Cold Drip Method

The Cold Drip Method

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The first brew method we want to introduce you to at Kiwanda Café is the Cold Drip method.

History

Cold brewing of coffee first originated in Japan where it has been used as a traditional way to brew coffee for centuries.  The reason this method of extraction is unique is that the coffee grounds never come into contact with heated water, meaning that we extract a coffee with a completely different chemical profile, leading to extremely unique flavour profiles. Besides the unique flavour profiles, cold drip coffee is generally a lot less acidic than its hot extracted counterparts, due to the solubility of the constitute parts of coffee (caffeine, fatty acids, and oils) at lower temperatures.

Requirements

The reason this is one of our favourite methods at Kiwanda Café is that it’s super simple to do at home and everyone can make excellent coffee with it!

All you need is your very own Cold Drip Tower, paper filters, and your favourite Zarraffa’s Coffee beans or one of our recommended single origins that we’ve imported especially for cold drip coffee.

Lastly, you need room temperature water. The best part is that this can come straight from your tap, or it can come through a specific water filter system with RO and remineralization (more on this at a later stage).

Tips

Before we get to the fun stuff there are a few things to keep in mind.

Firstly, this brew method is one of the most time consuming -  it can take anywhere from 4 hours to 24 hours, depending on vessel size and the flavours that you’re hoping to get from the bean. Secondly, cold drip will result in a coffee extract that is a black coffee, meaning those lovers of a milky coffee will need to be feeling adventurous to give it a go!

The good news is once you have the extract, you can basically add whatever you like to your cold drip coffee. Just add milk to create an iced latte! You can keep  your cold drip coffee super simple, or get very creative with your flavours. We’ll put some more of the adventurous recipes at the end of this post for you.

Method

Once you have everything that you need - a Cold Drip Tower, paper filters, water and of course your favourite coffee, you’re ready to try your first cold drip coffee!

*For reference we are using a 1 Litre brew with an approximate yield of 920-950mls of cold drip coffee, which can be stored in the refrigerator.


Step 1

Grind the Coffee

While I have recommended a single origin bean for this method, a blend can also be used. If you are using a single origin bean, you’re going to need 55 grams of coffee, if using a blend you’ll need 45 grams of coffee. The reason for this is that the blended coffee contains more than one type of bean in the blend, meaning a different chemical makeup from each bean, resulting in different flavours getting extracted and a more rounded body. If you use too much coffee with a blend in cold drip, it will result in a washed-out flavour, (more on this later).

Now that you’ve weighed your coffee, if you have a grinder at home it is likely you have it in whole bean form - we are looking for a medium to coarse grind. If you don’t have a grinder, simply ask your barista to grind the beans for you when you purchase them and be sure to let them know that you plan on using the coffee for a cold extraction.

Step 2

Add Coffee to the Vessel

Pour the ground coffee into the middle beaker of your cold drip tower. Firstly, make sure that the ceramic filter is at the bottom and is sitting flat.

Add the coffee into the middle beaker on top of the ceramic filter. Give the beaker a little shake to make sure the coffee is nice and level.

Now you need to prewet the ground coffee. If you have a water jug with a spout this will make it a lot easier. Place your finger on the opening at the bottom of the beaker, and start to slowly pour water into the beaker. Start in the middle and going around in circles, slowly try and wet as much of the grounds as possible. You want to add just enough water that the coffee is slightly suspended in the beaker .


Step 3

Add Paper Filter

Continue holding the middle beaker as you perform this next step.

Now that you have successfully prewet the coffee bed, you’ll need to add a paper filter on top. This ensures even distribution of the water as it drips down.

Run your paper filter under tap water to prewet it. Now fold it in half - this can be tricky with one hand. Now place it on top of the coffee in the beaker - place the middle of the paper filter in the center of the beaker. Let one side fall and settle, now lower the other side gently. Ideally it would have settled, covering the whole diameter of coffee, if not, use your finger to gently adjust it until it does. Remember that you want a nice even water distribution during brewing, so you need to make sure that the filter paper is level.

Now place the coffee beaker back in the tower. Make sure that when you do this the spout lines up with the spiral, as pictured, also ensuring that it is nice and level .

Step 4

Start the Brew

Now it’s time to fill the water beaker. Firstly, make sure that the valve is in the ‘off’ position. Pour exactly 1 Litre of room temperature water into the water beaker on top.

Time to start the brew! Open the valve a little bit at a time, with an aim to have 1 drip of water come out every 1.5-2 seconds. This may take a little playing with, try to get as close as possible - too slow or too quick will alter the flavour profile.

Once this is achieved all you have to do is wait! In around 4 hours your coffee will be ready.

If possible, check on the brew about 2 hours in to see how it is travelling. At this stage because a fair bit of the water has left the water beaker, you may need to open the valve a bit more to get the drip rate back. This is not necessarily required, it may make your brew just that little bit better though!


Step 5

Finish Brewing

After 4 hours your cold drip coffee is ready!

First things first, try some of the extract to see how it tastes. You may find that you need to dilute the extract a little, depending on the bean you have used and how strong you like your coffee. If you find it does need diluting, we recommend using a 1:2 ratio of coffee:water, adding slowly to taste.

Once you’re happy with the brew, pour yourself a glass and place the remainder in the fridge for later.

Step 6

Clean the Tower

This part is the least exciting but needs to be done, luckily, it’s quick to do.

Grab the coffee beaker and empty out the coffee and paper filter into the bin, be careful to make sure you don’t throw out the ceramic filter as this is reusable. Now rinse the ceramic filter and coffee beaker under warm water, making sure you get rid of all the residue coffee grind and oils.

Rinse the spiral under warm water, this will get rid of the excess oils left in the spiral. Return both to the tower. Grab the extract beaker and give this a good rinse with hot water, make sure there is no sediment left in the bottom.

Lastly, give the water beaker a good rinse and replace. Put the cold drip tower in a safe place where it won’t be knocked over and broken.


Step 7

Serve and enjoy.

Finally the best part, it’s time to serve your coffee up and enjoy!

There are many ways to drink your cold brew coffee, as a general rule of thumb though always make sure you’re serving it over ice.

Some of our favourite ways to enjoy it include:

  • Served black over ice with a slice of some citrus, depending on the bean (e.g lemon/lime/orange)

  • Served with milk over ice

  • Served with milk over ice with some drinking chocolate

  • Served milk over ice and a sneaky bit of vanilla bean syrup

There are plenty of other ways to have your cold drip coffee - let us know your favourite recipe via our Facebook or Instagram pages!


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We hope you enjoyed this breakdown of cold drip coffee brewing.

We will continue to introduce you to the many different extraction methods, so if you have a specific method you’d like us to breakdown or any questions at all about coffee, be sure to let us know along with your favourite recipes via Facebook or Instagram!

Drop into Kiwanda Café to taste our fresh cold drip brew, or try it for yourself at home!

See you soon at Kiwanda Café.

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