First Time Cold Brewing: Looking for Tips!
Hi all! Very new cold brewer here. Just made my first batch in the fridge yesterday. I absolutely love cold coffee, and this is my attempt to replace energy drinks and soda with a very low calorie early morning drink.
For my first brew, I made 8 cups, two different containers in the fridge, that I let steep for 20-24 hours. They were both the same type of coffee, as I only bought one bag of Columbian Dark Roast from a WinCo I was at this last weekend. I ground them to a course setting at the store and brought them home. I did 1 cup of ground beans per 2 cups of water, so 2 cups of grounds beans in each container. In one container I added 5 tsp of a non-sugar Vanilla Caramel powder creamer, and in the other I added nothing.
I woke up this morning and was excited to try it. I thought the flavor was okay, but it was way too bitter for me and very strong. I'm curious about what I can try next to adjust the flavor closer to something to my palette? I like really sweet coffees normally, nothing like Starbucks but I usually aim for stuff like Caramel Machiatos, iced or cold, at coffee shops.
Things that I am already thinking of trying, but am curious what this community thinks about:
- Using less coffee grounds per cup of coffee. I just followed the instructions that came with the small cold brew set I bought, so I'm open to suggestions here.
- Steeping for not as long. I've heard people say you get all of the caffiene content after 12 hours, so maybe I could stop there instead?
- Using liquid creamer instead of powder. This one is mostly because it has been a pain in the ass to get the powdered creamer to fully dissolve in a cold liquid. But I don't want to use a creamer that's going to add too many calories to my drink, which I assume liquid creamer will. So if people have suggestions for this, I'd love to hear them!
- Possibly a different coffee bean. I really liked the smell of this one, and realistically I think it tasted fine. But I am also still open to suggestions on this one.
I think that's it! I'm excited to be part of this community.