5 Cold-Brew Coffees To Try

Coffee is a drink best served cold, at least on a hot summer day.

Photograph by Jared Sych

If you think cold coffee is something sipped through a straw from a clear plastic cup full of ice, you’d be mistaken. That’s iced coffee (and its milky, syrupy siblings, iced latte and iced mocha). Though iced coffee has its appeal -especially if you don’t actually like the taste of coffee – for coffee sophisticates, there’s a new (cold) brew in town.

Cold-brew coffee is medium-coarse ground coffee steeped in cold water for 12 to 24 hours and strained, while iced coffee is generally brewed hot and poured over ice. Because cold-brew coffee is never heated, the acids and oils that can give hot coffee a bitter taste are never released, resulting in a smoother sip that’s naturally fruity, chocolaty and slightly sweet. The higher bean-to-water ratio gives also gives cold-brew a more concentrated flavor (also more caffeine).

You can find bottled ready-to-drink cold-brew coffee as well as cold-brew concentrate at coffee shops and specialty grocery stores. Typically, it’s near the kombucha, frequently in retro-stubby bottles. Try it over ice with milk or cream to temper the intensity or straight-up black if you’re hardcore.

Many finer coffee shops also serve cold-brew coffee infused with nitrogen gas. “The idea behind this is to give the cold brew a creamy body and a look similar to a freshly poured Guinness,” says Cole Torode, director of coffee for Rosso Coffee Roasters, which serves nitrogen-infused cold brew. “When properly infused, you can see a cascading appearance down the side of the glass as the nitrogen interacts with the coffee.”

Summer is too short to drink bad cold coffee.

 

Blackbird Cold Brew Coffee Co.

Photograph by Jared Sych

Cold-brew coffee concentrate, steeped for 24 hours using a dark-roasted Guatemala and Sumatra blend. $17.99 (32 oz.) at Community Natural Foods.

1304 10 Ave. S.W., 403-930-6363, and two other locations; communitynaturalfoods.com 

 

Good Earth Cold Brew Coffee

Photograph by Jared Sych

Steeped for 12 hours using a blend of dark-roasted beans from Colombia and Sumatra. $3.70 (12 oz.), $5.50 (16 oz.) at Good Earth Coffeehouse.

Multiple locations, goodearthcoffeehouse.com 

 

Hatch Chalo’s Farm Cold Brew Coffee

Photograph by Jared Sych

Steeped for 20 hours using medium-roast beans from Columbia. $2.79 (330 ml) at Planet Organic.

100, 4916 130 Ave. S.E., 587-471-5876, and three other locations; planetorganic.ca

 

Rosso Coffee Roasters

Photograph by Jared Sych

Served by the glass from kegs in the cafs or by the growler to take home, the beans are a medium-roast blend, steeped for 16 to 18 hours and infused with nitrogen gas. $5.25 (16 oz.), $15.75 (growler, $8.40 for refill) at Rosso Coffee Roasters.

15, 803 24 Ave. S.E., 403-452-1701, and six other locations; rossocoffeeroasters.com

 

Station Coffee Co. Cold Brew

Photograph by Jared Sych

Ethopian- and Brazillian-blended beans, steeped for 18 hours, then double filtered and nitrogen infused. Added chichory enhances the chocolaty flavour. $5.29 (375 ml) at Blush Lane Organic Market.

2044 33 Ave. S.W., 587-535-6713, and three other locations; blushlane.com

 

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