Everyday Luxury; Cold Brewed Coffee Recipe

There are many different ways to make yourself a cup of coffee; some ways are more primitive, such as the way my father used to make it when hiking in the Norwegian mountains; he’d fill a pot with water from one of the many clear, clean streams, then pour in coarse coffee until it looked about right. He’d put a long stick through the handle and hold it over the fire. The grounds would stay on top of the water until hot, and would then sink to the bottom of the pot. The coffee was ready. There was a certain charm to it, most definitely.

More traditional ways include the good-’ol coffee maker, then you can get more fancy and use a French press or espresso machine. There are many ways, and real coffee lovers often feel strongly about their preferred method.

Personally, I love cold brewed coffee. It’s comforting, smooth, flavorful, and gives me the feel of luxury without the cost. After this discovery, I can get myself a cup of “Starbucks” latte right from my own refrigerator anytime I want one. For people who feel they need their Starbucks (or similar) every day, cold-brewing can mean bye-bye to high bills and the guilt that often follows when purchasing the “real thing”. I’ll make it myself these days, thank-you-very-much. Sometimes I’ll use brown sugar for sweetener, add a little vanilla, perhaps, or I will add a couple of pumps of DaVinci Syrup, or Torani Syrp. I have noticed that these are the syrups a lot of coffee shops will use in their coffee drinks. So you really can re-create some of these wonderful comfort drinks at home, for the fraction of the price. There are a wide variety of different flavors to be found, of either brand, and there may be other great brands out there as well. (Here are flavor examples of DaVinci and Torani syrups at Amazon)

I first heard about it through my favorite message board. While researching, I found that many others are raving about this method of making coffee, and there are many recipes on the internet that are roughly the same. In short, cold brewed coffee is coffee brewed over several hours, using only cold water; no electricity or heating needed. Some people even throw out their coffee makers, not needing it anymore after they learn about cold brewing. The result is a concentrate that you mix with hot water or milk later. The reason you’d brew it cold, is to avoid bitter flavors beyond the certain bitterness that marks any coffee. It is believed by many, that coffee turns bitter when the grounds are heated. Without the heat, no bitterness. Also, the concentrate will keep in the refrigerator for up to a month, so if you make a good portion of it you may be all set for a good while.

Here’s what you do:

Note: Recipe at the end of the post. Norwegians or others using the Metric system, take a look at Metric & More for conversions.

Purchase a pound (500g) of percolator ground coffee; personally I have had trouble finding percolator ground, so I buy the whole beans and grind it at the store, where I can choose “percolator”. It is coarser than the standard drip coffee grind. You can use regular as well, but you’ll have a lot more trouble when draining it later. I tried it, and will not attempt it again. It was too messy for me to want to deal with it. Some believe that finer coffee will bring out more flavor; I don’t know, coarse works for me.

Here’s my bag by the grinder at the store. I dumped the whole bag into the grinder, into the slot at the top of the machine.

Then I selected “percolator”, placed the bag underneath to catch the grounds, then hit “Start”:
Here it is, grinding away. It took about a minute for it to grind up my 2 Lb bag.
When I came home, I divided up my bag into two portions, vacuum sealing one to use later:
The rest of it, empty into a large bowl. Oooo, it smells heavenly!!! Even as a child, I remember loving the scent of fresh coffee. Add 10-12 c cold water.
Stir……until the coffee grounds are good and moist.Then put a lid on.
After an hour or two, stir again. Note: You can omit this step. You will find that the coffee grounds are still floating on top. However, since they will have absorbed some water at this point, they will sink to the bottom once you stir again.
Put the cover back on, and let sit 12-18 hours altogether.
Give it another good stir. The grounds are on the bottom of the bowl.
Then drain. I use a regular, stainless steel colander first time through. Let it sit in the colander or draining from the bowl, or a combination of the two, like I did:
This is the coffee concentrate, though it needs to drain one more time through something a bit finer.
If you use it as is, you’ll find that there will be some grittiness to it. The concentrate will be more smooth if you let it go through a super fine strainer of some kind. I use a reusable coffee maker basket. In the beginning, it goes right through, nice and easy.
After a little bit, the fine solids that are still in the concentrate starts to gather and will slow the draining.
You can see it caking up in the basket. I use a spoon to push it around to get the coffee to continue to drain. When it looks like the picture below, the leftover is getting thick and pudding-like. It barely drips and this is when I decide I’m done. I dump it with the rest of the used coffee grounds.
I pour my concentrate into two quart-size pitchers with lids for easy pouring.
I ended up with about 1 1/2 quart of concentrate out of my 1 Lb of coffee grounds and 10 c (2 1/2 qt.) water.
After having emptied the bowl into the pitchers, this is what’s left in the bowl: (As you can see, this is strong, powerful stuff.)
The used coffee grounds go into a bag, then into my compost. I wouldn’t dream of throwing it out, as it makes excellent fertilizer! Still lots of nutrition left, plus it gives some acidity to the soil, which most plants like. The mild acidity helps them absorb nutrition more easily.
Ready for composting:

Generally you’ll use about 1 part of concentrate to 3 or 4 parts of water for regular coffee. It can be heated it in the microwave, or you can use it for iced coffee. Isn’t this a cute looking mug? It was given to me as a gift. Thank you, Lisa!!
You can also use this concentrate to make a variety of lattes or other coffee drinks. This is one of my favorites:

1/3 c of cold-brewed coffee concentrate, 2/3 c of milk, 2 pumps of DaVinci Syrup or Torani Syrup (although in this picture I made an extra large portion). Microwave until hot.

Other times I use honey, brown sugar, coconut extract or other flavors. Sometimes I’ll use half milk, half water. You can also add cocoa or cinnamon, or even flavored coffee creamers. The opportunities are endless!

Here’s the basic recipe for cold brewed coffee: