07 November 2007
Behold! A new age is upon us, and it shall be known as the Era of the Cold Brew.
Finally, an almond milk latte. All is right with the world.
Sara told me about cold brew coffee this past summer, and I immediately fell in love with the idea -- coffee concentrate that's brewed without heat, has a smoother taste and lower acid, lasts for weeks in the fridge, etc, etc. The possibilities! Heat water in the kettle for a quick Americano, add ice and cold water for an iced coffee, and of course -- the almond milk latte.
But I thought a person needed to buy the fancy kit to make it, and I don't like to spend money. But then! I found this! And a mere month later, I got around to trying it. I just let the water and coffee grounds sit overnight, then strained it through a wire mesh food strainer, poured it into my French press, and used that to get rid of the smallest grounds. And it worked!
I'd still love to have a Bialetti Moka Express someday, just because I think they're a bit magical, but this is such a great solution if you're not willing to give up counter real estate to an espresso machine. I always order Americanos (espresso + hot water) when I'm at a coffee shop, because I don't like the taste of soy milk (and I consume so much soy from other sources; I really don't need an entire cup of it!). But a quarter cup of this concentrate mixed with a cup of original, unsweetened Almond Breeze (heated first in a sauce pan) -- I swear it's better than anything you'll ever get at a Starbucks.
Oh the joys of cold brew! Glad you got to try it! I still haven't been able to convince my parents it's any good. They can't believe that cold brew coffee can keep fine in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
As for the Bialettis, I have a small one and find that unless diluted with a lot of water or milk, is too strong/bitter for my taste. Unless I'm doing something wrong?...
posted by sara at November 7, 2007 04:22 PM
Sara -- You're making a latte/Americano from the espresso and it's STILL too strong? Wow. Maybe I'll stick to cold brew (plus I love the lo-tech-ness of it!).
I was having a real problem making regular coffee at home, because it always turned out really acidic for some reason. I would add milk (even almond milk) and it would just taste sour. Yuck.
posted by Anna at November 7, 2007 04:35 PM
I'm going downstairs to set up a trial of this right now. I read about it a while back, but never got round to trying it.
Why don't you brew it in the French Press in the first place? Or is a wide bowl important?
posted by at November 7, 2007 07:50 PM
Well, although you wind up with only about a cup and a half of concentrate, you begin with two cups of water and 90g of coffee grounds. My little French press was big enough for the 1.5 cups of concentrate (with minimal leftover grounds to strain out), but nowhere near big enough for the whole lot.
Also, if the grounds float, wide probably IS better than tall and narrow. But I don't really know if that's the case.
posted by Anna at November 7, 2007 09:06 PM
I tried this the other day, but hadn't read the recipe, so I threw some unground beans into my french press and put the whole thing in the fridge overnight.
All I got was slightly discolored water. I'm back today looking for the right way. :)
posted by rachel at November 27, 2007 01:28 AM