The Typical Coffee Brewing Process

Whether you choose to roast and grind the beans yourself or buy pre-roasted and pre-ground coffee, the brewing process after that is virtually the same.

Your ground coffee is exposed to hot water, which gradually extracts the soluble compounds from the grounds:

• Caffeine
• Fats and other volatile/aromatic oils
• Sugars
• Organic acids from plant fibers

Each of these compounds is responsible for a particular characteristic of your coffee.

The oils and fats are responsible for the fruity, floral notes.

The sugars are, well, sweet. And towards the end of the extraction process, the hot water finally has enough times to break down the plant fibers into bitter organic acids that give your coffee the harsh flavors most people dislike.

Why Is Your Coffee Bitter?

How sweet or bitter the final product will be depends on a several factors:

• The type of roast you’re using
• How long the coffee is allowed to steep
• The granularity, or the coarseness or fineness of the ground coffee beans
• The temperature of the water you’re using to brew your coffee

If you source great beans — those that have been expertly (and recently!) roasted to optimize both the caramelized and fruity notes — and optimize your brewing process so that your coffee grind size, water temperature, and brew times are just right, you should get a pretty balanced cup.

In other words, you should get noticeably less of the harsh bitterness, which makes most reach for their hazelnut creamers.

The Cold Brew Difference

Whereas an optimized brewing process can give you a hot cup of coffee with less bitterness, the hot water still breaks down some of those plant fibers and extracts at least some bitter compounds in your coffee.

To combat that, you may want to give cold brewed a shot. Instead of brewing with hot water, you brew with room temperature water. The lower temperature prevents the breakdown of the plant fibers and keeps the bitter organic acids where they belong: in the bean.

A cup of cold brew coffee is typically described as full-bodied, sweet, and smooth, a perfect complement to a hot summer day and that after-dinner dessert.

Cold Brew Coffee vs Chilled Coffee

While it’s true that many coffee shops sell both iced coffee and cold brew coffee, they are actually two very different drinks.

In your run-of-the-mill iced coffee, double-brewed coffee is mixed with water, half-and-half, and flavored syrup, all served over some ice cubes.

Unfortunately, because it’s double-brewed coffee, it still has the potential to be bitter if the barista let the grounds steep for too long, the water was too hot, or the grounds were too fine for the brew method being used.

To sum up the downsides of regular iced coffee:

• Can still have bitter compounds
• Ice cubes tend to water it down (unless you let it chill)

Now let’s look at cold brew coffee.

How Do You Make Cold Brew Coffee?

The concept of cold brew coffee is simple. I’ve reduced it to 4 steps:

1. Find your coarse ground coffee beans
2. Combine with cold or room temperature water in a ratio by volume of 5:1
3. Allow to sit for 12-24 hours — longer if you do it in the refrigerator
4. When finished, dilute with cold water to taste

(That’s only one method, though — see below.)

Since the soluble compounds in the beans have been extracted with cold or room temperature water, the coffee lacks a lot of the acidity and bitterness normally found in conventionally brewed coffee. This makes for a sweeter, smoother cup that’s easier on your stomach and tooth enamel.

If acidity bothers you, try one of the best low-acid coffees.

Who Should Drink Cold Brew Coffee?

You’ll want to drink cold brew coffee if any of the following describe you:

• You don’t like the taste of regular coffee.
• You have a sensitive stomach.
• You just want to drink coffee that is lower in acidity.

2 Methods: Immersion & Pour Over

There are essentially two basic methods for making cold brew.

1. Immersion: Steeping the coffee grounds in cold water via an infuser or disposable filter
2. Pour Over: Slowly dripping cold water over coffee grounds via a cold drip coffee maker

Allowing the coffee grounds to steep in the cold water for up to 24 hours is the most convenient method. As long as you use the right water-to-coffee ratio and don’t over extract your coffee, you should turn out a perfectly good cup.

But if you want to optimize your cold brew, then you may want to think about getting a cold drip coffee maker.

In certain models, a perforated lid allows the home barista to slowly drip coffee into the brewing chamber. This allows for more even extraction from the coffee grounds and reduces or eliminates the need to stir your coffee grounds as it’s brewing.