The writer of this article is really wrong to assume coffee aficionados don't drink cold brew, that's absolutely false. It's made even worse that he's conflating cold brew with iced coffee. They are very much not the same.
I'm sure it's lovely but it's not cold brew. Cold brew is less acidic because it's not heated; it's also said to have a more "true" taste because it's not extracted with hot water.
I have some stomach issues, one of which is an ulcer, and I am unable to drink hot coffee regularly as it tends to upset my stomach much more. Cold brew besides actually having a richer taste because of the slow brewing process actually hurts my tum tum less.
... Granted I also live in PDX, so I'm fairly sure (based on some comments) not everyone out there has had, or is actually being served, cold brew. Putting hot coffee on ice just doesn't even begin to compare.
Coffee shop and roastery owner here... Interesting fact: cold brew acidity as measured by PH, is in the same bandwidth as other coffee drinks: espresso, filter, japanese iced, etc etc... Average usually falls around 4.8.
It is true that brewing with room temperature water doesn't extract some of the acids in the coffee that would be extracted with hot water. With specialty coffee, the purists like Giuliano, want to extract these acids in an effort to showcase the "terroir" of the coffee (where it was grown, the variety, the process after it was picked). There are a lot of cold brew haters in the industry for this reason. I'm not one of them. Saying one is better or worse is a dumb argument to make. Cold brew is great because it does have a really round flavor profile, it highlights sweetness and roast, and it has the body to pair really well with milk, which is how many iced coffee drinkers prefer it.
The Japanese iced coffee is great if you want to highlight the nuances of a better coffee. There's more complexity due to the extraction of these [good] acids. Bonus points for flash chilling a coffee, wherein you brew hot, send the brew through a heat exchanger, and chill without diluting with ice.
For iced coffee at home, I’m a fan of aeropress coffee over ice. The aeropress gives a lot of control over water temperature, steep time, coffee/water proportion, and grind size, and you can effectively brew the coffee pretty strong, which leaves you room for the dilution with ice.
I'm going to start experimenting with that today. I didn't think it would work very well though.
I read of a similar method to the article a few years ago.
Use a regular drip brewer with 50% of water normally used (by weight). Place an equal weight of ice in the jug. Brew as normal to get tepid or cold coffee in the jug. Add more ice after you pour or add milk. What I read said the results tasted better than simply pouring over ice because of the process of dripping the hot coffee over the ice as it brews gives a different flavour than simple diluting by adding ice later. OP's article seems to support that and I found that to be true - it works very, very well and it's very simple.
As you say, the aeropress method is basically the same as diluting at the end by controlling the strength of the brew and I'm not sure it will work the same way.
Awesome information, mate! Thanks for learning me something.
Though, I find it strange that the PH for cold brew, iff extracting less acids, is the same. Reading (very briefly) on google scholar it (acid) looks to be more a result of the way the bean was roasted-- with darker beans having lower acid. Have you seen any scientific doing that analysis?
... I'm just curious as to why (and I'll admit, it COULD be just in my head, I'm a sample of one) I find cold brew much easier to consume having an ulcer.
The article specifically addressed what's 'wrong' with cold brew:
"This is what happens in cold brew: the technique tries to make up for the relative insolubility of coffee at cold-water temperatures by brewing for a long, long time. This creates the illusion that you have made coffee- the resulting liquid is dark and tastes something like coffee- but many of the coffee solubles have never made it out of the grounds and into the liquid. Cold-water brewing has a way of deadening flavor, since the elusive and charming elements of flavor that make coffee special never get dissolved into the brew, and remain in the coffee grounds, which get thrown away."
I couldn't agree more and also prefer cold brew to iced coffee. I have actually seen instances of the inverse name-swap as well: places which serve cold brew but label it as "iced coffee" because their customers/market have been exposed to iced coffee by various chains but wouldn't know what cold brew was (or bother to explore new options).
Luckily the majority of independent coffee shops where I live (Houston) are particular about the distinction, and will pointedly list "cold brew" on their menus if it is such.
I also prefer it - I think it tastes better (even if I then microwave it, seriously) but it's also way, way less acidic, and for people with acid reflux (moderate or severe) it makes drinking coffee a lot more comfortable.
Not going to make a claim I can't back up, but a lot of people take acidity to equal flavor - which is why Starbucks coffees are insanely acidic. Whether or not that's why the author prefers iced, hot-brewed coffee (for the acidity) and is conflating that with flavor, is not something I know for sure, but it's a possibility.
Ah, only to pass on some knowledge. It's because their drinks are so sweet that with lighter roasts the sugar and syrup cover up the coffee. Most really good baristas will tell you the lighter the roast the more "flavorful" the coffee will be. Starbucks "intense flavor" is just folks confusing burned/overcooked beans for coffee flavor.
Granted, I'm really lucky to live in PDX because we have such good access to great coffee it's made more noticeable. In my youth, I was actually of the same mindset until drinking a lot of different coffee and discovering my "misguided" way ;-)
Note that the initial time of small decrease of pH corresponds to under-roasted coffee, and coffee with this degree of roast would be unacceptable even to fans of light roasts.
> which is why Starbucks coffees are insanely acidic.
That's more about the low grade beans, robusta beans and a very dark roast. Dark roasts are much harder to identify as "stale" because they have basically only got a burnt flavour.
As a general comment (not directed at parent) if you get the chance to buy some green beans, have a go at roasting them and taste the difference between different roasts. You don't need anything flash to roast them, I use a heat gun. It's cheap, easy and the coffee is never stale.
Lots of people start off using cheap popcorn makers as well. They can only do small batches, and the plastic eventually warps, but it's a low barrier to entry. http://legacy.sweetmarias.com/airpop/airpopmethod.php
I personally like roasting in small batches, because I don't drink a _ton_ of coffee, and it only takes a few days for roasted beans to lose a lot of their volatile flavor compounds.
Exactly right. I'm a heat gun, pan and wooden spoon user. I tried a dedicated home roaster and found it slow and unreliable. Fresh coffee and and Cheaper too. At 10ish years roasting it's firmly part of the routine now. My Silvia is at something like 13,000 made coffees now.
> If your stomach ulcer is caused by an Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) bacterial infection, a course of antibiotics and a medication called a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) is recommended.
I've been to specialists, trust me if it was a direct answer to a cure-- I wouldn't have had one for over a year. Interesting the bacteria H. pylori is present in over half of the UK's citizens (not sure if it's in the linked material but the NHS has an article about it somewhere).
I had to stop making cold brew because I was overcaffienating to an extent I was afraid my molecules would match the harmonics of the ground and I would fall through to the center of the earth.
But here's what I did:
Get a big french press, a narrow mouth pitcher or a wide mouth bottle, and one of those single serving coffee maker funnels (mines a Hario, which seems to clog up more slowly).
Put about 3/4" of coarse coffee grounds into the french press. Fill it with water to a little below where the plunger sits, stir it a little, put the lid on (plunger up) and push it back under a cabinet on your counter where nobody will mess with it.
24-36 hours later, push down the plunger slower than you've ever thought you could push down a plunger. Put an unbleached paper filter in your single serving coffee funnel, put the funnel on top of your pitcher/jar, and pour. There's gonna be a lot of fines in the coffee so this may take a while. After you're done put the pitcher in the fridge.
Some people make a second pitcher from the grounds. It takes a bit longer to reach full strength the second time, so let it go for another 12 hours. But if you need the second pitcher before the first is gone your doctor may have some harsh words for you.
I suggest you try using multiple small extraction volumes instead of a single big one. The long extraction time could be shortened, and you will get less heavy molecules out (which in tea, for example, tend to make the brew taste a bit bad). See [1] for an explanation. It might just taste better, let me know if you try it!
Not who you were asking, but it's pretty much steeping coarse coffee grounds and cold water in a cup overnight, then filter out the grounds, sort of like cold sun tea. In New Orleans toss in some chicory.
I use the Toddy, which steeps 12oz grounds in 56 fl oz of water, drained through a fuzzy fabric filtering puck; the extract can be refrigerated and diluted with hot water or cold milk.
There are smaller CoffeeSocks (cloth filters) if you don't want to have a carafe of extract in your fridge for two weeks.
Here's my cold brew recipe. Note that this does create a very caffeinated brew, perhaps twice as strong as a normal espresso, so it is very easy to overdo it (one of the few times I've ever felt the effects of caffeine was with one of my early cold brew attempts, which I realised afterwards was probably equivalent to around 16 shots of espresso, and I can't say I particularly enjoyed the jittery feeling). Anyway, it is great for cold drinks, although I haven't found a way of heating it up which is as good as my espresso machine.
Ingredients
- 40g of beans (4 25ml espresso scoops)
- 250ml water
Method
- Use a grinder to course grind the beans.
- Put grinds in a pyrex measuring jug, add the water, then cover.
- Leave overnight, at room temperature.
- Filter first through a sieve to remove the coarse grinds, then through a coffee filter to remove the fine grinds (it may take several mins to drip through).
- Store in the fridge.
> I'm sure it's lovely but it's not cold brew. Cold brew is less acidic because it's not heated; it's also said to have a more "true" taste because it's not extracted with hot water.
> I have some stomach issues, one of which is an ulcer, and I am unable to drink hot coffee regularly as it tends to upset my stomach much more.
The way I understand this is that you are making a point that a hot brew will somehow increase your ulcer?
1.) Cold brew isn't something all coffee aficionados dislike.
2.) That cold brew doesn't _irritate_ my ulcer as much. I'm not at all saying it increases or decreases the ulcer itself.
Generally I buy and I usually don't buy Stumptown's prepackaged products as I don't think they're great and generally overpriced.
I usually just go to a cafe and ask if they have cold brew (most do in Portland at least in summer), and New Seasons (local grocery store chain) makes cold brew all year round.
* Courier Coffee has probably the best cold brew in town on a regular basis.
* Barista is good, always good, courier is just ever so slightly better. They have it year round too which is a lifesaver for someone like me.
* Pie Spot actually has damn good cold brew on the inner E side.
Breakfast places with enough of a "hipster" (I don't say that as a negative, I probably am one, more just a way to identify them) vibe usually have cold brew as well.
In the summer, I generally consume a lot more coffee will more regularly make myself some. It's quite easy, you really just need a cheese cloth and some sort of bucket. Throw it in and wait ~12 hours. Last about a week.
I've been making Tokyo Ice-Drip Coffee for the last year - it has a slightly different taste than just mixing cold water and ice with the grounds, but I specifically like the lack of bitterness that would come about if the waxes in the coffee were melted by the heat and then extracted with the brew.
In any case, the most important phrase in the story is "many of the iced coffee processes I liked the best brewed coffee hot". If you find the coffee you like best, brew it that way. I'd also recommend trying the other brew methods to make sure you're not stuck on a local optimum.
And remember, you can brew coffee with water anywhere between freezing and boiling - the hotter the water, the more parafins you'll melt. If you're using a French Press (Cafetiere) and you think your coffee is too bitter at 200F, try 190F, then 180F, etc.
And coffee will change flavor as it stands. Brewing hot onto ice as described in this article eliminates post-brewing flavor changes. If you cold brew your coffee and then let it stand at room temperature for several days, it won't taste like the freshly brewed coffee either.
>>but I specifically like the lack of bitterness that would come about if the waxes in the coffee were melted by the heat and then extracted with the brew.
As a long time coffee drinker, I've realized that the bitterness is what wakes me up in the morning, rather than the caffeine in the coffee. The first sip of coffee is usually enough to bring me out of my morning stupor. It's probably some kind of conditioned response, which would probably be lacking with a non-bitter cold-brew. :P
Can I recommend an espresso while you froth the milk for a flat white? That's an actually perfect morning combo which also uses your savage wake up technique.
Not to take anything away from the Japanese, but we have a similar process in Italy: brew hot, then quickly chill with ice.
An espresso cup is brewed with a proper, bar sized espresso machine (or with a Nespresso, which IMHO is the only thing that comes close to it.) Then it is sugared, mixed, and poured in a shaker over ice cubes. The shaker is agitated quickly and vigorously for a short time, then the mixture strained into a tall glass.
We call it Shaked coffee ("caffè shakerato") and it's notoriously difficult to get right.
I have a stainless steel cocktail shaker that I use every summer for this very purpose, but even after years of trying I cannot get the right timing, quantities, and temperatures as a proper Barista would.
"Fast forward 14 years. An acquaintance working and living in Japan went on holiday and discovered a bar with this exceptionally beautiful rig for the preparation of Viennese Triple Cold Extraction Coffee. Upon sampling this, he felt that, and I quote, “I could see colors that weren’t in the visible spectrum, and could vibrate through walls.” I looked at this I said to myself, “Hey, you’ve got enough virgin laboratory glassware lying around the house that you could probably build something like that.” Probably several somethings, actually, but that’s beside the point."
This twit podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PAxZi7uess is with Phillip Broughton the gent that makes Black Blood of the Earth cold brewed coffee. Pretty interesting podcast. If I remember he is a physicist.
For the record I have not tried black blood of the earth but would like to try it. It is just I am cheap.
I think cold brew is an attempt by coffee shops to upsell what used to be regular coffee + ice. Taste wise, it's completely subjective. Value wise, nothing beats Starbucks double shot on ice.
At home, I just aeropress into an ice cube. That way, I don't have a pitcher of cold brew concentrate that has to be used within a week.
I think the relevance is that the Aeropress allows you to use the "brew hot and instantly chill" method espoused in the OP. You pour hot water over the grounds in the Aeropress and then press it into a cup of ice.
I don't think that would come out right. If you use cold water, you'd have to replace heat with time and the entire point of the aeropress is to brew quickly, to avoid leeching the more bitter parts of the bean.
My general approach is: ~2.5 scoops into the aeropress, fill with 165 F to just above the -2- marker, stir a few times, immediately press out over 20 seconds directly onto tumbler of ice.
I don't care what aeropress says about the right brewing temp (I think they claim 180° is ideal)... I find coffee to be sour if I don't brew it in my aeropress at 200°. (I make my iced coffee the same way and have been for years.)
BTW, if you want your coffee slightly sweetened, you can put a tsp of sugar into the aeropress with the grinds and press the combination over ice. Saves needing a simple syrup or having the sugar not dissolve if you put it into the iced coffee afterwards.
Reading this timings me of John Grubers theory that success requires three things. A clicky keyboard, over carbonated water and fussy coffee. Youre on track and im going to try your way too. Thanks.
I wasn't entirely convinced about why the coffee is better than the cold brew method. They both return different flavor sets, and taste at that point is completely subjective. A bad comparison would be like saying orange juice with pulp is scientifically better than orange juice without pulp.
I was the lead barista at my shop for several years before switching back to tech, and I would %100 agree with you.
Depending on the coffee or roast, the coffee will do better as cold-brew or Japanese-style iced. Some coffees are absolutely terrible as cold-brew and vis-versa.
That being said, I almost always prefer cold-brew (bias-disclosed).
Furthermore, this article seems to follow a trend in speciality coffee of taking some loose science then jumping to completely arbitrary conclusions. Often it is hard to tell if they are on to something, just want the attention, or have something to gain economically by propagating their view.
You see the same thing with the "third wave" movement who espouse that very light roast is the "best" way to roast coffee. Light, medium and dark roast coffee is all perfectly fine ways of roasting, and all return different flavors for different beans.
I prefer a roaster that has mastered the whole range.
Sure, taste is subjective, but that doesn't mean certain cooking techniques are better than others.
Cold brew oxidizes, and doesn't extract many of the flavor compounds from coffee. That's why it always tastes kind of stale and flat. Now, you might like that, but I'm sure you can see why many people would say that it's a worse way to make iced coffee.
Similarly with roasting beans---lighter roasts preserve more of the flavor of the beans. So, if you have really high quality beans, dark roasts are just a waste. That's not to say that dark roast coffee can't be delicious, but it's less complex.
Similarly, sangria is delicious, but you probably shouldn't mix your 1982 chateau lafite with orange juice.
Well said. Your roast should complement your bean. Single origin ethiopian yirgacheffe/harar? Don't you dare roast that bean past light brown. The whole point of selecting where your coffee comes from is lost if you do something in the process to mask it's origin individuality (heavy roast / adding sugar etc). Some beans complement dark roasts well (I'm thinking like sumatras or heavy "dirt" flavored coffee), where dark, burnt earth tobacco flavors are awesome and complement very well, but most beans that you would care to spend the extra bucks won't.
You typically see darker roasts with larger roasters because it's still approached like a commodity, and darker roasts are easy to achieve consistency with since they don't feature much of the natural flavors of the coffee bean. The whole coffee world was in a bad state until people began taking the stance that certain coffees were better quality, and paying more for them. For the first time it incentivized extra effort from the farmers. Over the last decade or so our understanding of the effects of roasting coffee has grown immensely, and we can objectivley say that there is a specific range before the only thing featured tastes are imparted from the roasting process. Just like it's now common knowledge that you don't burn a good steak if you want to enjoy it for what it is.
I really disagree with the third wave snobbery that the only coffee to be enjoyed is light roast though. There's a pretty wide range that will produce some amazing coffee. Putting them side by side for a cupping is interesting, I personally became more sensitive to roasting too dark after tasting the same beans under different roast profiles, and seeing how quickly the dark range began diminishing complexity, brightness and clarity in my cups. On the other hand, all too frequently I get underdeveloped third wave coffee that is just as unenjoyable as a burnt batch.
I don't think it's that, I think it's because they last longer on the shelf (light roasts go stale faster) and because dark roasts just taste burnt, meaning you can swap out one bean for another and not notice a difference. So if a cheaper beans becomes available, that will get switched in.
You put a period in that sentence where there wasn't one. I said "darker roasts are easy to achieve consistency with", and as you said, to help better facilitate the commodity approach to coffee.
Dark roasts are not more shelf stable than lighter roasts though. The oils in dark roasts become rancid substantially more quickly because a darker roast has expanded more, and therefore has more surface area to come in contact with air. Starbucks and other big companies say their coffee is shelf stable for about a year, but the reality is coffee peaks 24-72 hours after roasting. Burnt notes grossly outweigh staleness though. That with the benefits of consistency is great for bigger brands exactly for the other reasons you mention.
To add a bit more perspective, green unroasted coffee beans are considered fresh or in season for about 9 months. The more you get away from this in a roast profile the shorter the shelf life.
This is a myth. Roasting does not alter caffeine levels, as it is very heat stable. You might get more caffeine from a light roast if you are measuring your beans by volume. Light roasts expand less and are more dense than darker roasts, so you ultimately end up with more mass.
You're welcome. I was under the same impression myself until recently. If you really need a kick though, pick up some Robusta. It tastes pretty rough but has more caffeine than Arabica.
That was a good article. The only other cause of caffeine variation I'm aware of is altitude. Caffeine is produced as a defense against pests, and since there are fewer pests at higher altitudes less caffeine is generated in that scenario. Coincidently, altitude is usually associated with higher quality coffee. The difference is negligible, so I guess my point is if high caffeine consumption is a goal just drink more coffee.
The charred rubber flavour is almost offset by the incredible crema. But it isn't and you will feel like you ate charcoal. It's an interesting exercise alright.
Which is an excellent article with a nice surprise at the end.
> With milk, the diner-style and cold brew tasted the best, whereas the Japanese style and immersion-over-ice were terrible, their bright flavors clashing with the creamy dairy, giving them the flavor of curdled milk.
Which is why I don't see why this required 10 paragraphs to explain. I already brew iced coffee with 80 degree water through the AeroPress onto ice, then use cool water to make up the extra liquid if necessary. It's not the same as cold brew, but honestly nor should it be? Cold brew has a unique and enjoyable flavor.
And what about the iced Americano? I guess you could consider that to be "Japanese method" as well. I'm not convinced.
Normally you aeropress into a mug and then top it off with extra water as needed. Instead I aeropress into a glass of ice and the melted ice does the topping off.. which cools the coffee without watering it down too much.
Cold brew tastes great. Hot brew tastes great. AeroPress tastes great. It's not a "Better", it's just a taste and situation thing. Sometimes I want Turkish coffee, sometimes I want a Greek Nescafe Frappe. It's not that one is better, although one is definitely better when I want that one.
Along the similar lines, I like a nice double cream brie, or a gruyere cheese. I also like a good slice of kraft american cheese. They all have their time and place.
What about oxidation? Oxidation in food is generally bad news: oxygen has a habit of monkeying with oils to make them taste horrible, a phenomenon also known as rancidification.
Couldn't the 2nd sentence simply be shortened to, "Oxygen has a habit of monkeying with oils to make them rancid."
Presumably because it's very common in Japan, and not so common elsewhere.
When I was in Japan (July 2015) I was surprised at how common iced coffee was – it felt like every street corner had a vending machine that sold (among other things) iced coffee. You can buy some of it here in SF, too, even at Wallgreens.
I live in Edmonton, which has about 20 Vietnamese restaurants for every Japanese one. I've always known it to be Vietnamese iced coffee, and had no idea it's done in Japan as well. Although here the coffee conventionally drips over a mixture of ice and sweentened, condensed milk. I'm not sure if that's done elsewhere.
Yep. This is what I do. I have a couple of large plastic Tervis glasses that work great for this, and as a bonus if I've put too little ice in or heated the water too much I can adjust on the fly by seeing through it.
Even better: I aeropress onto a cocktail shaker with ice, then shake the hell out of it. The coffee get's very cold much faster, and I just throw out the ice and sometimes put nice new cubes in at the end. The coffee comes out a bit frothy and tastes better than any variation I've bought.
A local coffee shop does this and the results are excellent. As he suggests it maintains crisp aromatics. They use a special double walled vessel with ice separated from the coffee so it doesn't become watered down. The taste is very good.
That said, so is that shop's cold brew, espresso, and pour overs. I think quality of ingredients and the attention to detail they pay is more important than the specific technique. To me this is more like getting your sourdough in a boule vs a baguette than a "stop drinking cold brew" experience.
> I think quality of ingredients and the attention to detail they pay is more important than the specific technique.
It might make sense to use the technique used by those who have that level of attention to detail and quality – presumably they would be less likely to use a sub-standard method.
Sure but my point is that they have multiple quality methods at their disposal. I'm not saying this is a bad method, I'm saying it's one of many good methods. I think as far as Coffee geekery goes, the Kyoto Coffee maker does an even better job than the linked method.
I would love to try it! But I must disagree that cold brew is a lesser or incomplete version of coffee. Rather, it highlights different flavors than hot brewing methods do, and those flavors are wonderful in my opinion. When made well, cold brew is the caramelly, chocolaty coffee I always wanted.
What doesn't get dissolved into the cold water is often the more sour (or "bright" if you're feeling charitable) flavors.
(I have had the stale, flat kind of cold brew the author mentions. It sucks. I have also had plenty of terrible hot coffee.)
That's a great point. Hasn't the author ever had terrible hot coffee, so why not terrible cold brew too? Some of the other posts in this thread point out that some beans are better for cold brew than others. And I agree with you that I've had really good cold brew and really enjoy it's aroma and taste.
The founder is a pal of mine! He exhibited recently at the Caffe Culture Show in Olympia, London. In a huge hall filled with all the complex paraphernalia of coffee-brewing and consumption, his stand was situated at the periphery, in the artisan foods section.
Interestingly, with all the bustle (and hustle ;-) of the main venue, this section - arguably, the most interesting - had relatively light traffic. But a few savvy people came by to sample this unique coffee (and other awesome products in the vicinity), including one prominent coffee critic/blogger. His opinion: a very interesting flavor profile that was too earthy; not enough acidity. My friend patiently explained that this is the intention: to preserve the natural 'sweetness' of the bean. The critic wasn't swayed, but I was delighted: at least his product had elicited a strong reaction!
Most significantly, many people mistakenly equated 'cold brew' with 'cold drip'. Huge difference!
Visitors tended to love it. Some came back for a second and third sampling. We gave away a lot of bottles...
If anybody happens to be near Richmond, VA go to Alchemy Coffee near Virginia Commonwealth University (http://www.alchemycoffeerva.com/). That's where I got my first taste of cold brew and I was hooked. It tasted like a different drink and I felt that I could taste different characteristics about coffee than other types. They take the time to talk to you about their Japanese cold brew process as well as the different types of coffee they acquire.
> since the elusive and charming elements of flavor that make coffee special never get dissolved into the brew, and remain in the coffee grounds, which get thrown away.
Isn't this just elegantly adjectivezed nonsense? The net result of a stoichistic process isn't altered by the speed at which it occurred. So cold-brew shouldn't end-up with a different composition if timed correctly relative to hot-brew?
I've been brewing my coffee directly over ice since I first got an aeropress... which is old enough to be the original blue plastic, whenever that was.
It never occurred to me that this was some magical technique.
Every morning a glass of crushed ice goes under the spout of my espresso machine.
Any iced americano is going to be a lot like this method, except with espresso instead of brewed coffee, and water added. I add minimal extra water just because i like it as-is.
This article would be so much better with an actual recipe, or even just ratios of coffee:ice. Though it has inspired me to look elsewhere to find that information, or do some experimentation in the kitchen to discover it.
This is common in Europe. How else would you make cold coffee if not by first making proper coffee then cooling it. I just use my bialetti espresso maker and add ice cubes.
You make cold brew coffee without any heat at all by immersing grounds in water for a long time. There are different methods that produce either concentrate or ready-to-drink, and some chill in the fridge during the brew process and some leave it out on the counter. Lots of options, though the distinction is that none uses hot water.
Cold-brew methods, or via directly cooling the coffee without adding water are the usual alternatives. The downside of both of the two methods is that they take significantly longer, so you can't quickly satisfy and urge for cold coffee.
the first time i tried the japanese iced coffee method, i ended up with a cup of coffee that had such a strong bitter, chemical taste that i was sure i must have been drinking poison. i later realized it was probably my ice cubes, which came out of those Tovolo king cube molds. after a few months, those molds impart an extremely strong chemical flavor into their ice cubes.
so… long story short, the ice you use matters a lot
I'm sure it's lovely but it's not cold brew. Cold brew is less acidic because it's not heated; it's also said to have a more "true" taste because it's not extracted with hot water.
I have some stomach issues, one of which is an ulcer, and I am unable to drink hot coffee regularly as it tends to upset my stomach much more. Cold brew besides actually having a richer taste because of the slow brewing process actually hurts my tum tum less.
... Granted I also live in PDX, so I'm fairly sure (based on some comments) not everyone out there has had, or is actually being served, cold brew. Putting hot coffee on ice just doesn't even begin to compare.
Update: hit post early.