Cold Brew Coffee

I tried this cold brew fad over the weekend. I did a 2:1 (4 cups to 2 cups) ratio of water to coffee grounds and left it at room temp for 24 hours, per one of the recipes I found. After it had steeped, I figured out why people don't do this often. You think you can pour what simply looks like concentrated liquid coffee through a coffee filter into a pitcher and it's done. But no. It literally takes hours for that "coffee concentrate" to go through the filter. I didn't even try to put the wet grounds in there. Ha! We'd still be staring at it today!

I got a few cups of concentrate out of the experience. Next was the taste test.

I poured a little into a cup and added the same amount of water (1:1 per the recipe), then took a sip. Totally bitter. Of course, I never drink black coffee, so it probably wasn't a fair comparison to any coffee I'm familiar with. So I gave it a second chance.

I poured a half mug full and added the same amount of milk (another suggested recipe), then added some sugar. NOW we're talking. It was definitely much smoother and less bitter than any of the coffee or coffee drinks I've had. It did have a lot more milk than I'm used to, so who knows. It was good.

Was it worth all that effort? Nope! There are some contraptions that help with the long filtering time, so you don't have to babysit it so much, but I'm guessing they don't work well enough to make it worth the time and mess.

Cold brew coffee gets two thumbs up, but only if someone else makes it for you.