Cold Brewed Coffee using a French Press
I have been a big fan of cold brewed coffee since I first tried it. I learned about this method from a Washington Post article on the Toddy, which is a great device for cold brewing coffee. The article described the smooth, but full flavored cup that cold brewing produces and I had to give it a try. I ordered a Toddy and we have been brewing with for about 3 years. The Toddy makes it really easy to produce a large batch of coffee concentrate. Place the filter pad in the bottom, plug the drip hole, throw in a pound of coffee and then add 2 quarts of water. You then wait 2 hours and drain into a carafe. The concentrate can then be mixed with milk or cold water for a great iced coffee or with hot water. It can keep in the fridge for two weeks.
I was hooked on this system. Mixing the concentrate with milk produced an extra tasty iced coffee. This may sound weird but the taste comes close to matching the smell of fresh coffee as any method I have tried. The other great part is that you can use normal pre-ground, regular old Foldgers and still get great results. You don’t necessarily get a very complex flavor “profile” with lots of different notes, but you do get a very strong coffee flavor. It taste almost like melted coffee ice cream… in a good way!
All of this joy came to an end when my Toddy brewing bucket developed a small crack that caused it to leak. Luckily right around the same time someone gave us a French press as a gift. It produced a great cup of coffee, but one that was quite different than the Toddy. As summer rolled around, I yearned for a good cup of iced coffee, and not the watered down kind that comes from pouring hot coffee over ice.
Luckily it eventually dawned on me that cold brewing coffee doesn’t required special tools. The real magic is in letting the coffee and water sit together. The Toddy’s real strength was in making it easy to strain a lot of coffee. While pondering this I realized that the French press was also good at straining coffee grounds, and I set off on a path of discovery. Actually all I did was calculate backwards the water/coffee ratio in the Toddy recipe, throw it in the French press and then gave it a try in the morning. To my surprise I was able to easily filter out the coffee grounds and the resulting concentrate produced a great cup of coffee. I originally started measuring the coffee out by weight, but then got lazy and used volume. So far my results have been great! My French press is not big enough to make a full pound of coffee, but I find that even though the concentrate can be stored for 14 days, it does start to taste stale towards the end. The smaller batches taste fresher.
Cold Brewed Coffee Using a French Press
Ingredients:
- French press (my Bodum one holds about 3 cups, I think)
- 1 cup coffee (I just drip ground, crappy coffee. I have seen coarse ground recommended for cold brewed coffee. Feel free to experiment and try better coffee and a coarser grind. Add a comment if you do.)
- 2 cups water
Directions:
- Pour the coffee in the press and then add the water. On my unit the water and coffee comes right up to where the plunger would start. Depending on how strong your coffee is you may want a little more or less water.
- Stir the coffee with a wooden spoon of chopstick. You want to make sure all of the coffee grounds are wet. Wait, about two minutes and stir again. Some of the grounds should now settle to the bottom instead of all floating at the top.
- Wait 12 hours. I have seen other recipes that say it should be good after 4 hours. I have also other recommendations that after 15 hours or so, you start to extract some of the bitter flavors from the coffee. I usually aim for over night.
- Press down slowly on the plunger. Pour out the concentrate into an airtight container. You might want to avoid pouring the very last part, it might be a little murky.
- To make coffee either add cold water, milk or hot water. The ratio used depends on how strong you want your cup to be. I usually do about 1/4 or 1/6 concentrate and the rest milk. Experiment and see what tastes best.
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When you cold-brew coffee in a french press, if is seems to be murky or dirty, strain it through a normal coffee filter and all the dust will be gone. i’ve also cold-brewed using an iced-tea pitcher, some cold water, and a fine cotton bag with the grounds in it. Squeeze the bag out after 12 hours and you got yerrselfff some fiiine cold brewed coofffeee!
yay caffeine.
Good tip Heather!
Cold brewed coffee is much healthier than hot brewed. Hot brewing causes the fats and oils to be extracted from the coffee.
You can also add hot water or steamed milk to the extract for a hot version of toddy that has less acidity than regular coffee.
Same here. GO TO ROSS’s they have french presses for 6 bucks right now! It really brews a nice cup.
I just found a small French Press at Ross Dress For Less. I’ll have to give your recipe a try. I have been hooked on iced coffee this summer. I have a Saeco machine. I make a large espresso, pour it over a lidded container with Splenda and ice and give it a good shake. I then pour it into a glass and add a splash of milk.
I’ve been making this as regular strength coffee rather than as concentrate. I just grind up about 2/3 cup of beans in burr grinder to course grind, add them to the French press (the same model pictured above, oddly enough), fill with water and refrigerate overnight. My wife and I just add creamer or half and half in the morning.
I haven’t tried regular ground coffee, but Whole Foods “Pleasant Morning Buzz” (a fairly dark roast) has been working really well.
I love iced coffee and am looking forward to trying this. But I have one question. Do you let the coffee brew overnight at room temperature, or do you put it in the refridgerator?
I found that normal espresso just thrown into a cup of cold milk with ice in it works just fine,
but then again i spend all day doing this a a barista,
o loved iced coffee (specially with some caramal)
i would like to give this a try :)
(but i think i will steal some freshly ground coffee from work lol)
How many ounces total is your press? Different presses seem to measure a cup of coffee any where from 6-8 ounces.
thanks I love cold brew toddy!
Yea, I have wondered if heating the water first might bring out more flavor. I think some of the problem with doing that is that it will also bring out some of the bitterness and off flavors that you get in over brewed coffee. It could be worth a try though!
I know we are using a cold brew method but couldn’t help wonder about the impact of starting the initial brews with increasingly higher temperatures of water.
Just left your Cook’s Illustrated recipe for great bread and began to search your site when I chanced upon your cold coffee extract. I remember sipping cold coffee (from the refrigerator) mixed with milk and sugar during really hot, muggy summer days. Totally refreshing and you can really taste the coffee. I’ll use my Bodum for your recipe real soon.
Great site!
Tony
Yep! you add a whole cup of ground coffee. The coffee extract you end up is really strong though. You only need a couple table spoons of the extract to make a cup. Mix it with hot water, or some milk.
I’ve been dying to make some decent coffee with the rubbish pre-ground crap I get - this sounds fantastic!
Just one question though - you put in one whole cup of coffee grounds??
I’m giving this a try tonight!