- Simply delicious
Overall Score: 8/10
Smooth, Bitter and Medium boldness.
Today I sampled some cold brewed iced coffee, courtesy of a recipe found here on a website by someone calling herself the “pioneer women.” I didn’t even know pioneers had coffee, or at least anything that us civilized folks would call coffee. We would probably just call it “hot brown bean water.”
Regardless, there is a method behind this pioneer woman’s madness. She claims, and rightly so, that the common iced coffee method of making hot coffee and, well, icing it, dilutes the coffee flavor because the ice naturally melts rather fast. Brewing coffee and then refrigerating it is another method many subscribe to, but the pioneer woman promotes cold brewed iced coffee, where one simply pours coffee grounds into a jug of water, stirs them lazily for a short time, and then puts the whole thing in the refrigerator for 10-12 hours while it “brews.” Sounds dumb right?
It isn’t
It’s awesome.
It turns out the coffee is completely delightful. Add a little cream and simple syrup and it’s even better. The Cafe Bustelo loses much of it’s boldness and acidity when cold brewed and makes it far more pleasant. The most difficult part of the whole process is separating the grounds from the coffee. The pioneer woman strained it like this:
Cheesecloth and a bowl
I strained by taking a giant plastic jug of cold coffee ground water and then pouring it into one of these
Straining out the grounds, pouring the filtered coffee into yet another container and then repeating the process until my brain shut off. It ended up being ultimately messy and a huge hassle, but it worked and delicious iced coffee was made. I highly recommend her cold brew method to any coffee fan in need of a pleasant summer drink.
The Coffee Aficianado 