Summa Summa Summatime: How To Cold Brew Coffee

A couple years ago, I stopped regularly drinking hot coffee and started making liquid crack cold brew coffee instead. It’s lower in acidity, which I believe has helped alleviate some of my GERD symptoms. It’s also easy to make and I don’t need to bring out my myriad of coffee-making apparatuses – coffee maker, french press, Bialetti, etc.

I went through a bunch of recipes and wished I had a giant container like The Pioneer Woman, but I don’t. I ended up futzing with my recipe and came up with this. Make at your own risk and adjust for strength. (I like my iced coffee strong.)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups – ground coffee (medium/coarse) – this makes pretty strong coffee (decrease to taste OR add water post-brew)
• 8 cups (2 liters) water
• cheesecloth or nut milk bag
• rubberband
• chopsticks or spatula
• sieve or coffee filter (optional)

Containers:

• Mason jar – at least 1 liter
• 1-gallon Pitcher – to store cold brew in the fridge

Now what:

1. Measure out 1/2 cups of coarsely ground coffee.
2. Pour water into carafe.
3. Slowly put in your two cups of ground coffee and mix well – I used chopsticks
4. MIX WELL – make sure every bit of the grounds are ‘saturated’
5. Cover the carafe with some plastic wrap and rubberband it.
6. Refrigerate overnight at least 10-12 hours.

Normally, I would use whole beans and grind them myself. But these were the only beans I had on-hand.

Then do this:

1. Jump for joy in the kitchen, away from the knives
2. Use cheesecloth and clips (or rubberband) or use sieve/coffee filter or funnel
3. Put sieve over the pitcher, or use funnel to steady.
4. SLOWLY pour your liquid crack through; let the cheesecloth do its work
5. Press the grounds and squeeze out any leftover liquid; dump grounds
6. Pour yourself a glass, about 1 cup of liquid crack – add condensed milk, half & half, ice
7. (If your cold brew feels too strong, you can add 1:1 part of water to your glass to dilute)
8. Store the your mason jar of awesome cold brew in the fridge (drink in 4-5 days)

Double-ply cheesecloth and pour slowly

OR use a nut milk bag and double up the mesh. Put that in the funnel and pour.

the final product – cold brew coffee

Like any good Asian kid, I add condensed milk to my coffee and iced coffee. (Why make simple syrup when condensed milk is awesome?) I also add about an ounce of half & half and a ton of ice into my new double-walled Wonder Woman tumbler.  This recipe gets me about 6-7 cups of cold brew iced coffee. I pour out one cup per serving so I get 6-7 mornings of cold brew coffee.

Dump a spoonful of condensed milk, to taste.

Liquid crack.