15 Aeropress scoops? For one day? How much coffee are you drinking? Or does cold-brew extract far less coffee flavor from the grounds, requiring five times as much coffee beans as espresso?
I prefer glass for cold brewing coffee. Metal can leach (yes even stainless steel) and plastic both absorbs oils and leaches BPA et al. Most plastics leach estrogenic chemicals (aka endocrine disruptors), see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3222987/ and http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110516181337.htm for a few reliable examples. I know that āitās the dose that makes the poisonā and some people are not bothered by a little plastic in their food. Iām not comfortable with the trade-off.
I realize that youāre traveling, Cory, and bringing breakables like glass is problematic on long journeys; maybe for extended stays your hosts could provide a few cheap, simple items (below). The superior taste, ease of cleaning, and monitoring brew strength easily through clear glass makes the following seem like a no-brainer:
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Find two clean quart-size Mason jars with the two-part lids. Use more jars if youāre a volume coffee drinker. (Yow!)
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Put about 1-1.5 inches of ground coffee in the bottom of each jar. Fill with (room temperature) unchlorinated water. I donāt use distilled water, it does something weird to flavor.
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Screw those lids on as tight as feasible. Shake vigorously 30 seconds over sink with your fingers covering the screw threads in case of minor leaking. Rinse (maybe) exterior. Let rest overnight.
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Next morning, strain. Use either a āOne-Cup Coffee Makerā (REI has one, and I canāt link to it because Iāve used up my allowed number of links here) or replace the flat piece of that two-part Mason jar lid with a piece of screen, surely less bulky than toting a plastic cone filter while traveling. What kind? Well, a disc of stainless steel food grade mesh would be nice if you donāt want to cut some of that nut milk bag material for a filter. I use a stainless steel mesh tea strainer because I donāt mind a few chunks of bean in my cup and use a medium-coarse grind for cold brewing so the debris is minimal.
Thatās it. No paper filters that rob those tasty oils from the brew. All gear is reusable and cheap. Unscented dish soap for cleanup with hot water.
I donāt even heat my cold brew coffee, because it tastes pretty good at room temperature and am usually pressed for time during a morning launch.
Finally, one argument against using hotel-motel coffee setups. Folks use them for all kinds of non-food applications. I avoid them and havenāt ever found them as clean as I want, esp. the basket filter holder.
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Wanted to add two small points to your post:
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There are porcelain french press coffee pots (obviously not for travel!). All the advantages of using glass over plastic or steel, but less breakable and much more aesthetically pleasing on most counters or tables. (A French zinc countertop would be an obvious exception.)
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I believe the chemical leach from plastics requires heat. Cold press eradicates that concern.
Coffee can be pretty acidic. Iāve seen it etch stainless steel commuter mugs over time. Iāll pound the search engines to see if the leaching is a pH thing in addition to a temperature thing.
Agreed there are more aesthetic solutions than Mason jars and a mesh tea strainer. But Iāve broken so many of those borosilicate glass French press carafes (these are upwards of $20 to replace: grrrr) that Iāve all but abandoned use of them. Maybe those porcelain French presses are tougher but Iāve yet to see one in the wild, in use or in a shop window.
Having employed all kinds of ridiculous straining methods over the years to make cold coffee, this idea really appeals.
Polyethylene Terephthalate May Yield Endocrine Disruptors
".... Discussion: The available research suggests that the concentration of phthalates in the contents of PET bottles varies as a function of the contents of the bottle, with phthalates leaching into lower pH products such as soda and vinegar more readily than into bottled water. Temperature also appears to influence the leaching both of phthalates and of antimony from PET, with greater leaching at higher temperatures...."
Upshot: yes on leaching at higher temperatures, probable yes on acidic products also triggering leaching.
Bodum plastic carafes are BPA-free, made of SAN instead. Are there french press carafes made with code 3 or 7 plastics? I think the phthalate problem has more to do with water bottles, baby bottles, IV tubing, etc.
Of course, there could still be leaching of some other toxic substance we donāt know yet to be wary of in these other plastics, too.
So have I, which I why I stopped using the glass carafes. We love our porcelain french press: we use it both hot and cold, and it has definitely taken knocks that would have shattered a glass carafe. Goes in the dishwasher with no problems, and actually can be so easily rinsed out we donāt always āproperlyā wash it between uses. Data point of one, FWIW.
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Thanks for the great idea, Cory. I recently purchased a nutmilk bag for a specific purpose (which was to make delicious snap pea martinis without a juicer, which worked great). Since then it has been sitting idle in the cupboard, but now it will get some use to make some coffee. Iāve made DIY cold brew in the past, but it was a bit of a mess. The nut milk bag should work a treat.
For anyone interested, here is the recipe for the snap pea martinis which we made by putting a bunch of fresh snap peas in a blender with a little simple syrup, then pouring the resulting mush into the nut milk bag and squeezing out all the sweet (and profoundly green colored) juice. Worked well and the resulting cocktails were amazingā¦
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Hey thanks for this. Iām now officially on the prowl for a good deal. I just looked at some on Amazon and eBay. Those look so dang tasteful itās really going to clash with the rest of our modest treehugger dirtworshipper abode. Home. Base. Etc. Seriously.
Iāll aim for basic white. Those Le Creuset stoneware jobs are a little outta my league.
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To add insult to injury, the Le Creuset are both expensive and apparently not very durable. Thatās a terrible combination. Weāve got a La Cafetiere.
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