Don’t make the faux pas of confusing cold-brew with iced-coffee…
Iced-coffee is simply espresso-based coffee served over ice, usually with milk and sugar. Cold-brew coffee is created by steeping coffee grounds in cool water for a day and then diluting the strong coffee base with water and serving chilled.
[Read our interview with founder of Cape Town based Potion Coffee.]
The appeal
Cold-brewing ensures a sweeter, smoother, less acidic drink with the coffee flavour you crave but in a fresh new form.
For coffee connoisseurs, the allure of cold-brewing lies in the subtleties of flavours that can be highlighted such as chocolate and nuts. The Daily News says comparing cold-brew to standard coffee is like comparing a slice of store-bought bread to a fresh-baked baguette from a shop in Paris.
Then and now
In Japan, cold-brew is known as Kyoto coffee. It was brought to Japan hundreds of years ago by Dutch traders from Indonesia. Perhaps it was a good method to produce large amounts of precious portable caffeine. This could work well for campers, travellers and festival-goers.
Cold-brew coffee has become a major point of interest according to Google Trends. The London Evening Standard declared that searches have increased by 25%.
Make your own
According to The Guardian, you can easily concoct your own cold-brew coffee at home. Immerse +-150g of quality, coarsely ground coffee in water in a jug, cover it tightly with cling film and sore it at room-temperature for 16 hours. Give it a stir every few hours before slowly double or triple-filtering to get rid of all visible coffee grinds. At this stage, it should be strong, so unless you want a major caffeine buzz, water it down about 50% and serve chilled.
Opportunities abound
Now.Here.This reports how two Londoners pioneered a coffee start-up, Sandow’s. They’ve been struggling to keep up with demand while also celebrating that a chain of high end department stores in the United Kingdom wants to stock their trendy bottles.
According to the New York Post, three brothers in Queens started out with a mobile food truck, but have progressed to delivering their Joyride Coffee kegs filled with concentrated cold-brew coffee to the hippest offices in town, including Gawker and Buzzfeed.
The concept of cold-brew coffee opens up a wealth of opportunities; it would play well with almond or coconut milk, ice cream and ice lollies would be sublime, or it could be nitro-kegged like beer if you’re ready for bubbly, cold coffee.
Will cold-brew coffee grace our shores this summer, or have you already spotted it at your favourite hipster hangout?
If you prefer to keep it more traditional, try this recipe for Amarula coffee.
Check out our definitive guide to coffee in Cape Town.