Popular articles
Recent discussions on forum
Best Coffee Cold Brew
About cold brew and choosing the best beans for this beverage.
Published April 1, 2022
Erik Hedlund
Coffee experts@The Coffee Lab
When you want something refreshing yet energizing to drink on a hot summer’s day, you’re probably more likely to go for a cold cup of coffee over a hot caffeinated beverage. And when it comes to chilled coffee drinks, there’s nothing better than a cup of cold brew to get you going in the morning or for a pick-me-up in the afternoon. Rather than using hot water to draw out the caffeine and the flavor of the coffee beans, cold brew coffee is steeped in room temperature or cold water for up to twenty-four hours. This brewing method might take longer, but it results in coffee that is less acidic and much sweeter compared to hot coffee. When it comes to making cold brew, your success will often lie in the coffee beans that you choose. There are lots of different coffee beans that you can use to make amazing cold brew coffee. But when it comes to getting the taste just right, which one should you go for? Keep reading to find out more about the best coffee beans to use for cold brew.
About Cold Brew
You might be wondering, what makes cold brew different to a regular iced coffee? It’s all about the differences in the brewing method. While cold brew coffee is a chilled coffee drink that you can usually expect to be served over ice, it’s not iced coffee. With iced coffee, hot coffee such as an espresso shot is brewed over ice, and cold water or milk is added to cool it down. On the other hand, cold brew is coarse ground coffee that is steeped for up to twenty-four hours in room temperature or cold water to draw out the flavors slowly. This gives it a softer, smoother, and sweeter flavor without as much acidity. When cold water rather than hot water is used to brew coffee, it makes the extraction process slower and more selective, which accounts for those differences in flavor.
The good news is that there is no big secret around making great cold brew coffee. And it’s seriously easy to do – all you need is some of the best coffee beans or grounds, cold water, and something to brew them together in.
Cold Brew History
Cold brew is a beverage with a long back story starting in the seventeenth century in Japan, where this method of brewing coffee was brought to the country by Dutch traders. Kyoto-style coffee is the earliest known type of cold brew coffee. The Japanese learned the method from Dutch traders, who kept themselves energized while traveling by carrying steeped cold coffee on their ships. In recent years, cold brew coffee has gained a lot of fans and become much more popular, and it’s only getting bigger. In the US, the cold brew market was at a huge $166m in 2017, according to Statista.
Reasons to Drink Cold Brew
Along with being a refreshing and cooling way to get your caffeine fix on a hot day, cold brew can also be a beneficial drink to try for many other reasons. Cold brew coffee can be an ideal way to boost your metabolism, which can make it a good choice for people who want to maintain or lose weight. Other health benefits of cold brew coffee include mood-boosting, improving heart health, and improving brain function. Since cold brew coffee is very rich in antioxidants and tends to be a lower acidity compared to hot coffee, it’s also easier to consume, especially if you’re usually sensitive to the acid in coffee.
Best Coffee Beans for Cold Brew
If you are ready to try making your own old brew at home, then one of the first things that you need to know is which coffee beans to buy. Here are some of the best coffee for cold brew options right now.
Volcanica Whole Bean Coffee
Volcanica coffee was established in 2004 and is a family business offering organically grown coffee. This brand is committed to delivering the best quality beans from volcanic coffee growing regions around the world, hence the name. All of the beans are roasted freshly at their state-of-the art roasting facility based in Atlanta, Georgia. Their cold brew coffee is a unique blend that is ideal for people who love cold coffee. It’s a bold, Sumatra coffee that is blended with low-acid Arabica beans. It is a medium roast, which allows the true characters of the flavor to come through and results in amazing taste with a rich flavor and smooth, chocolatey finish.
Intelligentisia Frequency Blend
Intelligentisia is one of the pioneering brands of American coffee today, offering beans that are hand-picked by the best coffee farmers around the world. The Frequency blend is a great all-rounder, with a medium-dark roast. If you are looking for coffee that you can rely on to follow direct trade principles and only partner with trustworthy growers to ensure that their business practices are high quality and fair, Intelligentisia is the one for you. While the beans are labelled as a blend, they are single origin from Brazil. The Frequency blend is ideal for any kind of brewing style that you like, including many hot coffee brewing styles such as espresso, drip coffee, and French press, and of course, it’s one of the best ground coffee to make cold brew options.
Bizzy Organic Cold Brew Coffee
When it comes to picking the best coffee for cold brew, then you can’t not mention Bizzy. These cold brew optimized beans can be relied on to provide a brew that is consistent and extra smooth, and the company claims to have spent five years putting the perfect blend together. The flavor of the coffee is dark, sweet, bold, and smooth with slight hazelnut and caramel notes. The 100% Arabica beans are ethically sourced from south America, Peru, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. The coffee arrives pre-ground and is reasonably priced.
Coffee Bros Cold Brew Blend
Coffee Bros was founded by two brothers in 2019 with the passion of bringing high quality coffee to Amazon. One of the main things that sets this coffee company apart from the rest is that they are committed to making sure that each roast gets all the care and attention that it deserves with quality sourcing and small batch roasting. Their cold brew blend is medium roasted and has deep notes of brown sugar, chocolate, and berry. It is made with only the best quality Arabica beans that are sourced from some of the best coffee growing regions around the world including Ethiopia and Brazil. The beans are roasted using a special process to achieve an even more intense sweetness.
Cold Brew Lab Organic Colombian Supremo Coffee
If you are looking for a convenient coffee that’s designed for cold brew, these beans from Cold Brew Lab might be perfect for you. Cold Brew Lab only caters to cold brew and the blends are all produced with one hundred percent Colombian Arabica coffee beans, giving them a robust, bold taste with a low-acid, smooth, and full-bodied flavor. The beans are all pesticide free and USDA certified organic. They are roasted in New York City. Medium and dark roast beans are used to create the Colombian Supremo blend, providing the perfect option for a robust cold brew. Cold brew coffee beans or ground coffee is available.
Tiny Footprint Cold Press Elixir
Known for producing the first ‘Carbon Negative’ coffee in the world, Tiny Footprint Coffee is based in the US and donate a portion of the profit from every bag of coffee that they sell to the reforestation in Ecuador’s cloud forest. It’s a great brand to go with if you want to do something good with your coffee habit and give back to the environment. Their Cold Press Elixir is made with a unique blend of both light and dark roast coffee that is made with cold brewing in mind. The coffee has a silky and sweet aroma with flowery, nutty, fruity, and cocoa notes. The blend is made with high-end Ethiopian coffees and shade-grown Arabica beans.
Stone Street Cold Brew Blend
Most people from New York will be familiar with the Stone Street Coffee Company, a small batch roastery that was founded in 2010 as a small outpost in Brooklyn and has since gone on to become a coffee empire. They offer beans that have been carefully selected and roasted with cold brew in mind. The blend is a dark roast and arrive coarsely grinded. This is the best ground for cold brew and is chosen to make them easier to soak inside the steeper. It is made with 100% Colombian Supremo coffee beans, and the dark roast level offers a smooth, sweet, bold, and balanced flavor with gorgeous chocolate notes. Another great thing about this coffee is that it arrives in reliable and safe packaging that features three layers and a special foil to ensure that the coffee stays as fresh as possible for as long as possible.
Getting the perfect coffee beans is the first step to making your own delicious cold brew coffee at home.
About the author
Erik Hedlund
With Era of We and The Coffee Lab, I hope to share knowledge, increase the value of coffee – and secure the future of coffee.
Add comment
More on the coffee lab
Sign up and contribute now