How To Make Cold Brew Coffee

One of cold brew coffee’s main advantages is its simplicity — and homemade cold brew is easier than ever with Cold Brew Bags. We’ve pared it down to a compostable bag that you can use with any container (mason jars work great). And because cold brew coffee uses room temperature or cold water, some of the acid and bitterness in hot coffee is left behind. So, if you prefer your iced coffee with a smooth, mild taste, cold brew coffee is the brew method for you.

What You Need

1. Cold Brew Bags
2. Coarse Ground Coffee (3 oz. / 85 g)
3. Room Temperature or Cold Filtered Water
4. 1 Quart Container

Instructions

1. Fill Cold Brew Bag to the top with coarse coffee grounds.

• If you’re not weighing with a scale, use the drawstring as a guide and pour to right below that line.
• Resist the urge to pack the bag as tightly as humanly possible — you want that cold water to penetrate all the way into the center of the coffee grounds.
• Pull the drawstring gently until the bag is sealed tightly, which will stop the grounds from spilling into your cold brew coffee concentrate and muddying it up with sediment.

2. Add Bag & Water

Put the sealed bag in your container and fill it with room temperature or cold filtered water. No fancy pouring technique required, just make sure all the coffee is submerged. To stop the coffee from oxidizing (thus, picking up stale flavors) during the brewing process, tightly cover your container and keep it out of direct sunlight. This is especially important, because hotter temperatures speed up oxidation and the brewing process, potentially leaving you with bitter flavors.

3. Let Sit & Steep

Cold brew coffee requires a certain amount of patience (or at least forethought). Wait 12 to 18 hours; longer brew times will yield a richer concentrate, but steeping it more than 18 hours could cause bitter flavors. Because cold water extracts slower than hot water, you’ll need that time to get flavor into your brew.

Our cold brew bags make cleanup no more difficult than your tea brewing process. Just remove the bag — no need to strain — and discard or commercially compost it (along with your coffee grounds).

4. Drink to Taste

Your cold brew is ready! With our recipe, the coffee you brewed will be strong enough that ice, milk, or dairy substitute won’t dilute the taste too much. If the concentrate feels like it’s too strong, add water to taste. Because our cold brew is brewed as a concentrate, it stands up to other ingredients, like those in a cocktail or mocktail recipe, too.

If you’re not planning to drink it right away, keep any leftover concentrate you brewed in your refrigerator for up to a week.

One of cold brew coffee’s main advantages is its simplicity — and homemade cold brew is easier than ever with Cold Brew Bags. We’ve pared it down to a compostable bag that you can use with any container (mason jars work great). And because cold brew coffee uses room temperature or cold water, some of the acid and bitterness in hot coffee is left behind. So, if you prefer your iced coffee with a smooth, mild taste, cold brew coffee is the brew method for you.