Cold Brew

Cups clink as guests carry on conversations inside the cafe. The warm smell of espresso fills the air. A cozy seat next to the window beckons with a bit of sunshine, providing the perfect lighting to settle in with a good book and a latte of velvety steamed milk, rich espresso, a touch of vanilla and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Here, time simply melts away.

Everything melts in August heat, and the thermometer doesn’t seem to have numbers high enough to reflect the temperature outside.

When looking for a summer alternative to that steamy latte, don’t just clunk a few ice cubes in your leftover morning coffee — brew your coffee cold from the start.

“The buzz behind cold brew coffee is because there is no hot water introduced,” said Alex Conley, head of coffee education and product development at Lucky Goat Coffee Company. “A lot of the acids that are naturally present in coffee don’t get extracted into the cold brew.”

Cold brew coffee offers a smoother, fuller-bodied experience than traditional iced coffee, which can quickly become watered down as the ice melts. The lower acid content from this brewing method makes cold brew a rich coffee beverage without the unpleasant bitterness.

Iced coffee also loses out in terms of longevity.

“Hot coffee often loses its structure quickly as it cools down, whereas cold brew can be stored in the fridge and it’s still good a week later,” Conley said. “The slower rate of extraction maintains pH balance, but the taste is much smoother and you get a more concentrated end product.”

Lucky Goat Coffee Company manufactures their own cold brew grinds at a facility off Capital Circle for café distribution here in town and across the 30A region. The company also sells three variants that can be brewed at home. The coffee company also boasts a homebrewed rig for nitro cold brew, a system that injects the concentrated cold brew with nitrogen gas.

“When you put nitrogen in cold brew, it cascades up to the top, creating a really creamy, cloudy texture to form a nitrogen head,” Conley said. “We created a system in our cafés that can infuse nitrogen much more efficiently to make it even more creamy.”

Cold brew coffee is surprisingly delicious even without milk or sugar, despite being a concentrated form of coffee similar to espresso. Still, not everyone enjoys their coffee neat.

“Oatmilk is a popular addition,” said Conley. “It’s super creamy, and that’s what people are missing when they don’t want to have the dairy component to their drink, but they still want that creaminess. Vanilla syrup is also our most popular addition, not just for cold brew but across the board.”

Hot coffee can be a sacred experience, but with weather this warm, it may be time to try something cool. If you love to experiment with brewing methods at home, cold brew is sure to be a summer favorite in your repertoire.

Photo by Jennifer Ekrut

French Press Cold Brew at Home

Grab your favorite roast or a bag of beans labeled for cold brewing. Grind the beans coarsely, as you would for a French press brew.

Combine 2 cups of coffee grinds with 3 ½ cups of filtered water into your 1 ½ liter (6 cup) French press. Stir the ingredients until all of the coffee grounds are saturated, cover and leave in the fridge for 18 hours.

The following day, press down the plunger on your French press, and pour your coffee into a large pitcher.

To serve, combine equal parts cold brew and filtered water, add your favorite syrup and cream and pour over ice.