We use this recipe all summer long and it makes for a great summer of iced goodness. Brewing with hot water preserves a coffee’s acidity (aka the juiciness, brightness, fruit-like qualities) and complexity, and flash-cooling it preserves its sweetness. This method is especially great when you want iced coffee immediately, and can’t wait for a cold brew to steep.
Before we begin, it's important to note that there are three different ways (at least, but these are the main ones!) of making cold coffee:
1. Iced Coffee - Regular Style: This is the simplest and unfortunately, the least tasty type of cold coffee. It's made by making an entire cup or pot of coffee using hot water, and then cooling it slowly in a fridge. The slower a coffee is cooled down from hot, the more bitterness it develops.
2. Cold Brew: Steeping coffee for 12 to 24 hours in cold or room temperature water. The resulting coffee has less acidity, but is also less dynamic. Cold brew takes many many hours (potentially overnight) brewing so a lot more planning is involved.
3. Flash Brew: Coffee is brewed with hot water and as it falls through the filter, it is immediately cooled and diluted by ice. Flash brew captures the brightness and acidity of a coffee by brewing with hot water, but it's cooled down immediately, so it doesn't get those bitter flavors associated with the regular way of making iced coffee.
Check out this very short video we made for more info!
Flash Brew Tutorial
When making flash brew, we are essentially making a concentrate. We'll use about the same amount of coffee that we would if brewing a regular pour over, but 1/4 of the hot water will be replaced with ice.
This kind of cold coffee can be made with all sorts of brewers: pour over, electric drip, or Aeropress, to name a few. For this tutorial, we'll use the pour over method.
As with all coffee making, using a scale makes everything much easier.
✨1:15 ratio (1 part coffee, 15 parts water)
- We usually recommend 1:16 or 1:17 of coffee to water for a hot pour over or electric drip, but since we will add ice into the cup we drink it out of, which will dilute the brew even more, we aim for the concentration to be 1:15 after making it. But feel free to mess around and get that ratio perfect for your strength preference!
✨Coffee: 47 grams (or 8 tablespoons)
- Grind slightly finer than what you’d normally grind at for that brewer.
✨Hot water: 710 ml (or 3 cups)
- Temperature between 205F & 210F (or 1 to 3 min off boil).
- Higher temps for lighter roasts.
✨Ice: 270g
- Put the ice in the server or carafe that you’ll be brewing into - if it’s an electric drip, the ice goes right into your coffee pot.
✨Total brew time: 3:30 min
- Aim for all water to be done dripping through the filter at around 3 minutes, 30 seconds. Since you're using less water than usual, a finer grind and a slightly slower pour is recommended.
STEP BY STEP
1. Setup your pour over equipment as usual, put that 270g of ice into the carafe and if using our recipe, 47 grams of coffee into a rinsed filter.
2. Start the timer and brew as you would normally brew a manual pour-over.
3. Use concentric circles when pouring hot water, and keep an eye on time and amount of water that has gone through.
4. Looks delicious, doesn't it?
5. Try to have all of your water poured by 2:45. It should take about 45 seconds to drip through.
6. There you have it.
Some tips:
- Use smaller ice cubes and they will melt more quickly.
- If you have a lot of unmelted ice after brewing, stir it around a bit to melt. Next time, you could try using a little bit less ice (but remember to increase the amount of hot water to replace it, because that ice is part of the recipe!)
- Try a bright coffee - African coffees are great with this method, and some of Central Americans, too.