Technivorm and the art of brewing the ultimate iced coffee
Summer means iced coffee! Here is a method for making iced coffee that really rocks. Floral and sweet fruit flavors found in many fine coffees simply sing; there is no more refreshing drink! We printed this last year and it is time to roll it back out!
Enjoy -
George
Iced Coffee Like You’ve Never had Before
I used to brew hot coffee and then let it cool before adding ice. Never again; it turns out the aromatics and special fruit qualities of fine coffee are long gone. Another way to make iced coffee is becoming increasingly popular: brewing coffee with cold water for up to 24 hours to make an extract. While this beverage can be quite sweet it also completely misses coffee’s complex flavor notes that require very hot water to produce. Such coffee lacks any sparkle and is, for me at least, quite insipid.
I have learned that the secret to making a great iced coffee is all in the FRESHNESS OF THE BREW. It must be captured then and there. The key is to brew a concentrated coffee beverage of exactly the right strength and extraction directly over ice. Some of you who try this may never go back to hot coffee, even in winter!
We provide instructions below using the Technivorm brewer and the Baratza grinder, available on our website. These are precision machines. At the end of this instruction we provide a formula for 12 oz, increments of coffee beverage ready for the final load of ice cubes for those using different brewers. The Salter Microtronic scale, photographed here, is also available on our website but currently out of stock until mid to late June.
Items needed (recommended)
1. Drip Brewer, ideally a Technivorm brewer, and filter.
2. Burr Grinder: Setting = medium drip grind = 28 on a Baratza Virtuoso.
3. Kitchen scale to weigh coffee and ice in grams or ounces
4. Fresh roasted coffee
5. Timer to measure in seconds
Preparation for 33 fluid ounces of iced coffee:
1. Weigh, then grind 102 Grams (3.6 oz) of coffee and place in filter basket.
2. Fill Technivorm brewer to 6 “cups” (= ¾ Liters or 25 fl. oz.) on the reservoir scale.
3. Set the filter basket flow control to STOP, if you have the adjustable filter top model, or remove carafe from below filter, shown
in step 5, depending on the model Technivorm.
4. Weigh 480 Grams (17.0 oz) of ICE and place in brewer carafe.
5. Place all covers on brewer. Start brewer (with filter basket OFF and/or carafe removed. Filter top should not leak.)
6. When reservoir reaches the 4 “cup” setting (17 fl. oz. or ½ liter) switch brewer OFF and start timer. This provides a pre-wet period for the coffee.
7. At 1:30 minutes restart the brewer and open filter holder to open (top position shown on left) – or – move carafe in place under the filter holder (right; this allows the extracted coffee to flow out of basket). Liquid coffee concentrate begins to enter the ice filled carafe. Allow the brewer to complete normally.
When brewing has finished, stir the contents briefly: just about all the remaining ice will melt. You will have approximately 1.1 liters, a bit over a quart, of fresh ICED coffee concentrate. The total Brew time required for full extraction is about 5 minutes.
Fill your chilled glasses about 2/3 with ICE, and then pour your fresh-brewed concentrate and serve immediately. The cubes will melt very slowly because the
coffee concentrate is already iced and cold.
Here is the formula to make units of 12 fluid ounces of iced coffee before final addition of ice cubes ready for serving:
37 grams drip ground coffee + 250 grams water +165 grams ice
The iced coffee flavor profile is completely different than the same coffee served hot. These are naturally sweet, thirst quenching drinks.
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