Cold Brew Coffee Recipe (2024)

I make this coffee in a French press with a slightly higher concentration of ground coffee to water (1 3/4 c. coffee to 2 1/2 cups water). Just press after leaving overnight. I only filter it again if I want to be picky. Dilution with water need not be equal to the concentrate. Microwave on medium for about 3 minutes. Rich coffee with no bitterness. Heaven!

This is an excellent way to make smoooothhh coffee. In areas of Colombia and Ecuador, it is the way they make coffee---and they ought to know. Throw in 1/2" stick of cinnamon, and 1 clove, and you'll have a very special coffee. Or use that as syrup and vodka to make a fine after dinner drink.

I usually make up a tray of coffee ice cubes as well...

I found using a 1-qt Mason jar works well, and measurements are marked on the side. I use 3 c water and 2/3 c ground coffee (Sumatran, which is low-acid anyway). That makes about 2.5 c of the cold-brewed coffee, or 5 c once it is properly diluted. One trick: use a wide-mouthed canning funnel to put the coffee into the jar: minimizes spillage.

There's actually a substantially easier and faster way to do this process: first wrap your coffee up in a clean cheese cloth (or other thin cloth that you can use for straining), and then put the whole thing in the water. This creates a giant "teabag" so when you're done you can take it out and skip the straining. To make it even easier put the coffee in a coffee filter, then wrap the whole thing in the cheese cloth. Then you don't have to clean grounds out of the cloth.

The point of cold brewed coffee is to avoid the heat transfer from boiling coffee! This heat releases waxes and the bitter components from the grounds. Using only cold water releases only the flavor components we all love will keeping the bitterness locked in the grounds. Cold brewed coffee has been tested to have 66% less acid that coffee brewed with hot water. I started drinking cold brew in 1987 after an episode with gastric reflux. The ER doc recommended it as less acidic and it's great

I think NY Times should provide alternative units, using weight or volume (g or cc) instead of cup, for example.

A warning: I've been drinking boiled, "Cowboy coffee" for years, which I'd pass through a coarse strainer before drinking. I've also had bad & worsening cholesterol, in spite of being a vegetable-based, lo-carb, cook-from-scratch fanatic. My doctor was pushing statins.Stumbled on the news that such coffees contain cafestol, renowned for raising cholesterol. (checked at PubMed).The news you can use: cafestol is filtered out by paper filters! Don't skip this step

While I am not a fan of iced coffee, I make my regular coffee this way in a French Press and just nuke it in the morning. All this time I thought I was lazy and it turns out I am trendy! Good to know.

I have followed this recipe for 2 years. Only difference is mine 'rests' for 16 hours. I LOVE it. I make a pitcher of it every two weeks (2 cups of grinds and 9 cups of water).
(sometimes I mix caffeinated and decaffeinated beans). Once strained the mess is gone in 1 step. Then mix 1/2 cup concentrate with 1/2 cup milk and microwave. A lovely cafe au lait for breakfast is a great way to start the day.

First, cold brew is great. Let's all acknowledge that. Second, though, you can also make iced coffee that doesn't have to sit for hours. It's a Japanese method of iced coffee. You basically need a filter drip brewing method (V60, regular coffee brewer, chemex, etc.) and drip the coffee over ice, thus cooling it within the second. This coffee comes out flavorful and clean. The trick is to cut the normal amount of water in half and use that equivalent amount of ice.

If you mean that you hot-brew the coffee and let it drip over ice, you're still going to get the bitterness that comes with hot-brewing. The point of cold-brewing is to avoid that bitterness. It tastes better.

As a coffee lover who indulges daily, I am going to try this pronto. I just want to add that many studies have shown the benefit of using a paper filter, which removes cafestol, a component of coffee shown to raise bad cholesterol. You can search this yourself under coffee filters and cholesterol. That's why the french press method, while tasty, is not the most healthful way to brew. So don't leave out the paper filter, and enjoy all the good and none of the bad. Cheers!

I do a pound of coffee at a time with my toddy maker. It makes a half gallon of triple strength coffee. My favorite is new Orleans coffee with chicory. Makes a mean cafe sua da when you have it on ice with a little sweetened condensed milk.

Making it using the stated 1 coffee to 4.5 water ratio for 12 hours results in weak concentrate. I’m trying a 1 to 3 ratio brewed for 24 hours using ground costco coffee

Really wanted to make the other cold brew recipe. TBH this one tasted just like the coffee Shop.

Do longer. 16 or 24 hours would be fine

Love this easy coffee. We drink it as is without diluting, other than adding some half and half.

To those of us who live in tropical hot areas, is leaving it on the counter overnight still the way to go? Or is the fridge a better option?

It's not 1 to 1 ratio. It is 1/3 cup coffee and 1 1/2 cups water.... great now i gotta figure out how to fix it..

Are you supposed to drink half of this recipe as regular coffee, or is this concentrate? It seems like quite a lot of grounds for two servings of coffee, but I'm also using hot coffee brewing as a comparison, which probably uses less grounds.

Is this is concentrate?

Concerning the very real cholesterol issue, I get around that by making coffee in my French press and then pouring my individual portion through a Melitta-type cone lined with a paper filter, sitting atop my mug.

They make it sound much easier to filter the coffee than it actually is. When you use a regular coffee filter, it really likes almost 30+ mins for all of the coffee to get through the paper filter. It starts quickly, but once the sediment starts to build - the coffee slowly drips through the filter. Buy the Hario 'Mizudashi' Cold Brew Coffee Pot. It's $20 on Amazon and makes the coffee filtering an absolute breeze. SUPER convenient.

Coffee grounds and paper filters can be composted. NYC recently installed orange compost bins on hundreds of street corners, making composting so much easier. We drop off every morning, much better than keeping food scraps in the freezer for a week. “Drop-off composting sites across the city can turn your food scraps and plant waste into compost and clean energy while reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills.” See nyc.gov, “food scraps and yard waste”

do not dilute it as the recipe suggests. unless you love weak coffee.

2/3 cup coffee = 51g

I added a couple of cloves, about an inch of cinnamon stick, and a star anise to the coffee grounds, as suggested by a poster here, and I honestly can’t imagine ever buying cold brew again.

25g coffee 1 c water