Coffee: best served ice-cold
There has been a war going on in the coffee scene for years over the best brewing method for iced coffee. In short, it comes down to this: brew hot and cool down? Or brew cold? Both methods have pros and cons. And, above all, considerable differences in taste. Four iced coffees to get through the summer coolly.
The Japanese method
Japanese people don’t make things complicated. Simply brew hot coffee and cool it down quickly. This is called crash cooling. Or if you have a Chemex, Aeropress or V60 ice coffee maker: put ice cubes in the pot and let the ground coffee drip through the filter onto the ice, drop by drop.
Because the coffee cools immediately, it cannot oxidize, resulting in an aromatic, pleasantly lightly acidic coffee that is ready to drink straight away.
If you think you need much more coffee here because of the risk of dilution from the ice cubes, don’t worry. The faster the coffee cools—and it does because it drips onto the cubes—the less dilution takes place. So you don’t need to make a concentrate; regular coffee is sufficient.
Japanese people don’t make things complicated. Simply brew hot coffee and cool it down quickly. This is called crash cooling.
Cold brew method
For this, you mainly need some patience, but it pays off. After steeping overnight (or for somewhere between two and 24 hours, at least), the ground coffee beans taste subtle and mild in cold water. With less acidity, more aroma, a syrupy texture and a slight sweetness. There are two options: slowly dripping, for example with the Dutch Coffeemaker, or steeping in cold water.
It is often used for Vietnamese coffee or other cold varieties with milk. The flavor goes better with the sweet notes of milk.
Nitro cold brew
Nitro brew, also known as nitrogen coffee, is cold-brewed coffee to which nitrogen has been added and which is dispensed under pressure. The result is a softly bitter coffee with a thick, creamy layer of foam that greatly resembles Guinness beer and is dispensed just like Guinness. For example, at Lot Sixty One in Amsterdam.
The coffee hippies at Stumptown Coffee Roasters sell cold brew nitro coffee in cans. When poured, it is guaranteed to produce a substantial head of foam.
The flavor of cold-brewed coffee goes better with the sweet notes of milk than hot-brewed coffee.
Tonic espresso
Also known as: espresso tonic, black tonic, caffé tonic, coffee tonic and, in Dutch colloquial speech, ‘koto’. It has been on the bar for some time now in cities such as Tokyo, Melbourne, Berlin and San Francisco, and in the Netherlands at places including the coffee chain Anne&Max.
A creamy, sparkling tonic espresso is as simple to make as it is complex in flavor. With its hint of sweetness, citrus and a touch of bitterness, plus the lack of alcohol, it is the non-alcoholic version of a G&T (gin and tonic). All the wiser at the beach.
