Cheap, easy, no-mess cold-brew coffee

boing
10

When I want to find out way too much information about coffee, I turn to coffeegeek.com

http://coffeegeek.com/forums/coffee/machines/533430

Conclusion he reached:

  1. Coffee brand doesn’t much matter much. Use cheap coffee. Cold-brewing does not produce all of the flavor compounds as hot-brewing.
  2. Extraction time anywhere between 12 and 24 hours – doesn’t matter much.
  3. Use 167 grams of water to 25 grams of coffee. This produces (120.4+170) 290.4 grams (which I’m assuming is 290.4 cubic centimeters) of finished coffee, which is 1 big mug of coffee. Obviously, this can be scaled up.

As for grinders – for an espresso machine, uniformity of grind is crucial, because the extraction time and pressure can vary, causing straight-up bad results. For a french press, uneven grind means that grit finds its way through the filter. For a drip or pour-over, there’s almost no grit ever, so the grind might affect the flavor, and how much depends on how critically you taste.

So I’ll add my own conclusion:
4) For a cold-extraction, the brew time is so long, uniformity of grind probably doesn’t matter a bit. Smashing the beans with a hammer is probably adequate.

Obviously, the #1 concern of Cory is producing a decent cup with absolute minimum investment of time and suitcase space.

Suggested test:

  1. Weigh a hotel-provided coffee brewing “beans in a paper sachet”. (You’ll only have to do this once.)
  2. Multiply by 20/3, and add that many grams/cc of water, and the bag, to a pitcher. Question: Does this fit in the coffee-brewing carafe? I suspect it might!
  3. Wait 12+ hours
  4. Squeeze out the sachet into the pitcher.
  5. Add enough water to double the contents of the carafe.
  6. Drink.

This would produce cold-brewed coffee that requires ZERO packing.

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