Other than at home or at the cafe I’m kinda obsessed with the idea of making and having coffee outdoors somewhere unusual. For a couple years now, any time I get the chance, I’m bringing my coffee equipment around the world with me to make sure that I don’t get stuck and really agitated with either bad coffee or simply not having any good coffee to make myself. You can see scattered throughout my instagram, pictures and videos of me having home brewed filters in Queenstown, Tongararo Crossing, “camping” in Wales and especially if I’m bike riding around.

I don’t really consider myself a ‘cyclist’ but many of my good friends are and I really enjoy riding with them when I do. I admire their skill and dedication. The other weekend I was invited out by my buddies from Sohobikes (#Mariothedestroyer & badass barista Ben Thwaites) to go riding in Swinley Forest. Last time we went up, I took an aeropress and forgot my thermos of hot water. Pretty annoyed.

So this time I decided to improvise and experiment with slow drip cold brew at home so I could take some with me.

I was surprised at my experiment. It turned out to be pretty good and strong! I took a bottle with me with some ice packs and shared with everyone (including Tristan from Swinley Bike Hub) and I'm sorry if I made you all a bit wired. No ice to dilute it, but I'm sure you all rode better for it.

You can make slow drip at home like me - its not just for adventures but to sup in the sun in your yard or…ANYWHERE (Recipe & Method below). Hario have a good-looking cold brew section which I'm yet to try, so when I do (soon) I'll let you know what I think!

Cold Brew Science:

I prefer slow drip cold brew to the “Toddy” System (where coffee is steeped in water for a long period of time). It reminds me of leaving a teabag in the water for ages and then drinking it… But as long as it's filtered well it can be pretty good. Sandows London Cold Brew has an excellent effective (but secret) filtration system. There’s an art to that too!

In my experience of making it professionally for over 4 years in cafes, slow drip coffee tastes really amazing. It's delicate and you can have quite a bit of control over the strength through dose and brew time.

Brewing coffee in cold or room temperature water gives a different quality to the flavor because it less soluable than brewing in hot water. So by increasing the time at which you are “extracting” or “brewing”, you can maximize the solubility of the coffee grounds.

Also, when you extract coffee using hot water, it oxidises and degrades much more. So when using a cold brew method which is slow, you’ll often find that acidity and bitterness is also very low.

I don’t have a refractometer at home, but I’d like to have measured the TDS right at the start and at the end to see what the difference is. Maybe next time I'll borrow one!

Equipment:

Glass mason jar with tap
V60/Chemex/cone filter
A container to catch the coffee
2 Litres of Filtered water (I get the Ashbeck Tesco 5ltr)
2 - 3 Filter paper
A flat piece of filter paper to lay on top of coffee (I used an aeropress filter paper - you could cut a side off a conical shaped one)
Something to stir coffee grounds with
180g Filter coffee Ground on medium grind (not too coarse)

Method:

Get a mason jar drinks dispenser with a controllable tap or faucet.
Prop it up some where so the water can drip down into the coffee.
Use a V60 and a jug or in my case I used my Bonavita 8 cup brewer and filter cup and thermos to catch the liquid

Use at least two filter papers. These are melita filter papers that fit my brewer (you can get them from tesco) otherwise Hario do V1 & V2 Sized filter papers if you're using a V60
Flush/Wet the filter papers with some hot boiled water (gets out the paper taste and washes it through

Grind your coffee beans on medium grind (not too fine like espresso, and not coarse like you'd use for a plunger/cafetiere)
Place coffee in the wet filter
Turn on the water so that all the grounds get completely saturated. Stir gently with a stick/spoon

Adjust drip rate. I normally do 1 -2 drops per second.
Place a piece of filter paper on top of the grinds to stop the drips making a divot. It'll help disperse the water more evenly. If you have something to cover the whole surface of coffee, that's even better. You could cut a larger filter to size.

Let it drip for 6 -7 hours (But keep a regular eye on it... (I got distracted while it extracted and it overflowed)
You can increase the water flow rate so it doesn't take as long, and it might taste a little less strong too.