Dutch brew

Food is an experience. And drinks are no different. Think: cocktails. Think: baristas. And in the latter case, think above all: coffee tools. No drink has as many different devices at its disposal as coffee. Such as the Dutch Coffee Maker. Famous worldwide, except in the Netherlands.

A still relatively undiscovered, although centuries-old, gadget is the Dutch Coffee Maker. A traditional yet high-tech-looking, several-metre-high apparatus made of wood and glass, in which ice-cold drops of water fall from a great height, agonisingly slowly, through a filter containing freshly ground coffee beans into a glass pot.

Dutch drip

Those who want to drink so-called Dutch drip need to be patient for anywhere between roughly four and twelve hours. But then you also taste far fewer bitter notes and acids than with hot-brewed coffee. That is because cold coffee oxidises less (it is less affected by oxygen). All the flavours also remain better preserved, because the fats in the beans do not dissolve in cold water.

From a great height, ice-cold drops of water fall agonisingly slowly through a coffee filter

Dutch Coffee will therefore keep for at least a day, provided it is stored chilled.

Colonies

Around three hundred years ago, Dutch traders from the Dutch East India Company (VOC) were the first to brew coffee with cold water. Because of its shelf life and its cooling effect. To do so, they developed an apparatus made from materials available in the colonies (wood).

When the VOC disappeared from Asia, the Dutch left the Dutch Coffee Maker behind. It has continued to exist ever since, just like the concept of Dutch drip coffee. But here, it was only rediscovered a few years ago.

In a bottle

The difference from cold-brewed coffee that steeps in cold water for at least twelve hours: Dutch drips taste more complex and fuller-bodied. And with much less coffee! Doesn’t that sound truly Dutch?

Available to drink, among other places, at Formocha Premium Tea & Comfort Food, Amsterdam. Also available in a tea version.

Also available for purchase in a bottle from, among others, Batavia Dutch Coffee.

Text: Marjan Ippel
Image: Marjan Ippel