Cold Brewing Conundrums

Why wait until the sun comes out?

Did you know in Sweden the average amount of light per day in January was approximately 1 hour? That's if we're lucky and the dark rain clouds don't show up between sunrise and sunset! So yes, the winter months are darker but don't let that stop you in the Nordics, or any of you out there, on your quest to be a cold brew connoisseur! 

Ever wondered what cold brew is and whether you can make it at home? No, it isn't just a cup of coffee that you've forgotten about that's gone cold. Nope, that's not it. It's almost science, a whole new ritual that will give your taste buds and brain a whole new experience.


(This is Cold Dripper by Tiamo)

A brief overview; cold brewing is extracting coffee from coarsely ground beans with cold water over a longer period of time, normally at room temperature for 12-24 hours. Please don't add hot water as this creates a whole different brew with bitterness. Once you've got this coffee concentrate you can add ice, cold water, milk or even as a mix for alcoholic drinks.

Why would you want to do this? 

• Cold Brew experts Toddy have done a study to say that it gives a lot less acidity than hot brewed coffee, reducing heartburn and damage to your pearly white teeth.
• It's sweeter and smoother thanks to the lower temperatures the coffee is in contact with. Some people are converted from black coffee this way as they don't need the milk to hide the bitterness that some hot coffees can have. 
• Less waste - you take what you need and leave the rest in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Quite often we make a standard amount of coffee which doesn't always get consumed, so this helps to reduce that.
• You don't need to limit yourself to drinking it cold, you can serve it over ice with milk or add boiled water to your concentrate. 

Try it - go crazy and experiment. Our Cold Brewing collection is available right here. 

If you're on a budget, or just want to try out at home, grab a mason jar, or a largish vessel and a sieve. Don't go thinking you'll be able to conjure up a drink you can have immediately, this has to take time! 

You'll also need 80g of quite coarse coffee, 350ml of cold water, mix together and leave it for 12 hours at room temperature. Then you've to sift with a fine mesh, aa french press or a coffee filter to get all those grinds out. Et voila - you've got your cold brew to add milk, water or tonic to.

Both Timemore and Kinto have smaller bottles with filters in which you can make cold brewed tea or coffee in then store in your fridge

If you want the proper kit to make small or larger quantities of cold brew then look no further than Toddy, the experts in field. They've been busy fine tuning the process since the 1960's and have brewers that can help you with small sample batches right up to 75 liters for the professional cold brewers.