How to Make Cold Brew Coffee at Home (Easy Recipe)
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The slowest brew. The smoothest result.
Most coffee is about heat. You pour hot water over grounds, extract quickly, and drink immediately. Cold brew is the opposite. You combine coffee and cold water, leave them together for hours, and let time do the work.
The result is a concentrate that is naturally sweeter, lower in acidity, and smoother than any hot-brewed coffee you've had. No bitterness. No sharpness. Just clean, rounded coffee flavour.
And the best part: it takes about five minutes of actual work. The rest is waiting.
What you need
No special equipment required. You probably already have everything at home.
Equipment:
- A large jar or jug (at least 1 litre capacity)
- A fine mesh strainer or a piece of cheesecloth
- A second jar or jug for storing the finished cold brew
- A kitchen scale (recommended) or a tablespoon
The coffee:
- Specialty coffee, medium to dark roast, coarsely ground
- Cold brew works best with coffees that have chocolatey, nutty or caramel notes — the long extraction brings out sweetness and body beautifully
- Light roasts work too, but the result will be more delicate and less syrupy
A note on grind size: coarse is essential. If you grind too fine, the cold brew will over-extract and turn bitter — the opposite of what you want. Think coarse sea salt, not table salt.
The ratio
1:8 for concentrate · 1:15 for ready-to-drink
Most people make cold brew as a concentrate and then dilute it to taste. This is the most flexible approach.
- Concentrate: 100 g coffee to 800 ml water. Dilute 1:1 with water or milk before drinking.
- Ready-to-drink: 100 g coffee to 1,500 ml water. Drink straight over ice.
Start with the concentrate method — it gives you more control and takes up less fridge space.
How to make cold brew, step by step
Step 1 — Grind the coffee
Grind 100 g of coffee coarsely. If you don't have a scale, that's roughly 10–11 tablespoons.
The grind should look like rough breadcrumbs — chunky and uneven is fine. This is one of the few brew methods where precision matters less than usual, because the long extraction time compensates for minor inconsistencies.
Step 2 — Combine coffee and water
Place the ground coffee in your jar. Pour 800 ml of cold or room temperature water over it. Stir gently to make sure all the grounds are saturated — dry pockets will under-extract and weaken the flavour.
That's it. No technique. No pouring skill required.
Step 3 — Steep in the fridge
Cover the jar and place it in the fridge. Leave it for 12 to 24 hours.
- 12 hours: lighter, more delicate result
- 18 hours: the sweet spot for most coffees
- 24 hours: stronger, more intense — some coffees start to turn slightly bitter at this point
Don't steep at room temperature for more than 12 hours. At room temperature, the extraction happens faster and the risk of over-extraction and unwanted fermentation increases. The fridge slows everything down and gives you more control.
Step 4 — Strain
Place your fine mesh strainer over the second jar and pour the cold brew through it slowly. If you want an especially clean result, line the strainer with cheesecloth or a paper coffee filter — this removes the fine particles that can make the cold brew slightly cloudy.
Don't press or squeeze the grounds. Let gravity do the work. Pressing forces bitter compounds through the filter.
Step 5 — Store and serve
Transfer the strained cold brew concentrate to a clean jar with a lid. It keeps in the fridge for up to two weeks without losing quality.
To serve: pour over ice and dilute with equal parts cold water, oat milk, or regular milk. Adjust to taste.
Tips for a better cold brew
Use good coffee. Cold brew is forgiving in technique but not in ingredient quality. A mediocre coffee will produce a mediocre cold brew. The long extraction amplifies both the good and the bad.
Try it black first. Before adding milk or sweetener, taste the concentrate diluted with water. You'll be surprised how naturally sweet a well-made cold brew can be.
Experiment with steep time. Every coffee behaves slightly differently. Keep a note of which coffees you used and how long you steeped them — after a few batches you'll have a personal recipe dialled in.
Make a big batch. Since cold brew keeps for two weeks, it makes sense to brew a large quantity at once. Double the recipe and you'll have coffee ready every morning for the next fortnight without any effort.
Try it with a natural processed coffee. The fruity, sweet character of a natural process coffee translates beautifully into cold brew. The result can taste almost like a fruit juice — in the best possible way.
Cold brew vs iced coffee: what's the difference?
They're not the same thing, even though both are served cold.
Iced coffee is hot-brewed coffee that is cooled down and poured over ice. It's quick to make but tends to be more acidic and can taste diluted as the ice melts.
Cold brew is never heated. The cold extraction produces a chemically different drink — lower acidity, higher natural sweetness, and a smoother texture that holds up well over ice without tasting watered down.
If you've tried iced coffee and found it too sharp or thin, cold brew is worth trying. Most people who make the switch don't go back.
How long does cold brew last?
Stored in a sealed jar in the fridge, cold brew concentrate keeps for up to two weeks. Ready-to-drink cold brew (already diluted) is best consumed within 3 to 4 days.
After two weeks the flavour starts to flatten — it won't be bad, but it won't be at its best. In practice, most people finish a batch well before that point.
Ready to try cold brew with a specialty coffee? Visit our shop and find the origin that sounds most interesting to you — we'll let the coffee do the rest.
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