Extraction with Cold Brew

Preparing coffee with Cold Brew is simple and requires:

• The tool, the Cold Brew dripper. Available on Amazon, there are several models with different price ranges. The most aesthetically beautiful and complete is around € 280.00, but you can easily opt for other smaller variants, between € 50.00 and € 120.00;
• The special paper filters, usually sold together with the instrument;
• And a scale.

If you want to be more precise and technical then I recommend a scale accurate to the gram (0.01) and a manual grinder, to grind the purchased beans only at the moment of extraction and thus keep the fragrance at the highest levels.

The Brew Ratio, i.e. the dose of coffee in relation to water, is 80 grams of coffee per 1 L of water; in this case, since I have a tool capable of holding up to 500 ml of water, I will use 500 ml of liquid and 40 grams of coffee.

The coffee must be ground wide, only a little finer than the coarse salt. To be precise, the particle size should be between 800 and 1000 microns (one micron is equal to one thousandth of a millimeter, and there are special sieves to be able to measure it).

Steps for extraction:

• Wet a filter and place it on the base of the central container;
• Pour the ground coffee over the filter and level it;
• Now wet another filter and place it on top of the ground coffee;

This is because the water, coming down drop by drop from the tap placed centrally with respect to the entire stick of ground coffee, would tend to pass only in a central channel, not wetting all the coffee. Placing another filter that absorbs water on top of the grind will aid in the proper navigation of the liquid through each particle in the grind.

• Now mount the instrument and pour the water into the container above, strictly from the bottle and not from the tap. If you want to get a very fresh drink, you can pour 250ml of water, combined with 250g of ice;
• Open the tap, letting only one drop pass at a time. This datum can be taken as a reference: about 6 drops every 10 seconds;
• Now you just have to wait for all the water to pass through the ground and then the extraction is completed.

NB. The time can vary a lot, from 6 hours up to 24 hours. In fact, this depends on how much water you have to pass, whether 250ml or 1L, and on how slowly you decide to let it pass through the tap.

So what is the optimal time for this draw?

It’s up to you to experiment! Try making the same coffee in 6 hours, then 10 then 16 and so on and choose which final drink you like best!

The time is thus extended to compensate for the lack of thermal energy, i.e. the absence of heat, which would dissolve the substances contained in the ground much faster.

I already know what you are thinking … “But I have to wait 8 hours to have a coffee?”

Obviously not!

The beauty of cold coffee is that it can be stored for up to 5 days in the refrigerator, without going rancid. I personally prepare it in the evening before going to bed so that in the morning, and also the following ones, it is ready in the fridge.

Tips

Undoubtedly it is a perfect coffee for the summer.

You can then create many drinks or drinks starting from Cold Brew coffee.

Or for those who, like me, are a lover of cold milk for breakfast, it’s perfect for spotting it!

It is also a method that gives us the opportunity to play: in fact, we can also infuse spices, aromas or fresh fruit in water, so as to give the final drink intense and particular aromatic notes.

Or again: we can completely replace the water with alcohol. For example, in Torrefazione Ernani in Milan, all summer we offer Campari with coffee!

If you still have any doubts, check out the video below!