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Hot take: Cold brew concentrate was a game changer after I messed up hot brew for years
I used to think cold brew was just weak iced coffee, but after making a batch with a 1:8 ratio and letting it steep for 18 hours, the flavor was night and day compared to my burnt pour-overs. Anyone else find cold brew fixed their bitterness problems?
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reese_hayes7113d ago
Doesn't all that long steeping just bring out the grassy, flat notes instead of the bright flavors you get from a good hot brew? I've been doing hot pour-overs with a finer grind and slightly cooler water around 195 degrees, and the bitterness vanished without losing any of the complexity. Cold brew always tastes one-note to me, like it's missing the acidity that makes coffee interesting. You might just need to dial in your hot brew technique instead of giving up on it completely.
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ivanbell13d ago
You know what's funny though, nobody ever talks about the bean origin mattering way more with cold brew than hot. Like with a dark roast Ethiopian or something, hot brew gives you those blueberry and wine notes from the heat activating the oils. But cold steep that same bean and yeah you're right it goes grassy and dead. I've found that medium roast South American beans, like from Colombia or Brazil, they actually get this cocoa and caramel sweetness in cold brew that you barely taste when hot. The chocolate notes come forward way more. So it's not just technique, it's picking the right bean for the method.
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