How to Make Cold Brew That's Better Than the Stuff You Buy
2024-12-20 · 5 min read
Cold brew is the easiest coffee you will ever make, and the markup at Starbucks is criminal. A bottle of their cold brew runs around five dollars. You can make a full batch at home for roughly the cost of the beans, which comes out to maybe fifty cents a glass. All you need is coarsely ground coffee, water, time, and a container.
The ratio is simple. One cup of coarsely ground coffee to four cups of cold filtered water for a concentrate, or one to eight for ready-to-drink strength. Use a good medium to dark roast. Counter Culture Hologram or Stumptown Hair Bender both work beautifully. Grind it yourself if you can. A Baratza Encore grinder set to the coarsest setting produces the ideal particle size.
Combine the grounds and water in a large mason jar or a French press. Stir once to make sure all the grounds are saturated, then cover and refrigerate for twelve to eighteen hours. Do not go past twenty-four hours unless you enjoy drinking something that tastes like battery acid mixed with regret.
Strain through a fine mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth, or just press the plunger on your French press. If you made a concentrate, dilute it one-to-one with water or milk. The result is smooth, naturally sweet, and significantly less acidic than hot-brewed coffee. That low acidity is why cold brew converts people who normally load their coffee with sugar.
Store it in a sealed container in the fridge for up to two weeks. Make a big batch on Sunday night and you have coffee for the entire week without touching a machine. Add a splash of oat milk from Oatly, a pump of vanilla syrup, or drink it black. You will never stand in that drive-through line again.
