How long can the cold extract coffee last? How long is the best time to keep iced drop coffee?

It can be said that the making of cold extract coffee is one of the most worry-free and labor-saving aspects of all freshly ground coffees. We only need to mix and seal the ground coffee powder and water the night before, filter out the coffee liquor when we get up the next day, and a pot of delicious and fragrant cold extract coffee is made ~

Because cold extract coffee is very suitable for hot summer, and the voice behind the scenes is too high, Qianjie shared two articles,"How to Practice Cold Extract Coffee" and "Three Tips to Make Cold Extract Strong" during this period. To help everyone make a delicious cup of cold extract. Then, after we make cold extract coffee, there is only one question left to consider, and that is-shelf life.

Because I believe that many friends, like Qianjie, will make a large pot of cold extract coffee at one time and place it in the refrigerator for convenience. They can pour a cup directly whenever they want to drink it, which is very convenient. However, such a "permanent" approach requires strict control of cold extracted coffee, because the longer the coffee is placed, the easier it is for qualitative change to occur. We all know that coffee extracted with hot water tastes very delicious at the beginning! Not only is the aroma rich, the taste smooth, but the taste is also very balanced. But after leaving it for a period of time, the quality of the coffee will be greatly reduced. Not only because the aroma has evaporated a lot, but also because the taste changes as the temperature decreases. If you leave it for a longer time at room temperature without sealing, the coffee will start to deteriorate.

This situation will also occur in cold extracted coffee, but the qualitative change of cold extracted coffee will occur a little later. Because whether they are cold bubbles or ice droplets, they are in most cases extracted using cold water at a lower temperature. Then, after the extraction is completed, the whole process is refrigerated and sealed, so the microbial activity in the coffee will be slow and will not easily deteriorate, and the aroma substances will not be so easily volatilized. But what we need to know is that refrigeration can only delay the fermentation rate of coffee and delay the time of spoilage rather than interrupt fermentation and prevent spoilage. Unless the coffee is frozen, cold-extracted coffee will still deteriorate over time.

Generally, if refrigerated and sealed properly, cold-extracted coffee will not deteriorate within a week. But the flavor of coffee is another matter! Because it runs out before the coffee goes bad. Qianjie conducted an experiment on this matter last year, recording the taste performance of two bottles of cold extract at different times after the production was completed. It was finally found that the taste and taste of the coffee were the best from the first to fourth days after the production was completed. The two bottles of cold extract evaluated in the experiment used different coffee beans, namely lychee orchid and flower butterfly. Without exception, they showed rich flavor performance and appropriate fermentation aroma on the 1st and 2nd days after completion of production, and the taste was mellow and smooth; on the 3rd and 4th days, the flavor performance of the two bottles of cold extract began to decline, and the fermentation aroma began to be prominent, but the taste and taste were still very good at this time;

But on the fifth day, the flavor was so weak that it was almost impossible to capture, and what you drank was the sweet, sour and bitter taste of the coffee itself, as well as the strong fermentation aroma; from the sixth day, the flavor of the coffee disappeared, and the taste became heavy at the same time. So we can think that the best taste period for cold extracted coffee is the first 4 days after the production is completed. This is the result of Qianjie only opening it once a day when it is properly sealed and stored. If the opening times are more, the time for tasting will be shorter. Because every time it is opened, external air will enter the bottle and come into contact with the coffee liquor, accelerating its oxidation. Not only will the flavor be lost faster, but bacteria may also be brought into the container together, shortening the time for deterioration.

To sum up! We can know that when stored properly (sealed and refrigerated) and opened only a few times, the prepared cold extract coffee is most suitable to be drunk within 5 days from the date of preparation. Because the cold-extracted coffee in the past few days has a rich flavor, but at the same time, there is no need to worry too much about spoilage and endangering health and safety. There are two exceptions to that! The first is that if the opening times are very frequent, we'd better shorten the drinking time of coffee. Because as Qian Jie said earlier, frequent unsealing will increase the probability of bacteria entering, and at the same time, the loss of flavor will be faster.

Another situation is when we use warm water to soak or steam coffee with warm water in order to shorten the production time of cold extraction. Because water at a higher temperature can dissolve some substances that cannot be dissolved by low-temperature water, in short terms, relatively more substances will be dissolved, so the production of cold extraction can be completed in a short time. But because of this, this makes cold-extracted coffee more prone to spoilage. Therefore, it is best to control the cold extract coffee made with warm water to be consumed within 2 days after the preparation is completed to avoid harm to your health.

But in either case, we all need to be sealed and refrigerated storage. Because the refrigerator is not a sterile environment, there are still many microorganisms that are difficult to detect. Only by sealing it well can we ensure that the coffee will not be contaminated by the outside world. Therefore, the container for cold extraction must be well-sealed and cleaned. It would be best if it is disinfected with conditions ~

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