Cold Brew: A Quick History Of Slow Brewing
Originally Published: 2 February 2021
Cold Brew: no, it's not just iced coffee.
Oh, to have the misfortune of innocently asking a coffee connoisseur if you can refrigerate your cup of Joe to drink later as cold brew. After watching them hyperventilate and mutter endlessly in caffeine, you may have discovered that cold brew is not just iced coffee.
For iced coffee, espresso shots are directly poured onto ice, ready in under five minutes. With cold brew, the coffee grinds are steeped with cold water for anywhere between 12-36 hours. Yes, hours. Their slow-burn romance brews a smooth, less acidic cup of coffee. While many people do add milk to cold brew, a rising number of millennial drinkers pride the sophistication of saying: no cream or sugar please.
Some of the cool kids also drink 'nitro cold brew', which is essentially cold brew, infused with nitrogen, giving it a frothy top. The latte towns also embraced the cold brew trend, albeit, through their own - unique - ways.
Pumpkin cream cold brew. To the coffee snobs, once you've dried your tears with Kleenex, you can safely read on, it's okay - take your time.
A QUICK HISTORY OF SLOW, COLD BREWING
As with all pleasant and endearing tales, this one begins aboard the ships of the Dutch East India Company. Long voyages dedicated to colonising the world can be exhausting. Understandably, the Dutch sailors needed that caffeine kick more than anyone else. They were not allowed to brew hot coffee on board because there was a strict policy of not setting fire to the ship kitchen; that special treatment was reserved for Dutch colonies only. Thus, they carried with them bottles of concentrated coffee, either served cold or reheated after. While some regard this as the origins of the cold brew method, the first recorded mention of coffee brewed with 'cold' water comes from Japan. The Japanese presumably developed this after being introduced to the Dutch sailors' brewing method.
Brewing tea leaves in cold water, sometimes river water, was already practiced in Japan. Around the 1600s, in the Japanese city of Kyoto, coffee started being brewed with cold water. Over time, as seasons changed and the sun set and rose over the caffeinated city, this evolved into the 'Kyoto style slow-drip coffee' method. Highly artisan, coffee is brewed by adding one drop of water at a time, suspended through glass towers.
Unlike the cold brew method, we're going to adopt a fast-forward approach to history and skip to 1964. While the US - leader of the free world - was busy bombing countries and sprinkling its daily dose of imperialism across the globe, an American by the name of Todd Simpson made a jaw-dripping contribution. Abroad on a trip to Guatemala in the 1960s, Simpson ordered a cup of coffee in a local cafe. Being a chemical graduate from Cornell, his enchantment with the coffee served to him was beyond that of your average pretentious coffee lover. Simpson considered this to be the "best cup of coffee" he ever tasted. While the method he observed involved concentrated coffee with "boiling" water, returning to the US, Simpson would invent the 'Toddy Cold Brew System' in 1964. This wondrous machine can be used to produce fresh cold brew at home.
For a more proletarian alternative, you can always try the classic jar and filter method.
A SURPRISING REASON TO DRINK COLD BREW
The effects of climate change have increased the presence of coffee leaf rust - a fungus that spreads on coffee leaves and can wipe out entire plantations. Meanwhile, the overproduction of coffee from Vietnam and Brazil has a resoundingly destabilising effect on the global coffee market. Currently, supply is greater than demand; more coffee is being produced than people are consuming. This means that even with fair trade, coffee farmers barely earn enough to make a living. The combined result of these misadventures is a growing coffee migration crisis. Kevin Sieff - a journalist for the Washington Post - proposes an interesting solution to stabilise the global coffee market: drink cold brew.
Recall that the cold brew method results in a different taste to normal iced coffee brewed with hot water. Since hot water aids in coffee extraction, coffee brewed with cold water takes much longer and producing a concentrate, uses almost double the amount of coffee grinds. Therefore, if the world theoretically went on a cold brew diet, it would increase demand and lead to a more stable global coffee market, where farmers could earn more for their coffee. While, brewing world peace isn't that simple, it's a step, or rather, a sip.
Frappuccinos may be a childhood sweetheart but after encountering this coming of age drink, many realise that cold brew is like the Mr Darcy of caffeinated beverages: bitter and cold at first, but with time, comes the appreciation that you could ask for nothing more appealing.