a few things you need to note:

• Just like coarsely ground coffee, the tea you use should be of a larger size to prevent over-extraction. If you want a great-tasting brew, make sure you use whole leaf tea. Tea from a teabag will just give you a nasty, muddy brew.
• In general, lighter (less oxidized) teas are better suited for cold brew tea than darker, highly oxidized teas. This is because black tea has high levels of tannins and are much more astringent and bitter.
• Tea in general is more astringent and bitter (while coffee is acidic by nature). If your brew has you puckering your lips, try adding a tiny amount of lemon juice or honey.

Cold brew tea recipes abound on the web, but here's our personal go-to recipe for when we've had too much coffee:

Cold brew green tea recipe

Ingredients (makes 32oz of tea)

• 8g of whole leaf green tea - because tea varies so much in size and volume depending on how it's processed, we recommend measuring your tea by weight 
• 4 cups of water (filtered water is best)

Steps

1. Add your tea to the filter basket of your cold brew coffee maker, or simply combine with water
2. After about 12 hours, strain the tea and store in the fridge.
3. Consume your cold brewed tea within 5 days. 

Why Cold Brew Coffee?

Now that we have reviewed the best home cold brewers, let us have a look at why you should go for the cold brew in the first place.

Low Acidity

One of the major reasons is the fact that it has 67% lesser acidity as compared to the regular hot coffee. It makes it a go-to beverage especially for those with sensitive stomachs or frequent heartburn.  

Easy to Brew

The brewing process for the cold or iced coffee is relatively simpler and easy. You just need to add some coarse ground coffee, add water and put it in the fridge for a few hours and that is it.

Longer Shelf Life

It is a good option for those who have a habit of brewing their coffee once a week due to busy work schedules. Cold brew coffee can be refrigerated between 7-10 days.

Beats the Heat

Cold brew or iced coffee is a perfect beverage for during summers, especially if you are living in a hot region. It gives you a refreshing and energetic feeling, which makes you function more efficiently for the rest of the day.

Better than Iced Coffee

We have gone over this in some of our past articles, but iced coffee is not a favorite of ours. The way you make iced coffee is from brewing coffee and letting it cool down. Then, you simply add ice cubes. This method causes oxidization within the coffee, something that does not happen often with cold brew, especially nitro cold brew.

Cold Brew Coffee FAQs

How long does cold brew coffee last?

Although you can keep cold brewed coffee for up to two weeks in the refrigerator, we recommend finishing your coffee at home within a week as its quality and taste will degrade.

What's the best coffee for making cold brew?

Any coffee that you like will do for making cold brew. Light to medium roast beans will turn out sweeter than their hot versions, as the acidity is reduced (though you'll also give up some floral and citrusy notes). Darker roast coffees will taste less bitter than their hot versions.

If you have some beans that don't satisfy you when brewed hot or are simply a bit past their prime, why not make cold brew coffee with them? They might just shine using this method!

Can I use a kitchen blender to grind the coffee beans?

NO. We cannot emphasize enough how important it is to have evenly sized, extra-coarse ground coffee. Anything finer will increase extraction and lead to bitterness, so make sure you use a quality burr grinder and freshly roasted whole coffee beans.

Can you reuse cold brew coffee grounds?

Technically, yes, but we don't recommend it. The resulting brew will be weak and flat-tasting. Just get more coffee!

Can you heat up cold brew coffee?

Yes, but don't nuke it in the microwave or boil it, since that may alter the flavor of the brew. Simply dilute your cold brew concentrate with hot water instead of ice or milk.

Cold brew concentrate vs ready to drink cold brew?

When you make cold brew coffee, you can adjust the coffee ratio to make the brew as concentrated or dilute as you want. There are no "standard" ratios, but concentrate is usually considered as 1 part coffee:5-8 parts water; ready-to-drink is closer to 1 part coffee:14 parts water (like what you'd get in a regular hot cup of coffee).

The cold brew recipe we've provided is considered a "concentrate", because most people will add milk or ice (or both) to cold brewed coffee. However, don't get too tied up in definitions or exact measurements unless you're planning to start selling your brew commercially. Just keep making it the way you like it!

Is cold brew coffee the same as cold drip coffee?

No. Cold drip is something of a hybrid between cold brew and drip coffee, and is quite a challenge to make. It involves dripping ice-cold water through a bed of ground coffee using a drip tower, and the resulting brew can vary greatly in flavor depending on the coarseness of the grind and the time taken to brew.

Why does my cold brew make me jittery?

You're probably enjoying your cold brew, but be careful not to drink too much at one go - a cup of cold brew may contain up to twice as much caffeine as a regular cup of coffee (espresso or pour-over), depending on the amount of ground coffee you use.

Why is cold brew coffee so expensive?

Once you've learned to make cold brew coffee at home, you'll probably understand why store-bought or subscription cold brew is so expensive. It requires a lot more coffee to make - often double the amount used for a traditional espresso or pour-over!

Is cold brew coffee healthier than hot coffee?

No. There are claims that cold brewed coffee is less acidic than your regular cup of joe, but this is a debatable marketing claim (often by commercial retailers) and requires more scientific evidence. Most of the difference between the two lies in their flavor.

Can I make cold brew tea the same way as cold brew coffee?

You definitely can! In fact, cold brew tea is made the same way as its coffee counterpart. You simply immerse tea leaves in chilled water for 12-24 hours. Read on for more details.

It's your turn to start brewing

Now you know it - cold brew coffee is super easy to make and customize at home with your favorite coffee beans. There's really no secret method to it. Whether it's just with a French press or a mason jar, try mixing up a few batches using different recipes and have fun!

If you are looking to cut down on the spending of your hard earned money, on all of those coffee shop visits, it is about time that you start brewing it at home. We have given you the best options to choose from, each having its own unique characteristics and performance that will make your home cold brewing a whole lot easier.