Cold Brew
This is a very basic, very simple, yet very crucial recipe. I never drank coffee in high school or even college. It wasn't until I worked as a mover, and then even more so when I was in grad school, that I really started drinking coffee. My gateway drink was a Dunkie's Regular (for you non New England folk, this means cream and lots of sugar). In grad school I cut out the cream and just did sugar. After having Walker I thought my caffeine habit was getting a little too heavy, so I thought taking it black would slow me down or even cure me of my "pot a day" habit. Turns out it didn't. Now I take it black and still drink just as much.
I'm not particularly snobby when it comes to coffee. I can appreciate a $0.50 corner store coffee for what it is, just as much as I can enjoy the nuances of an $8 cup. And with that said, this recipe for cold brew is a good one. Even the cheap pre-ground coffee from the grocery store works well and comes out tasting good. For the same price as one trip to Dunkin' Donuts for a medium iced coffee you'll have enough coffee here to last you a whole week! And it's good. Did I mention it's good?
I like using a 64oz wide mouth Ball jar for the brew since it makes it easy to add the grounds. Then, after straining, just rinse the jar and pour the concentrated coffee back into the jar for storing in the refrigerator.
Cold Brew Coffee
You'll Need:
- 1/2 pound ground coffee
- 1/2 gallon filtered water
- 64oz glass jar
- sieve, filter, and a bowl for straining
Mix 1/2 gallon of filtered water with 1/2 pound coffee (or so...just shake out 1/2 bag of ground coffee) in a sealable glass jar. I like to put the coffee in first, then add the water. If you use the 64oz Ball jar you don't even need to measure out the water....just fill water to the top! You'll need to pause periodically and mix the coffee, as it will float and take up space. Just mix, and keep adding water. This recipe is very forgiving and measurements are just "approximations"...don't stress if you don't have exactly 1/2 pound of coffee mixing with 1/2 gallon of water. It's coffee you're measuring after all, not a bolus of insulin you're drawing up into a syringe. It is what it is.
That's it. Now let it sit on your counter for 12-24 hours. Every once in a while you can give it a shake if you remember. But you don't have to. The coffee won't judge you.
After a day or so, it's time to strain. I like to use a sieve lined with an old but clean dishtowel situated over a measuring bowl. Not a good dishtowel, mind you, but rather one of those cheap dishtowels you buy at Target that cost a dollar or less and seem to be flimsy as all get out. You can reuse it for the next brew, so it's worth cutting up and delegating the towel for this use. Don't use cheese cloth, as the weave is too loose and will allow grounds to seep through. You can use a standard paper coffee filter, but I find this just takes too along to allow the coffee to run through. I don't have time for that!
Now start pouring. You'll do it in small increments, as it will take a few minutes to filter through. Just be patient. If you pour the brew carefully enough you'll be left with a big clump of grounds at the bottom of the jar. Leave them there, and don't send them through the strainer. The amount of liquid coffee you'll get out of that clump is negligible and not worth the effort of waiting for the strain to complete. In the sieve you'll be left with a tarry looking blob of grounds from all the previous straining. I give this one last squeeze. There's some strong coffee hiding in there! Dump all the grounds in your compost if you have one, coffee adds nitrogen to the mix.
Once you've strained all the coffee you're done. Rinse out your jar and transfer the filtered coffee back into the same jar for storage. Remember, this is a concentrated coffee. I like a 1:1 ratio of coffee to water, but to each their own. Play around with the potency you prefer. Store it in the fridge, and it should keep for about a week or so. But you'll drink it all before the week is out, so this factoid is really unnecessary.
Enjoy!!
