Nanny level tutorial on the correct way to brew cold extract coffee! How long does it take to brew cold coffee and what grind ratio?

The characteristics of cold extract coffee are well known. It is high in sweetness, low in acid and weak in bitterness, has a strong taste and is easy to make. Even without any professional equipment, you can easily make a good cup of cold extract coffee at home, so it has always been a popular place in the streets. I recommend everyone to make cold extract at home, which is simple and delicious.

However, the production of cold extract coffee is not completely without difficulties. For example, Qianjie often receives inquiries from many friends, saying that the cold extract coffee they make at home has a light taste and a thin taste. Even if the ground is finely blended, the taste still cannot come out, so I asked Qianjie which step went wrong. This situation has actually been shared quite a few times before the emergence of the street. Although the answer may sound a bit counter-common sense, in fact, the reason for this situation is most likely that the coffee powder is ground too finely.

When making hand-brewed, Italian and other coffee, if the grinding degree of the coffee is finer, the total surface area it will grind will be larger. In principle, the rate at which its substance dissolves will usually become faster than the previous year. Faster, and vice versa. However, for the production of cold extracted coffee, sometimes too fine grinding may reduce our extraction rate and concentration, resulting in a thin taste and bland taste of the cold extracted coffee produced. The reason why this "anti-common sense phenomenon" occurs is mainly due to the overly simple production process of cold extract coffee.

How simple is it to make cold extract coffee? We just need to find a container that can be sealed, then pour the ground coffee powder and a suitable amount of room temperature water into the mix well, seal the container and then place it in the refrigerator. After refrigerating for 8 to 12 hours, take it out and filter out the coffee grounds. A cold extract coffee is made. Isn't it very simple? We don't need to do any complicated operations or prepare expensive and exquisite equipment. We can easily get a delicious cold extract coffee. But it is precisely this characteristic that makes the production of cold extract coffee such an "anti-common sense" phenomenon. Because the soaking time is very long, and then we did not disturb the coffee powder during this period, the coffee powder will sink to the bottom of the bottle and accumulate after being full of water.

If the density of the coffee beans you use is too high, or the grinding degree you use is too fine, resulting in an increase in the amount of fine powder, then it is easy to happen that "the finer the grinding degree, the weaker the coffee will be." Because the particle size of the fine powder is small, it will absorb water one step earlier than other large particles of coffee powder and then sink. Without any interference, the fine coffee powder that preferentially sinks to the bottom will gather together and form a large mass that is impermeable to "water".

As the "size" becomes larger and the surface area is reduced, water can not come into contact with as much coffee powder. When there are more fine powders, the lower the water extraction efficiency, so the cold extracted coffee we get will naturally be relatively less intense. This is why the finer the grind you make, the lighter the cold extract coffee. It is also very simple to improve this situation. There are three options in total. You can choose the appropriate method to make adjustments based on your actual situation~

1. Roughening and grinding If you have a bean grinder at home and your coffee powder is a friend who grinds it yourself, then you can choose to make the grinding degree of the coffee powder thicker. Because as Qianjie said earlier, too fine grinding results in too much fine powder, which is one of the reasons for the faint taste. In fact, many friends use a fine degree of grinding to make cold extract coffee, because they think that the water temperature of cold extract is too low and is soaked, so based on "common sense", they think that the finer the better. But in fact, we don't need to adjust much, or even adjust, the grind degree of cold brewed coffee. We can just apply the grind degree of hand-brewed coffee directly.

Take Qianjie as an example. Qianjie usually uses coffee beans with strong flower and fruit aroma such as Qianjie Costa Rica Strawberry Candy and Qianjie Essay Huaquui in bean lists to make cold extracts, because the taste made with them is more in line with public taste preferences. When using them to make cold extract coffee, Qianjie directly applies the grinding degree of hand-brewed coffee! Namely: 75%~80% sieving rate of No. 20 sieve, fine granulated sugar grinding. Then the ratio of powder to liquid is 1:10, and the refrigeration and soaking time is 8 to 12 hours.

The cold-extracted coffee made with this parameter not only has a high enough concentration, but also has a high extraction rate that meets the standard. It will have a very strong fruit flavor when drinking, with a mellow and full taste, a long finish, and almost no bitterness. But if the coffee beans you use are more deeply roasted, such as Qianjie Brazil Queen Estate and Qianjie Indonesia PWN Golden Mantelin in Qianjie Bean List, which can make mellow and acid-free cold extract, then your grinding degree can be slightly thicker than the hand-brewed coffee beans. Because these coffee beans are more crispy, they are easier to grind into fine powder.

2. Divide the coffee powder into tea bags If you choose to grind the coffee powder on your behalf, there is no way to change the size of the coffee powder particles. Then you can buy some tea bags offline and then sub-pack the coffee powder to be brewed, which can effectively prevent the coffee powder from agglomerating.

Such an experiment has been done before on Qianjie. The results show that for coffee with more fine powders, the use of tea bags can indeed effectively increase the extraction rate, avoid the situation of clumping, and help you make a fragrant and delicious cold extracted coffee~The most important thing is that you don't need to filter after soaking. You can directly lift the tea bags out to enjoy the delicious coffee!

3. Stir the coffee powder regularly during the production process If you can neither change the grinding nor buy tea bags, Qianjie will recommend you to mix the coffee powder regularly during the production process.

Although this method is a little more troublesome than the first two, it is also a good way to increase the extraction rate. After all, stirring can break up the agglomerated coffee powder and give the water more contact area. It's just... It didn't take long for the coffee powder to sink and agglomerate again, so you need to stir it regularly. Therefore, Qianjie still recommends the first two methods when conditions permit. If it really doesn't work, use multiple containers to extract and soak them separately. This is also a good way to dispense coffee powder... Probably...

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