How To Make Cold Brew Coffee

Cold brew coffee: it’s ultra smooth, perfectly chilled, and guess what? It’s beyond easy to make at home! Over here we make pour over coffee every morning, but cold brew is something different altogether. The great thing about a cold brew coffee recipe: it requires virtually no special equipment and takes very little hands on time! It also makes a big batch of concentrate that you can keep in your fridge for days. With so many benefits, why not give it a try? Here’s how to make cold brew coffee.

Why make cold brew coffee?

What’s cold brew? Cold brew coffee is coffee made by soaking the grounds in water at cool temperatures. It’s different from drip or brewed coffee that’s made by percolating hot water over coffee grounds in a filter. Cold brew has become very popular at coffeeshops because of its deliciously smooth flavor. It’s great for summer, but you can drink it all year round! Here’s why to make cold brew coffee at home:

Smooth flavor. The top reason for drinking it? It has a deliciously smooth, refreshing flavor.Makes a big pitcher. This recipe makes a big pitcher that you can drink off of for days! After hot coffee in the morning, it’s amazing to have a pitcher in the fridge for a quick afternoon coffee: which takes no time at all to make!

Best coffee for cold brew?

What’s the best coffee for cold brew? Dark roast coffee. Light and medium roast is great for drip or pour over coffee, but cold brew tastes the best with dark roast coffee. This gets just the right bitter flavor when it’s cold. Some brands recommend: Starbucks Espresso Roast or Intelligentsia Black Cat.

Equipment you need

To make cold brew coffee, you’ll need a few pieces of gear. But they are things that you’ll most likely already have in your kitchen! In contrast to making pour over coffee, making this recipe requires no special equipment. Here’s what you need, and links to what we use ourselves and show in the video.

The cold brew ratio

Last thing before we start: let’s talk ratios. What is the cold brew coffee ratio? There are two main ratios:

Grounds to water ratio: 1:4. For making coffee, use a 1:4 ratio of grounds to water. That means 1 ½ cups coffee grounds and 6 cups of water. (Unless you’re using a French press to make cold brew: see below!)Cold brew concentrate to water ratio: 1:1. After you make cold brew, you’ll end up with cold brew concentrate. To drink the finished brew, use a ratio of 1:1. In other words, fill your glass with 1 part concentrate and 1 part water (or milk). Drinking concentrate on its own is much too strong.

How to make cold brew coffee

This cold brew coffee recipe is a very easy and forgiving method. Just make sure to make it 24 hours before you’d like to drink it! Here are the major steps in our cold brew coffee recipe (or jump to the recipe):

Alternative method: French press

Here’s an alternative method: you can also make cold brew coffee with a French press! The advantage of this method is that it’s slightly cleaner and easier. The French press contains the coffee, and makes it easy to strain: no need to dirty your dish towels or cheesecloth. The ratio for cold brew is slightly different with that method. Go to French Press Cold Brew.

Watch this video first!

To show you how easy it is…we made a video! Before you start, watch this video of me showing you to how to make cold brew in our kitchen.

More coffee recipes

Are you a coffee lover? We’ve got a series on how to make coffee using all sorts of gadgets, and all the best coffee drink recipes:

How to Use a French PressHow to Use a Moka PotHow to Make EspressoHow to Use a Chemex to Make Pour Over Coffee How to Use an AeropressHow to Make Iced CoffeeTry the top Espresso Drinks: Try the latte, Americano, macchiato, cappuccino, flat white, mocha, iced latte, iced espresso, iced mocha, iced white chocolate mocha or iced cappuccino and more