I am a caffeine junkie. Before keto, I had a '4 to 5 cups a day' tea habit, but black tea holds zero appeal for me so I found myself switching to coffee. I have always loved coffee but now it borders on obsession. We have about 4 different coffee machines and are planning to buy a Nespresso machine next month. I started experimenting with different brewing methods and cold brew was my first exploration away from "regular coffee". I was in love the minute I tasted it. I make cold brew about once a week. It makes 3 litres each time and lasts me about 5 days.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of coffee beans (200g). This is my favourite.
- 3.5 litres of cold water (room temp. is fine, NOT hot water) (120 fl. oz.)
- cheesecloth for the first strain
- paper coffee filters
- 4 litre glass bottle/jug (anything bigger than a gallon)
- bottles to decant your coffee into - I use three 1 litre bottles.
- funnel
- large plastic jug
- coffee grinder
Click here for the printable cold brew coffee recipe
You need 2 cups of coffee beans. I use a mocha java blend, but this is completely up to you and whatever coffee you enjoy. If you find the flavour is weird or too bitter, try another blend - medium seems to work best.
Use a coffee grinder to grind the beans quite roughly. I do this by holding down the button for two seconds while shaking the grinder (to make sure nothing is caught under the blades) and doing this twice. The coffee should be the consistency of bread crumbs. There will still be big chunks of coffee bean and even some whole beans, this is not a problem. You can grind the whole beans again, but the coffee grinds don't have to be even.
Once you've ground your beans pour them into your large glass jug/bottle. The beans to grind ratio works out roughly the same, so if you can buy pre-ground (for cold brew) coffee - it'll also be 2 cups.
Add the water to the coffee. It might seem weird to use cold water but the brewing method here replaces heat with time. Leave your coffee somewhere out of direct sunlight for 18 - 24 hours. I usually let my coffee brew for 24 hours. You can shake the bottle once or twice during this time.
After your coffee has finished brewing you will need to filter it. It gets filtered twice, once through cheesecloth and once through a paper coffee filter. Using the cheesecloth, pour the coffee out of the bottle and filter it into a plastic jug. Rinse the cheesecloth well between each use, it's going to take a few refills of the jug before you empty the bottle.
Pour the filtered coffee from the jug through a funnel with a paper coffee filter into your final coffee bottles. Replace the paper filters after a few refills, they get clogged and stop working well.
Once you've filtered the coffee twice, put your bottles in the fridge. They will last for up to 2 - 3 weeks.
Cold brew, in my opinion, is best served cold but you can heat it up. On ice, or without. It's great black or with cream. The possibilities are endless.
