Cold brew vs iced coffee

Two drinks, not one

Iced coffee is hot-brewed coffee, chilled. Cold brew was never hot: grounds steeped in cold water for hours. Cold brew is a brew method; iced is a serving temperature. Menus treat them as one drink, which is a bit thick.

Which is which

Sort each drink: brewed hot, or never heated?

• Brewed hot
  • Iced coffee
  • Iced latte
  • Hot drip poured over ice
• Never heated
  • Cold brew
  • Coffee steeped overnight in the fridge

Anything brewed hot and then chilled is iced coffee. Heat pulls more out, and more of the bright stuff, which is why the two taste different.

Time does the heating

Coarse grounds, cold water and 12–24 hours; the guided recipe here uses 14–18 in the fridge. Most recipes brew it strong — a ratio anywhere from 1:4 to 1:8 — as a concentrate you dilute to serve, about 1:1.

Concentrate, neat

It is called concentrate for a reason.

You pour cold brew concentrate straight over ice. What happens?

Answer: A very strong glass — it is meant to be diluted. Concentrate is brewed strong on purpose. Cut it with about the same again in water or milk before you drink it.

Low acid, up to a point

Cold brew comes out round, sweet and gentle. Its pH lands close to hot coffee’s, but it carries less of the acidity you taste as brightness. The label is being generous.

Flash brew: count the ice

A flash brew drips hot coffee straight onto ice. The trick: the ice is part of the water, arriving late. Keep your usual ratio, brew with about 60% of the water hot and the rest as ice.

Grind a touch finer

Slide the ice share. The more of the water that waits as ice, the less of it meets the grounds — so grind a touch finer. More of the bright side survives than in cold brew, and it is cold in minutes.

Keep it cold

Cold brew never gets hot enough to kill anything that lands in it, and coffee is not acidic enough to hold germs back on its own. So steep it in the fridge; on the counter it keeps open house. Finish it within about a week.

Why flash brew gets away with it

One of these two is drunk the day it is made.

Why does a flash brew not need the same care as cold brew?

Answer: It is brewed hot and drunk at once. It is brewed hot, and meant to be drunk straight away. Cold brew is never heated, so the fridge does the work.