Warm weather is here and it has us excited for drinking cold brew in the sun, so I thought I would share our basic recipe for cold brew. Don't know what cold brew coffee is? That's easy, it is coffee that has been steeped for a longer period of time (usually 12 - 24 hours depending on the recipe) using cold or room temperature water. Here is our recipe (including options for adjusting to your taste).

What you need:

1 Liter of water - I use a ratio of 10ml water per 1g of coffee but if you prefer stronger you can use something more like 8ml per 1g or if you want a bit weaker you could go with 12ml per 1g.

100 grams of coarsely ground coffee - something similar to a french press grind should work great. You can adjust this if you want to make more or less cold brew, just remember to keep the ratio of water to coffee the same.

A container - I prefer making bigger batches so I use a 2L glass jar but a french press or really anything you have works. The important thing here is that the container is large enough for your desired batch size. If you want to add 1L of water you will want something at least 1,2L to make sure it doesn't overflow.

A filter - what you use depends on how clear you want your cold brew, I like a very clear cup so I use a mesh strainer followed by a paper coffee filter but a french press would work or some cheesecloth.

Method:

1. Add your desired amount of coffee grounds to your container.
2. Add room temperature or cold water to the grounds and mix thoroughly, you want to make sure that all of the coffee grounds are thoroughly saturated with water.
3. Cover and let this sit for around 16 hours at room temperature (you can put in the fridge if you prefer but it is not necessary)
4. Coarsely filter your cold brew. I generally filter through a mesh strainer to collect all of the larger grounds and then pour the liquid back through the strainer without dumping the grounds. This lets the grounds act as a filter to remove some more of the finer particles and helps to keep the paper filter from clogging in the next step.
5. Paper filter your cold brew. If you don't mind a bit of sediment in your cup you can skip this step but I much prefer a clean clear brew so I always do it. Any paper coffee filter works here just make sure to rinse it well with water first to remove any papery taste. You may find the the filter clogs with finer particles so depending on how much coffee you have made and how well you filtered in the last step you may need to use multiple filters here.
6. Fill into a sealable, reusable container and store in the fridge. This should keep fine for at least a week in the fridge.
7. Enjoy! Keep it simple and just pour over ice or have some fun with it, a bit of lime or lemon can be great or mix it 50/50 with tonic water for a very refreshing drink.