To make a cup of cold brew, Things you must never do!

Greetings, This is CATCH MIND. To cut to the chase, this is my story of how I failed to make the cold brew and Dutch coffee at home. To show you the “Things you must never do” in making the great cold brew, I am going to share with you all the wrong examples that you would not want to follow.

 

 

 

Although it is passed the season for the cold brew and Dutch coffee, I occasionally make them at home regardless of the weather. Because they are so easy and simple, if you got the right beans and grind size. I used to make a nice cup of coffee without much hassle.

 

But I totally failed to brew the Dutch coffee and cold brew the other time and I would like to share with you my “total fiasco”. By doing so, I wish that all of you reading this would not make the same mistakes that I made.

 

 

 

Choosing the right bean is more important than it seems

You can always make a good cup of coffee incomparable to those specialty coffee houses.

 

First, you use dark roasted beans that have been ground to the size a little finer than the beans for filter coffee.

 

 

 

Second, you must judge the extraction quality by looking at its texture. The most attractive thing about cold brew and Dutch coffee is that you do not need a fancy equipment to make them.

 

You can also make an excellent cup of latte by blending coffee and milk in ratio of 1:5.

 

 

 

But what I did were instead,

1. I used a little lighter colored bean.

: The bean I used was Colombian. The problem lied at during the rather than the choice of bean itself. In fact, the color of the bean I received was lighter than what I thought at the time of ordering. I just assumed it would be fine to use them. Anyway, it will be difficult to return them to the seller. 

 

2. I used the beans not roasted thoroughly.

: The surface was not yet unwinkled because the beans were not roasted fully. I was not able to measure the roasting level as I do not own a colorimeter, but I could see the difference in the color when I ground the beans. 

 

Just like that, I used wrong beans and carried on with the extraction despite the two huge problems.

 

<On the left is before I extract it to Dutch and on the right is ground coffee in simple micro net you can find in the market. I proceeded my brewing with both common cap bottle and ABOSU. Grind size is 4.5 using Ditting grinder.>

 

 

What was the flavor like after the extraction,

I was aware of the following issues before the extraction, but I thought it could turn out to be alright if I adjust a few variables in the extraction process.

However, I was totally wrong.

 

In result, I ended up accentuating its unpleasant taste and texture more because the extraction methods of cold brew and Dutch coffee is different from the hot brew coffee.

 

 

The coffee had strong and sharp acidity and raw texture. Because of that the sweetness seems very brief as the unpleasant texture took over it.

 

To cover this I increase the extraction time, but it began to give thick and muddy taste in mouth.

 

It was utterly terrible when mixed with milk. The strong acidic taste turned to bitter taste as I added the milk. So, I ended up making a cup of coffee that has unpleasant sourness and muddy texture with a tremendous amount of effort.

 

I used Bean Plus My Dutch and Asobu Cold Brew Maker. Actually, you do not require a maker in extracting cold brew. You can simply use 3 to 4 sheets of a micro net which you can easily find in the market, then pour it into a capped bottle. 

 

 

Lastly,,,

I mentioned earlier that because of this simple extraction process, you can easily make yourself a cup of cold brew with a right choice of beans, water ratio and grind size. Perhaps that’s why I overlooked the most important thing, the condition of the beans.

 

As the famous quote says, we always learn from our mistakes. With a hope that you will not make the same mistake as I did, I shared my “total fiasco” with you. Next time I promise to come back with a story of “great success” not another “fiasco”.

 

 

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