I started drinking coffee when I was 14 years old. It was the early 1990s and Portland, Oregon was ground zero for the onslaught of espresso bars that was soon to sweep the nation. Boyd’s, one of the early local chains, had a location just a block from my high school and whenever my budget allowed, I’d get myself a latte (often with hazelnut syrup) or when the weather warmed, an iced coffee.
I’ve been a fairly regular coffee drinker ever since. And so, when the nice people at Driftaway Coffee got in touch a few months back to see if we could team up in some way, I said of course. They are a subscription coffee company that will send you installments of freshly roasted beans every two weeks.
They trick is that they like each new subscriber to start with their Rise & Grind kit, which includes four different varietals in one-ounce samples. Once you’ve brewed through each one, you let them know which one you liked best and that’s the one you’ll get in each shipment. It’s a pretty great idea, particularly for people who are just starting to explore single origin coffees.
They sent me one of the two-ounce Rise & Grind kits and once I was finished admiring the packaging (I’m a sucker for good design), I popped open one of the 2 ounce packets and got to work making a batch of cold brew.
I’ve been a cold brew coffee fan for years now (you can see that the first time I mentioned it was way back in 2010) and make it a lot when the days warm. I’ve refined my approach and upgraded my equipment slightly in the last five years, so an updated post on the topic seemed like a good idea.
I’ve found that everyone has their own ratio for cold brew. My preferred recipe is 2 ounces of coarse ground coffee to 3 1/2 cups cold, freshly filtered water. This makes a strong brew that produces enough to last 2-3 days (depending on how many deadlines I’m pushing to meet). I don’t typically add water to thin it out, but instead add a couple of ice cubes and a generous pour of milk and call it good.
I grind the beans and funnel them into a quart jar. I add a splash of cold water and swirl the jar a little to dampen the grounds and let them bloom a little. Once they’ve grown a little, I add the remaining water and put a lid on the jar. I tuck into the corner of the kitchen and let it sit for 12 to 18 hours.
The next day, I perch a cone filter over a clean quart jar and fit it with one of Coffee Sock cloth filters that Cuppow sells. I pour the sludgy coffee through the filter in a couple of batches, until the lower jar is filled with perfect, ready to drink coffee.
One of my favorite things about cold brew is that it has the ability to take mediocre or slightly elderly beans and make them drinkable. However, when you’re shooting for more than just simply drinkable, using good, freshly roasted beans creates a brew that is transcendently good.
For the batch of cold brew that is pictured here, I used Driftaway Coffee’s Guatemalan beans and it was magical. Earthy and a bit chocolatey, with just a bit of acid for lightness. Oh, and if making your own cold brew feels like too much work, I hear that Driftaway Coffee is soon going to be making their own concentrate.
The nice folks at Driftaway Coffee want to give a three-month subscriptions away to one of my readers so that’s what we’re going to do. Here’s how to enter!
- Leave a comment on this post and tell me what you’re drinking these days. Cold brew coffee? Homemade kombucha? Hot tea with honey?
- Comments will close at 11:59 pm eastern time on Saturday, June 6, 2015. Winners will be chosen at random and will be posted to the blog soon thereafter.
- Giveaway open to US residents only. Void where prohibited.
- One comment per person, please. Entries must be left via the comment form on the blog at the bottom of this post.
Disclosure: Driftaway Coffee sent me their Rise & Grind kit and are providing the giveaway subscription, both at no cost to me. No additional financial compensation has been provided and all opinions expressed are mine alone.
I’ve been drinking green tea through my Keurig but would like to try cold brew coffee made from a recipe.
Cold brew with a coffee sock bought in costa rica. Pura /vida
I am strictly a black coffee drinker. Grinding my locally roasted beans every morning and making awesome coffee in my Clever Dripper cone.
Hot coffee with half and half!
I drink drip or cold brew on weekday mornings (depending on the temp/time of year) and some sort of decadent latte confection on weekends – whatever flavor suits my mood that day.
I do like Kombucha and tea, but those are for my afternoon caffeine kick. 🙂
I make coffee concentrate in large amounts and keep a jar in the fridge – the rest goes in the freezer. Each morning my husband can boil water, put his desired amount of concentrate in a cup and he has good-tasting coffee. I also use it for iced coffee drinks.
Sun tea.
I enjoy coffee from my Keurig every morning and hot tea in the evening when the weather is cooler.
It’s cold in CT this week, so it’s been hot coffee during the am for me. Chamomile tea in the evening for relaxation!
It’s not hot enough yet for cold brew here in Wisconsin, so I’m still making coffee with my moka.
Coffee from my keurig with coconut milk – delicious!
White chocolate americanos with coconut milk are my jam these days…..YUM 🙂
Hot coffee in the morning, no matter what. With half and half if we have any; otherwise black. We’e drunk Starbucks French roast for 20-plus years and come back to it every time we try something else. So we don’t try much else anymore. I’ve been meaning to try some cold-brew – maybe this is the summer!
jasmine green tea at work, kombucha at home (it’s been on sale…), and water everywhere!
I love coffee, cold or hot. Recently, I purchased some ground chickory and have been adding it to a few of my pots of coffee for a variation.
I have been drinking lots of iced coffee from my Keurig these days. I would love to try something higher quality!
Thanks for the chance to win!
I’m drinking a lot of unsweetened iced tea since I’m pregnant and thirsty ALL THE TIME. I also will brew a pint jar of hot coffee some mornings and pop it in the refrigerator to have as iced coffee in the afternoon – it always feels so indulgent!
afternoon americano, such a good pick me up!
Drinking some nice oolong on a damp and cold summer day!
Frappucchinos, but I need to stop – too much sugar!
What a cool service (and such lovely packaging too). I’m drinking coffee right now at my office–black and bitter and Whole-30-compliant. 😉
Drinking coffee in all forms and homemade kombucha!
Unbelievably, we have a coffee roasting company just down the street, and we can purchase very freshly roasted beans for a fraction of the cost somewhere else. Oh, and the coffee is the very best!
2 pint jars of hot coffee when I get up for me!
Roasterie Shatto Chocolate Milk Toddy; local dairy chocolate milk (best you’ve ever had) + locally roasted beans
I love hot coffee, very dark and strong, with half and half and honey! rich and delicious!
Cold brew coffee. I make mine with Cafe Bustelo (mexican brand, grocery store bought, ridiculously potent and tasty) and use the whole 10oz with ~6L of water. It lasts my hubby and I about a week, and we can’t manage summer without it, anymore!
I love cold brew coffee!!!!! I used to make it all of the time and haven’t for a while. I think I’ll do some tonight.
I’ve been drinking unsweetened iced tea with a shot of Meyer lemon limoncello after the kids go to bed. 😉
right this minute? grapefruit la croix.
Coffee. Hot. With cream. Yum
I just made cold brew coffee for the first time this weekend and and am very excited to try more!
Just good old hot coffee with milk, maybe with a bit of cinnamon.
Our weather is so wacky lately (90 one day, 60 the next) that I’m switching between regular coffee and cold brew!
Lots of coffee (I’m currently doing a lot of transcription work–snorezzzzzz) from any source possible, and homemade lemonade in the afternoon.
I’ve been making and selling cold brew coffee filters for awhile. The easier it is to make, the more people will drink! Love my cold brew!
Hot black coffee every morning!
Either coffee made with my trust perma-filter, or coconut water after a bike ride.
I’ve been doing pour-over hot coffee these days. I like to switch it up and try different things! Stovetop espresso, cold brew, and yerba mate are all in regular rotation around here.
Now that’s its nice out and I have my herb garden growing I like to make sun tea with mint and lemon vebena.
I’ve been pretty stuck on dark roast beans brewed in an aero press, then diluted to a Kiwi long black served as is for a while now
I drink hot coffee in the morning (cream and sugar please and thank you!) but I’ve been thinking for several days that it’s time to make a batch of cold brew. Cold brewed coffee in the summer is my favorite drink!
I love a cup of strong, black coffee to start my day.
(not eligible for giveaway, just wanted to comment)
I’ve never tried making cold-brewed coffee and now I’m curious. I’ve been mostly leaning towards hot black tea with milk, as is usual for me, but we had a hot spell and I went through a couple glasses of homemade Vietnamese-style iced coffee yesterday. It was really lovely.
Hot coffee in the mornings, and iced in the afternoons! I use a Chemex for the former and just started cold-brewing in an unused ice tea pitcher for the latter 🙂
Regular brew in my Chemex with some brandied vanilla, cream, & sugar in the evening is heavenly.
Hot tea with honey and lemon…need to make some Kombucha as mine is evaporating away and will start cold brew coffee if we ever get consistently warm weather here in MN this spring!
We’re having a cold spell so I’m still drinking hot coffee with milk, but looking forward to switching to cold brew.
Yay, coffee! I have been drinking an inordinate amount of americanos this week. So good. Thanks for the giveaway opportunity!
Just got a new green tea with lemon – really subtle and tasty flavors. I’ve been drinking it hot with tea in the evenings.
Community Coffee (I’m from Louisiana and I love Community Coffee) in the morning and Taylor’s Scottish Tea in the afternoons. I have had cold brew at Onyx Café in Fayetteville, Arkansas but never knew how to make it until today. I can’t wait to try it.
Peet’s Garuda blend.
I drink coffee or iced tea…oddly enough coffee with sugar and creamer and tea unsweetened LOL I have never tried iced coffee though, something to think about 🙂
I love my morning cup that I make in my AeroPress with Philz beans. Although it is never as good as at the shop. I must practice more.
Hot tea, but the weather is really starting to warm up so a switch to cold coffee would be great. Can’t wait to try your cold brew recipe.
When I drink hot coffee, I drink Folgers Black Silk–strong and smooth. I make my own iced expresso drinks in the summer with instant espresso.
I’m drinking homebrewed kombucha (sometimes in mimosa form–just add orange juice!), daily coffee (locally-roasted single origins, burr-ground just before brewing), and experimenting with cold brew! I keep thinking it’s time for some cold brew coffee sock filters…
We are at the weird, in-between weather season where I often start the day with hot coffee and am drinking it iced later on. And tea. Always a mug of tea….
I have hot coffee every morning. I love cold brew, but only have it occasionally in the afternoon as a treat (it is a treat because hot coffee is black with no sugar; in my cold brew I like a tiny amount of sweetener and a heafty dash of dairy.)
Coldbrew! With a couple Shots of espresso to throw in a brightness that isn’t otherwise there. Coffee is my life!
I’ve been using up some sad old coffee in cold brew lately… partially because its good to use it up, and partially because I accidentally left a nice bag of coffee at the grocery store on accident!
I have 3 favorites: cold regularly brewed coffee with almond milk, regular brewed hot & black, or cold brew black from Starbucks because the one time I made it myself it was a pain. Thanks for the giveaway!
I adore coffee, but have developed an allergy to caffeine. I bet their decaf is fabulous though!
Been drinking tea before bed to help sleep
Our standard is the Boise Co-op blend from DOMA roasters using the french press every morning.
My husband and I are big fans of a local Maryland roaster named Ceremony Coffee. My favorite is their Brazil Datera. I would love to win this sample pack to try other great coffees.
I make a pot of hot (but not too hot) drip coffee every morning. I had been buying green beans (organic if they were available) online and roasting and grinding my own. Kind of a bit of too much of my time taker upper, so I was happy to find some organic already roasted beans at costco. They are kind of just okay and I would like to find better. This cold brew and shipped fresh every two weeks sounds very interesting. BTW >>> I’ve been wanting a permanent natural filter so I’m happy to discover the coffee socks! I think the paper filters even when unbleached, impart an undesirable flavor in the coffee.
Aeropress iced lattes. 🙂
I’m drinking quart after quart of water with lemon and cucumber!
I’m a recent convert to cold brew coffee and I love it! I’ve also been enjoying slightly honey sweetened mint tea made with mint from my garden 🙂
Hot coffee in the morning and herbal tea at night! I’ve been meaning to try cold brew coffee for forever now, so I really should make some soon. Thanks for your instructions. 🙂
I’m strictly a tea and hot chocolate drinker. Northern Michigan summers are cool enough that I can start the day with hot tea, and then have some iced herbal tea in the afternoon. However, my husband is a coffee fanatic, and he would looooove to try this stuff!
Iced coffee with hazelnut syrup and half&half – in an attempt to power through a very long, hard weekend.
Iced mint green tea, iced rooibos chai, and about to start some decaf cold brew.
I too am rocking the cold brewed coffee as the weather warms up. I made my latest batch with Cafe Kreyol Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Red rooibos and chemex coffee, some of which is locally roasted. Yum!!
We are drinking home brewered kombucha, how did you know? My kids are obsessed with it and all I flavor it with is frozen or dried fruit or a little fruit juice. The Concord grape juice I canned last year is their new favorite flavor! This sounds like a delightful little subscription service!
Coffee in the morning, poured into my stainless steel thermal mug and then nursed through the morning. (A good, Thermos-brand mug is essential because it will literally keep the coffee drinkably hot/warm until lunchtime–a couple hours longer than my last steel mug.)
In the afternoons and evenings, though? Tea. Black tea with milk and honey–often with teabags, but I use my teapot with its great filter for loose leaf tea at least once a week.
Hot coffee, but with summer coming on , will be iced coffee.
I’m drinking hot tea. Hoping the weather warms up soon so I can switch to iced!
I drink cold brew iced coffee year-round. My husband usually warms it up. We use the Toddy for our cold brewing.
stumptown coffee’s cold brew has been my soulmate ever since i discovered cold brew existed…but i’d like to branch out and experiment with others (sorry, stumptown).
I just started making cold brew coffee again…I love it!
I’m an iced coffee and iced latte fan. My fiance is a nespresso freak which works for me, since the convenience and taste is very good. But, sometimes I want something else, less espresso. For a regular cup of coffee, I’ve tried regular drip, french press, moca pot, and cold brew. Fifty percent of the time my coffee comes out a disaster. BUT, recently I borrowed my mom’s cone drip coffee thingy, and have had 100% success with making a cup of regular coffee. I’m a believer now!
My husband and I are always drinking French pressed coffee. I now want to try cold brewed coffee!
French press with beans from Rojo’s or Colectivo….whenever I can get the chance.
I’m on a huge cold brew kick these days. I tend to brew it in six-cup batches that last a few days and give me a beautiful smooth finish. Like Kate, I’ve also been playing with spices lately, though I’ve yet to try cardamom. Might have to toss some in my next batch…
I have a couple of local roasters I get my coffee from.
Coffee from 1369 coffeehouse or Stumptown, brewed in Chemex, or a variety of tea from all over the place – usually oolongs or greens. I’m usually more of a tea drinker, but there’s so much to explore with coffee!
I am a total cold brew junkie. I’ve been adding cinnamon and cracked cardamom and steeping overnight in my French press.
Always hot coffee in the morning and now that it is warming up, either coffee or tea over ice in the afternoon.
Coffee…always coffee. Will start making cold brew now that it is warming up (and even more so now that I have this easy small-batch recipe!).
p.s. also wine. and gin and tonic.
French press coffee in the morning and maybe some cold brew in the afternoon. I love my coffee!
It’s still chilly enough for hot coffee with honey, but soon it’ll be cold brew for me.
Hot coffee in the morning, always. 🙂 I get my coffee from Aldi, which for the cost is surprisingly good.
I like iced coffee the best…but my husband drinks it hot…and lots of it, every day!
I drink cold brew starting as soon as the temperature gets above 50 degrees! I’ve been making it for about 9 years and I’m still using the same Toddy maker I bought at a local coffe shop. It makes a huge carafe that’s lasts me 7-10 days. Yum!
Well, hot coffee always, but I’ve also been drinking a lot of iced tea that I make in a big batch and keep in the fridge.
mmm, i usually drink hot coffee – we have peet’s on autodelivery – but maybe i need to change it up – if summer ever comes!
Locally roasted drip in my Chemex. I need to get in the cold-brew groove for warm afternoons. 🙂