Organic cold brew coffee is the coffee you should drink regularly if you’re a cuppa joe in the morning type of person… and if you care about your health.
Regular coffee is one of the most tainted sourced ingredients in our daily lives. And while organic coffee can be a tad more expensive, what is your health worth?
If you experience brain fog or less sharp short-term memory, it’s worth the switch to organic cold brew coffee.
These are just a few organic cold brew coffee benefits:
☕️ You can make and drink cold brew coffee faster than you can wait for hot coffee to brew (and wait for it to cool).
☕️ Cold brew also has health benefits. It’s less acidic than regular hot coffee or espresso (from the cold brewing process. Of course… I’m telling you all this because I’ll show and describe to you how you can make your own below in case you’ve never done before.).
☕️ And because of less acidic benefit, you may not need to eat your first meal first before your first cup. Many of us wake up groggy and we want our coffee, but first need a soft pillow food that’s not the easiest when you’re not quite ready yet for eating because you eat later (prolonging fasting from the night before) or aren’t yet hungry.
☕️ If coffee tears up your stomach or gives you heartburn, then cold brew coffee could be a good option if you don’t wanna give it all up. Or if you want a lighter cup of coffee in your day, this could be the way to go!
☕️ Cold brew coffee is great for hot weather days as your coffee is served cold after being refrigerated.
For the past 2 years, I switched to only cold brew coffee that is starting to catch on. You can find a small section in your grocery store that offers cold brew selections. But I think you can make it easily at home, and it can be a mindful, relaxing activity.
If you knew me, you know I like to zhugh up any food or beverages (probably from my catering background), so I’ll share how I do that too!
What you need for basic cold brew coffee:
-Ground coffee
-Mesh catcher (with a lip or rim)
-Coffee filters
-Spoon
-Water
-Deep bowl at least 6” high/deep OR pitcher with a large opening almost or just slightly larger than the mesh catcher diameter is ideal (but as long as most the mesh catcher sits inside the pitcher, it’ll work).
If you use a pitcher, you won’t need another pitcher to pour your finished coffee into as your cold brew coffee can go straight into the pitcher and fridge.
Setup:
Bowl: Find or buy a right-size mesh catcher that works comfortably for your cold brew coffee prep setup, where the coffee filter fits in easily.
Rest the mesh catcher to then rest on top of the bowl.
Set the coffee filter to sit in the catcher as flat or parallel to the table surface as best it can, so you don’t have coffee and water in the filter dripping or tipping over. Then you have your bowl setup.
Or…
Pitcher: You can put your filter/catcher ontop of a wider-opening pitcher. If you use a pitcher, you want most of the bottom half of the catcher to sit inside the pitcher so your coffee brewing doesn’t spill over in the sides.
So then you have your setup from one of the options above. Good job!
Next, you can bring on the coffee. I like to make cold brew coffee in the morning to get a good whiff of the coffee grounds, and as a relaxing mindful activity.
You can even pull out your setup the night before if you just want to make a cup in the morning. Mind you, the fresh-made coffee will be warmer than if you refrigerated but that’s actually better for you in the morning when you’re getting your day started. Your stomach prefers room temperature liquids.
In choosing the coffee type, use ground coffee. It’s better to use a mix of superfine ground coffee and a coarser ground coffee so the grounds don’t filter through the filter. They’re grounded 😉
Coffee Choices:
I’m a Vata who prefers variety for coffee choices. I like to mix it up (maybe that’s you too?) and that helps for satiating preferences, seasonal cravings, and help restore imbalances.
I might use a bag of finely grounded coffee, and a coarser ground coffee. Any ground coffee will work but some work better than others.
I didn’t grow up drinking coffee, and maybe you did and you like the one you grew up with, so you can go with that or try a new one.
BTW, they say people like to use the same clean linen laundry detergent they grew up with, but I think that’s just certain people as we have so many options these days. Who’s they anyway? I actually like the evolving, improved formulas that have light citrusy or no fragrances. To each her own!
I re-use those finished coffee containers and bags for my green recycling house projects. I may send some out idea vibes on how I repurpose grocery plastic containers in the future as I don’t like waste 😊
Anyway, where was I?
Back to coffee-talk ☕️ … next, to start making cold brew coffee pour your ground coffee mix (about 1/2 cup to ¾ cup total coffee grounds total) in the filter (that’s already sitting in the catcher and bowl/pitcher).
A good tip is, mix the ground coffees up in your filter with a spoon before you pour in water to possibly prevent fine ground coffee from filtering through your filter like I mentioned above.
Once you have selected the ground coffee and setup:
- Pour cool water over the coffee grounds. You can use tap or filtered water.
In the beginning, the water will go through the filter fast and you will get a light brown/caramel trail of coffee water in your pitcher or bowl. Don’t worry, that’s not the final coffee you’ll be drinking. If you can’t wait and like watery coffee or want to sample, then you can pour a small cup then if you want.
But if you wait and keep pouring until the water takes a minute or so to filter through sitting in the filter/mesh catcher, then that’s the darker coffee color that you were probably expecting.
If your ground coffee mix sends some of the grounds through the filter or you accidentally spill some grounds in your ready-made coffee, then you can simply start over, and pour your already made cold brew coffee through the filter again (as you would with water). You would just need another bowl to catch the second round of coffee, which sometimes can turn out better.
- From time to time, take a spoon and stir the coffee ground and water in your filter, trying not to splash or have coffee water overflow.
The cold water is the secret to keeping the coffee from becoming more acidic (health benefit) like that from a hot coffee-making machine. That makes a stomach happier.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you notice the coffee dripping from the filter as lighter brown (like when you started).
- Then if you want to add more ground coffee, you can make a bigger coffee batch with your current setup.
Something else to look out for: if the coffee in the bowl has risen as high as the bottom of the resting mesh catcher, or you can’t see what is dripping from your catcher, then pour the finished coffee from your bowl into your final pitcher. You won’t need to do this if you use a wide-opening pitcher as part of your setup, as it’s deeper.
So after you’ve made a full pitcher of coffee, you can enjoy some now and later. It’s really that simple!
I like to make cappuccinos with my cold brew. You can make foam or froth milk (I find unsweetened coconut milk the easiest to get a good froth with a frother), or you can use a little whipped cream. Then I add a dash of cocoa, cinnamon, pumpkin spice, or cardamom.
If you make cold brew coffee at home, you’ll never again be without coffee if the machine doesn’t work! You can make your own instant coffee without a machine.
Here’s another idea you might like… I bought a store-bought Stok brand cold brew coffee that comes in a large container. After I enjoyed the coffee, I kept the container and used it to hold my future cold brew. It fits perfectly in the inside door of the refrigerator and I didn’t even have to change the cold brew coffee label. You’ll figure out what works for you.
#Happy Coffee! ☕️ And remember you can always change up your organic cold brew coffee blend making a variety of flavors and mixes.
And remember to pair your plant-based coffee habit to some great plant-based breakfast ideas and break away from the sugar breakfast habit or adding sugar to coffee (that accumulates and works to destroy the biome).
Improving your gut health by eating healthier promotes the good bugs in your gut that helps prevent certain chronic diseases developed from chronic inflammation.