At Home Cold-Brew Coffee

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I. LOVE. COFFEE. Hot, cold, over ice, smelling the grounds, eating desserts made with coffee, you name it. The only coffee I don’t like is black coffee. I just can’t do it. My niece has a theory that maybe I don’t actually like coffee at all, but rather all the flavors and creams that I add in. 🙂 She might be right.

I like the process of making coffee and “having coffee.” I love that first sip in the morning. I also like iced or cold-brew coffee in the afternoon. Especially once it gets hot outside. Which is now in Texas. 🙂 This is our forecast for the next week:

I mean, that is next-level heat. No way I can even think about hot coffee in this kind of weather. It’s gotta be cold.

But buying coffee drinks as often as I like to drink them can get expensive. So I make most of my coffee at home. I do get a Starbucks coffee on Monday mornings because there is a Starbucks in my grocery store and I love to drink coffee while I’m shopping for groceries.

It’s so easy to make good coffee at home. We have lots of different coffee paraphernalia on our counter. We have a Tassimo coffee machine, which my husband uses every morning before leaving for work. We also have a Nespresso machine, which I love for a quick espresso any time of day. We also have a drip coffee maker. I know. It’s a lot. 🙂 But I use all of them.

So I started experimenting with cold-brew coffee at home last summer.

Just what is cold-brew coffee anyway? It is simply a method of making coffee that involves mixing ground coffee with cool water and allowing it to steep for up to 24 hours.

Most recommendations suggest steeping for around 18 hours. Then you strain the mixture the next day and you are left with a concentrate that you can then dilute and drink over ice with any mix-ins you like.

Some of the pros of drinking cold-brew coffee include the fact that it is less acidic than traditionally brewed coffee, and has a more concentrated flavor.

I first tried making cold-brew coffee with a pitcher made for the process. It is a pitcher with a filter inside where you place the coffee grounds.

You just put the grounds in the filter, fill the pitcher with water and let it steep. Then when you’re ready to drink the coffee, just remove the filter and you’re good to go!

As with all cold-brew systems, it is best to use a coarse ground of coffee. If you grind it too finely, some of the grounds can slip through the mesh strainers and leave you with some sludge in the coffee.  No Bueno.

So you can either buy a coarse ground coffee or grind it yourself. Grinding it yourself is preferable because you can then completely control the size of the grounds. It only takes a second or two to grind up the beans in a coffee grinder. 

I really like using the pitcher to make cold-brew coffee. It works well, makes large batches, and the only issue I have is that I don’t always have room in the refrigerator for a big pitcher.

These pitchers tend to be a bit tall to accommodate the mesh filter inside, so you just have to make sure you have a way to store it. You will always want to store your cold brew in the refrigerator after you make it. It can be stored this way for up to two weeks.

Recently I tried a cold-brew method using Mason jars. I saw this kid on Shark Tank that invented a simple system called BRUW. You can order the device with or without Mason jars. You will need wide-mouth jars. The device is just a lid that fits the jar, with a mesh filter.

To make the cold brew, you put the coffee grounds in a Mason jar, fill the jar with water, then put a regular jar lid on and shake the mixture. Let it steep for 18-24 hours.

Then when you are ready to drink the coffee, you take the jar lid off and put this strainer lid on and screw another Mason jar on top. Flip the jars so that the empty one is on the bottom and the coffee strains and drips into the empty jar.

You can also use the BRUW to steep loose tea. You just steep for 6 hours as opposed to 18-24 hours.

This really appealed to me because I could make a much smaller batch than when using a pitcher. And a Mason jar fits easily on a refrigerator shelf. And it seemed easy enough to do.

It comes with a card that explains how to do it. There is also an instructional video on the product website so you can learn how to do it. 

The first batch I made didn’t turn out as I had hoped. I followed the instructions with the product regarding the amount of coffee grounds. It was a lot. When it came time to flip the jars, the brew did not drip very easily. Everything seemed clogged.

I think there were too many grounds and it clogged the mesh filter. I had to shake the jars a little bit to get the water to flow. This resulted in some sludge in the coffee.  Not a lot, but any is not preferable.

So I read some reviews from other people who had purchased the BRUW and saw that many that liked it did not use as many grounds as the instructions called for. So I tried again, this time using about 1/4 of a cup of grounds as others had done. Then I let it steep for about 18 hours.

I then screwed the filter and the other Mason jar on and flipped the jars. The coffee flowed MUCH more freely, so I think I used way too much the first time. And there was no sludge! So my second try turned out much more successfully than the first. And it was delicious!

Another easy way to make a cold brew coffee is to buy ready-made pitcher packs. There are many brands, like Dunkin Donuts, or Starbucks.

These are really easy to use. You just steep them in water like you would tea bags. With these, you steep the bags for 8-12 hours, or overnight. Then just remove the bags from the pitcher, and pour!

You might also want to give Whipped, or Dalgona coffee a try. I’m sure you remember seeing this all over social media during the early days of the pandemic.

With this, you combine two tablespoons each of hot water, sugar, and instant coffee. You then whip it until it is fluffy and creamy.

This is where the system can break down. I watched people do it by hand in videos online. I tried that. Didn’t work and your arm will be ready to fall off if you ever do get it to a whipped and fluffy consistency.

Next, I tried using my milk frother. That didn’t work either. I think it just doesn’t spin fast enough to whip the ingredients to the right fluffiness.

Finally, I pulled out the trusty KitchenAid stand mixer. I used the whisk attachment and that worked like a DREAM. I should have just started with that.

Once you have your whipped mixture, you just add a dollop or several 🙂 to milk over ice. Then you stir the foam into the milk and enjoy.

It’s really delicious and refreshing.

So if you like cold-brew coffee, or would like to try it to see if you do, I would encourage you to make your own! It’s very easy to do. As you can see, there are several different ways to go about it.

Also, if you like ice in your coffee, you can make a batch of coffee and then freeze it in ice cube trays. Then just pop a few out when you need them. That way your delicious coffee won’t get diluted. And don’t forget, you can use your used coffee grounds as fertilizer in your garden!

Let me know how it goes if you decide to cold-brew at home. I’d love to know!

And I’d love for you to follow me on Pinterest!