Cold Brewed Coffee

I don’t know why it took me so long to try cold brewed coffee. It is easy to make, convenient to have on hand in the refrigerator and the taste is superior to regular brewed (less bitter). I started with a recipe from Dairy Made Easy (review of book to follow), but I then looked online for other recipes and tips on making this.

Here is the basic idea: mix coffee grounds with water, steep for 12 hours and then strain out the coffee grounds. It is kind of like sun tea.

The one thing that annoyed me about cold brewing was the mess of straining out the coffee from the water. I was taking out my coffee pot, putting a filter in it and then straining the coffee through that filter. It took more time than I would like and was messy.

Looking online, I saw that some people deal with this by using a nut milk bag to hold the grounds (kind of like a giant tea bag). You just pull out the bag with the grounds inside and discard the grounds. No filtering! You do have to clean the nut milk bag.

Here is my solution: fill a paper coffee filter with coffee grounds, staple the filter closed so that the grounds can’t escape and then brew. When the coffee is done steeping, just pull your homemade coffee pod out of the water and toss it.

I have played around a bit with how much coffee and water I use. I find that the most that the coffee filter can hold (and still be easy to staple closed) is between 6-8 tablespoons ( 1.5 to 2 ounces). I add 3 cups of water to this, but if you like your coffee stronger, you can add less (about 2 1/4 cups).

Cold Brewed Coffee
paper cone-shaped coffee filter
quart container
1.75-2 ounces of coffee (7-8 Tbl.)
3 cups water

First make your coffee pod. Put 7 Tbl. of  coffee in a cone-shaped coffee filter.  Fold the open edge of the filter shut, staple the folded edge, then fold over the stapled edge and staple again to tightly seal in the coffee. Now you have a coffee pod that eliminates the need for filtering after brewing.

Note: If you can fit 8 Tbl. of coffee into the pod and staple it shut without rupturing it–possible, but takes effort–use the larger amount of coffee for a stronger brew.

Stick the coffee pod into a quart container. Fill the quart container with the water. Push down the pod so that it is covered with water. Cover the container. Let the coffee steep for 12 hours. When the coffee is done steeping, pull the pod out of the coffee and discard it.

Done! You should have 3 cups of coffee.

Tags: coffee, cold brewed coffee