Dr. Corruption and Cold Brewed Coffee



Photo by Rob Robitaille


We were invited to our good friends home for an overnight stay on Christmas Eve.  We will call them Dr. and Mrs. Corruption, because I always leave with some insidious preoccupation in the back of my mind.  After all, it is because them that I now ride a big, noisy motorcycle and my wife owns a banjo.  However, despite the banjo incident, my wife seems to be almost completely immune to their unique subterfuge.  But we won't go into that right now.  During this particular stay, I was introduced to cold brewed coffee.  Although I had heard of it before, I never really gave it much thought because I was perfectly happy with my filter cone for single cup brewing and my French press.  I learned that cold brewed coffee created a concentrated elixir that is touted to be less acidic than hot brewed coffee, and much more concentrated so you can mix it in whatever proportions you want and serve it either hot or cold.  Even in the winter, I am a cold coffee fan, so Doc mixed me up a glass of iced coffee with cream.  The coffee flavor was wonderful, and it did not have any of the harsh flavors and acidity that a very strong hot brewed coffee has.  So, there it was in my brain like so many corrupt ideas before it.  It seems that I was thinking about that coffee frequently for the next few days.

So, after realizing that this wasn't going to go away, I did a little research into how to achieve this brewing method in my home.  Although there are relatively inexpensive brewing systems to achieve this, I am not one to buy a unitasker unless I absolutely have to.  But, as I had mentioned, I have a French press.  This works just as well for cold brewing as it does for hot brewing coffee and tea.  The main difference is the time it takes to create the brew.  While hot brewing takes a matter of minutes, cold brewing takes several hours, typically over night.  Which might be why it is brewed so strong because who wants to wait 12 hours in between cups of coffee when you can brew rocket fuel and keep it in your fridge for several days?  While I do not think there is a right or wrong answer to how strong you brew it, it seems like the resounding note for doing this in a French press is about 1 cup of beans to 2 cups of cold water.  Ultimately, you can use more or less water, it will just need to be diluted more or less when the coffee concentrate is used.  I used one cup of beans, ground fairly coarsely, placed it in my French press (in the picture above) and topped it off with water to the bottom of the top silver ring.  I stirred it a couple of times, then covered it and put it in the fridge over night.  The next day, I slowly pressed it, just like I would for hot brewed pressed coffee, and poured the concentrate into another container for storage in my fridge.  Then I found a mixture that I liked consisting of one part coffee concentrate to one part cream.  To that I added a bit of sugar and some vanilla extract.  I don't think I would drink this every day because it is very decadent and rich.  After all, if I had this every day, it wouldn't be a special treat. 

So, a special thanks go out to Dr. and Mrs. Corruption for once again corrupting me in the best possible way.