Brew Guide: Cold Press

As the days get longer and warmer, the idea of a cold refreshing coffee becomes more appealing.

 

Here’s how you can utilise your old plunger to make a clean, full-flavoured cold press coffee at home.

This recipe only takes about 5 minutes to prepare, but does need to be left overnight in the fridge and then requires a further 15 minutes to filter before serving.

With these ratios we made almost 750mL of cold brew concentrate which was diluted 50/50 to make about 5 servings.

You can shop coffee for your cold press at home here, roasted for filter. Brewing coffee in cold water creates a low-acidity, full-bodied and sweet cup making it smooth and easy to drink.

To find out more about cold press, check out our blog article: 'What is cold press coffee?'

 

 

You’ll need:

• 8 cup plunger
• Wooden spoon
• Scales or measuring cups
• 45g or ½ cup of plunger grind coffee
• 1L water
• Muslin or a paper filter coffee maker such as a Chemex or V60
• Ice and your choice of water, sparkling water or milk to serve

 

 

Step one

Weigh 45g or around ½ cup of plunger coffee and add it to your plunger.

Step two

Add 1L cold water, preferably filtered.

Step three

Stir gently with a wooden spoon making sure all of the grounds are saturated while being careful not to hit the sides of the glass.

Step four

Fit the plunger in the glass, without plunging and put in the fridge overnight to brew – around 12 hours. It’s important that you leave the plunger up so that all of the coffee is in contact with the water.

 

 

Step five

Plunge your brew and then pour through your filter. Most guides recommend muslin, however we used a paper filter V60.

You can purchase a plastic version for $10 which could be a useful investment if you’re making cold press regularly.

As with all filters, make sure you rinse your muslin or paper with hot water to remove any traces of fabric/paper flavours.

 

 

Step six

The coffee will take a little while to filter through, you might want to pour in batches. It took around fifteen minutes in total. You can see here how the filter has removed the very small particles of coffee that the plunger mesh can’t pick up. This is what gives the clean, smooth flavour.

Step seven

Serve! The brew is quite strong, we recommend serving with ice and diluting it 50/50 with sparkling water. You could easily use still water or any kind of milk in its place. We got about 750ml of brew out of the 8 cup plunger, which would make around 5 serves diluted in a small cup.