Further Adventures in Caffeination

I’m experimenting with cold brewing this weekend. Although there are specially designed cold-brewers you can buy, all you really need is coffee, water, and time.

For the purpose of my experiment, I bought a box of Black Mountain Gold single-cup coffee “pods” of the Kenya AA variety. I put them in a glass jar with fresh-filtered water and set the whole thing in the fridge. The results are pretty good. The coffee is strong, mellow and non-acidic. It packs a good caffeine punch, too. It’s not as highly concentrated as I would like, but I think that’s just a patience issue. If I hadn’t been siphoning off some of my brew within 24 hours and had just let everything keep steeping, it would’ve gotten much more concentrated than if I hadn’t been pouring out some to drink and topping off the jar with more water. Duh.

Since single-cup coffee pods are expensive and wasteful, I’m going to look into getting some reusable cloth bags next time I’m at Whole Foods or Central Market. I can then use whatever kind of ground beans I like for my cold brew. I also need to find a better container for it than the jar I’m using now. I’d like something I can pour from more easily, but I don’t want anything plastic. I also want to find a small container I can take to work—something I can use to make just one or two cups of coffee.

But overall, I feel like my recent coffee experiments are a success, and I love the convenience of just pouring my coffee (whether from a jar or a Java Juice pouch), adding a little hot water and being ready to go!