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By Jemma Howlett
On hot summer days, cold coffee is a MUST. But plain iced coffee can end up tasting watery or bitter, especially if you attempt to make it at home. Cold brew coffee is the solution and a common find at coffee shops nowadays—even Starbucks has jumped on the bandwagon. But these shops take advantage of summer thirst and charge way more for cold brew than traditional iced coffee—sometimes double the price! Buying your cup of joe every morning can burn a hole in your pocket very quickly. But cold brew coffee has a dirty little secret no one wants you to know: it’s insanely easy to make at home!
What makes cold brew so good? During the time the coffee is sitting in the water. The slow infusion allows the water to absorb all the delicious coffee flavors without making it bitter or sour as sometimes can happen with accelerated steeping involving hot water.
Here’s how to get brewing to help the environment and your wallet.
Step 1: Buy some beans! Pretty much any coffee shop sells them now a days, you can go to your favorite coffee shop and pick up their beans if you want your cold brew to taste identical. Or, if you’re not fussy, pick up any old bean at the local grocery store. Any type should work for making cold brew, but experiment with different roasts and beans to discover what you like the best.
Step 2: If you opted not to buy the beans coarsely ground, grind them yourself at home.
Step 3: Combine the grounds with cold water. For every cup of grounds include four cups of water.
Step 4: Let the grounds steep for 12-24 hours. This is the part where your taste comes in. If you like your coffee stronger, steep for a longer time; if you prefer milder coffee, steep for closer to 12 hours.
Step 5: Once the coffee has steeped, use a strainer to catch the beans while pouring the cold brew into a vessel for storage. You can make one big batch over the weekend and then sip effortlessly and cost-effectively all through the week.
How much money will you save? Well, you can buy a nice bag of coffee for $20 with approximately 4 cups of coffee grounds in it. This would equate to 16 cups of cold brew at $1.25 each. A tall Starbucks cold brew costs $3.50 so over the course of a week you would save $15.75, and over the course of a month $63!
That’s it! Really. Sip and enjoy the taste of this economical, delicious summer-hack triumph.
