What is Cold Brew and Cold Drip? What are Cold Brewing Methods?
Cold Brew is the coffee obtained by brewing cold brew coffee with cold water or by cooling the brewed coffee.
Coffee, which can change its taste with the methods applied at every step from the soil to the cup, opens new doors for us when the word cold comes into play.
In the transition of coffee to water, the water temperature acts as a catalyst, that is, an accelerator. With hot water, the oils and flavors in the coffee dissolve quickly and surrender themselves to the water. When it comes to cold water, this catalyst disappears, so this time there is no other choice but to extend the brewing time. Also, not all flavors can pass into the water. Thus, a unique flavor emerges.
When we say cold brew, there are actually two basic methods. The first method is called "Cold Brew" and the other is called "Cold Drip". Apart from this, Japenese Cold Brew and Nitro Brew methods are also very popular for cold coffee. Drinks that start with the word "ice" are ice americano, ice latte, etc., based on cooling the hot coffee with the help of ice. Now let's take a look at Cold Drip and Cold Brew brewing methods. For Japanese Cold Brew, Nitro Brew and ice brewing types, you can read our blog post. .
Cold Drip
If you think that the 1.5-meter towers, which we usually come across in cafes serving third generation coffee, standing in a corner and just doing their job and reminiscent of old big clocks, are indispensable for this business, let us remind you that these are more compact home-type models. The basic logic is based on the principle that water passes through the coffee in drop form, slowly, filtering and taking the flavors of the coffee during this journey. Small taps are used to perform this dripping process, and the brewing of the coffee can vary between 8 hours and 48 hours depending on the amount and equipment. In domestic models, the time can be reduced to 1-2 hours because it is prepared with less amount of coffee.
A filter paper is placed both above and below the coffee section. As you can guess below, to prevent coffee grains from escaping into the coffee. The filter placed on the top gets wet and allows the water drop to pass by touching every part of the coffee. Without the top filter, the water drop creates a pit on the coffee after a few drops, and this pit gets deeper and deeper. As such, the water does not touch the whole coffee, but proceeds on its own path. But when there is a paper filter at the top, this filter gets wet and the water drop reaches the bottom by spreading all over the surface thanks to this filter.
Another important point of this method is that the brewing start is done with ice. As the ice melts over time, it not only has a cooler temperature than room temperature water, but also flows more slowly into the spout, and then the brewing begins. Generally, 1 drop of water is dripped per second. But if the height of the coffee you prepare is less in the chamber, you should regulate this dripping number every 2-4 seconds. If you are looking for a softer taste or if your coffee is high, you can increase the number of drips. When you get your first cold dripping equipment, you can predict the effect of both the amount of coffee and dripping on time after a few tries. Over time, you begin to separate the effect of this on taste.
Cold Brew
For the Cold Brew method, we can define it as a type of cold coffee prepared by keeping the coffee put in a filter chamber in water for 8+ hours. The basis of this method is based on Mizudashi, an ancient Japanese brewing tradition. In fact, one of Hario's products that make this type of brewing is called mizudashi. The Mizudashi method is used to brew both herbal teas and coffee.
The coffee placed in a filter box is left in a jug filled with room temperature water or the water is poured into the jug by passing through the coffee in this filter. Our cold brew coffee, which is then put in the refrigerator, is kept here for at least 8, preferably 16 hours. As you can see, this method has a lot of differences compared to Cold Drip. Therefore, the flavors of these two brewing types differ just as much.
Cold Drip - Cold Brew Taste and Appearance Differences
As you can see from what we wrote, Cold Drip starts with a drop of ice cold water and rises to room temperature at the end of the brewing. In Cold Brew, the brewing starts with the temperature of the water at room temperature and drops to a temperature of 2-4 degrees in the refrigerator. Even the fact that these start and end temperatures are different is sufficient for the separation of these two brewing flavors, while there are other factors.
Since the paper filter is used in Cold Drip, the filtering performance is quite high and this is also reflected in the appearance of the coffee. While Cold Drip coffees have a clearer and clearer appearance, coffee brewed with the Cold Brew method has a slightly sedimented appearance. Coffee brewed with Cold Brew also gives a more bodied taste, while drip brewed coffee is softer and smoother.