#craftcoffeelover

Ladies and Gents, Let me introduce you to a brand new Craft Coffee blog series....: Pro-Tip Tuesday!

Today, in the spirit of spring to come, we dig into Cold Brew vs. "Japanese Iced". Sam Lewontin, our in-house coffee evaluator, has been so kind to give us a preview of his thoughts on the subject. 

Any thoughts or comments? Be part of the conversation! @craftcoffee #craftcoffeetuesdays. 

Enjoy:  

Cold-brewed iced coffee is immensely popular, and for good reason: it's easy to make in large batches, and it's pretty foolproof. Just put the proper amounts of ground coffee and water in a container, steep for around 12 hours, filter out the grounds, and you've got a cup that's consistently pretty tasty. The trouble with cold brew is that many of the flavors which make coffees distinctive-- organic acids, volatile aromatic compounds and so on-- aren't extracted at all when brewing with cold water. This means that, while cold-brewed coffee can be very good, it will generally taste pretty similar, no matter which coffee you use. If you're looking for iced coffee that tastes like hot coffee, then, you'll need to brew with hot water. We do this by changing our brew recipe for pour-over methods so that a little more than 1/3 of the water (by weight) is replaced with ice, which we place in the carafe, so that we're brewing the hot coffee directly onto it. For instance: our usual Chemex recipe calls for 30g. of coffee and 500g. of water; to ice it, we place 200g. of ice in the bottom of the Chemex, and then brew using 30g. of coffee and 300g. of hot water. We also grind a little finer, to compensate for the effects of the smaller amount of water on the brewing process.

Get brewing and tell us what you think!

Yesterday, Laura Schwecherl and Kate Morin from Greatist.com came over to experience our coffee evaluation first hand and learn more about what we do at Craft Coffee. We're really excited that Laura decided to write this great blog post about us! Take a look:

"But beyond the coffee, their story is what inspired me to write this post. Because more so than the taste or the fact that it (almost always) keeps me from falling asleep on the subway, I love the act of drinking coffee: from waking up and stumbling out of bed, putting on the hot water before I barely open my eyes, to taking that first sip. My mornings are just me and my mug, and I wouldn’t change it for a thing. And when talking with Patti from the biz, she explained that Craft Coffee’s mission is to transform the way people experience coffee — to have people take the time to slow down and sip on something simply wonderful."

You can find the rest of the post here: Camping Out In America

Thanks for the kind words, Laura! 

Every month our tasters evaluate approximately 40 different coffees. Most of them don't make it through.. but once in a while.. there's a truly excellent coffee. A Craft Coffee.  Our tasters get so excited and write out some great comments in our cupping notes. This one got an Ef! And if you're a subscriber, it's headed your way as we speak!

Tomorrow may be the big day, but no sweat if you haven't planned anything yet.  

You still have time to blow your coffee lover away with a 12 month, 6 month or 3 month Craft Coffee Subscription! 

       Tomorrow, your Valentine will receive a gift email with your custom message, letting them know that their first round of three freshly roasted coffees are on the way and their first Tasting Box will ship February 21st, beautifully gift-wrapped in red ribbon and burlap.