USAThe single most important variable in a smoothie bowl is liquid quantity. Every recipe that produces a beautiful thick bowl is using far less liquid than you think. Start with 40 ml and add more only when the blender physically cannot move the fruit. It is very easy to add more; it is impossible to take it back out. A high-powered blender (Vitamix, Blendtec) makes this dramatically easier. With a standard blender, cut the frozen fruit into smaller pieces before adding.
Make coffee ice cubes: pour a small amount of the concentrate into an ice cube tray and freeze. Use these instead of regular ice in your cold brew — as they melt they strengthen the drink rather than diluting it. This is the single best upgrade to homemade cold brew.
Cold Brew Coffee
By Sergei Martynov
Coarsely ground coffee steeped in cold water for 16 hours. No heat involved, which means the acids that make hot coffee sharp and bitter never fully develop. The result is smooth, chocolate-forward, and easy to drink black. Takes fifteen minutes of actual work the night before and pays off every morning for two weeks.
Key Ingredients
What you'll need
Ingredients
- 100 g
See recipes with whole coffee beanswhole coffee beans, medium-dark roast (or pre-ground, medium-coarse)
i - 800 ml
See recipes with cold filtered watercold filtered water, plus extra for serving
i - 1
See recipes with large handful of ice cubeslarge handful of ice cubes, to serve
i - 1
See recipes with milkmilk, cream or sweetener to taste (optional)
i
How to make it
Instructions
- 1
Grind the coffee. If starting with whole beans, grind them to a medium-coarse consistency — the grounds should look roughly like kosher salt or coarse sugar, not fine powder. Too fine and you'll get a bitter, cloudy concentrate that's difficult to filter. Too coarse and the cold water won't extract enough flavor in the time available. Pre-ground coffee from a standard bag works in a pinch (the grind is a bit finer than ideal), but whole beans ground fresh give a noticeably cleaner result.
- 2
Combine coffee and water. Add the ground coffee to a large jar, pitcher, or French press. Pour the cold filtered water over the grounds and stir gently to make sure every particle is wet — dry pockets of coffee at the top will not contribute to the brew. Cover tightly with a lid or plastic wrap. Filtered water makes a real difference here: chlorine in tap water creates off-flavors that are more noticeable in cold brew than in hot coffee because there is no heat to drive them off.
- 3
Steep in the fridge. Place the covered container in the refrigerator and leave it for 14 to 18 hours. Sixteen hours is the sweet spot for most people — smooth and rich without any harshness. Do not exceed 20 hours: beyond that, the brew picks up a sharp, almost whisky-like bitterness that no amount of dilution fully corrects. If you forget and leave it overnight plus the next day, taste it before committing — it may still be fine.
- 4
Strain the concentrate. Place a paper coffee filter inside a fine-mesh sieve and set it over a clean pitcher or jar. Pour the coffee and grounds through slowly, letting gravity do the work. Do not press or squeeze the grounds — this forces bitter compounds through the filter. The draining takes about 5 to 10 minutes. Once strained, discard the grounds immediately. Every hour the concentrate sits with grounds continues the extraction and builds bitterness.
- 5
Dilute and serve. For a standard glass: fill a tall glass with ice, add 120 ml of cold brew concentrate, then top with 120 ml of cold water (a 1:1 ratio). For a latte-style drink, replace the water with whole milk or oat milk. For a stronger coffee, use a 2:1 concentrate-to-water ratio. Taste and adjust. Store the remaining concentrate in a sealed jar in the fridge for up to 14 days — the flavor is best in the first week.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best coffee to water ratio for cold brew — how to measure correctly?
For cold brew concentrate that you dilute before serving: 1 part coffee to 8 parts water by weight — 100 g of ground coffee to 800 ml of water. When serving, dilute the concentrate 1:1 with water or milk. If you prefer to drink it straight without diluting, use a 1:12 ratio (about 80 g per litre) instead. Measuring by volume (cups) is less reliable because the volume of ground coffee varies significantly depending on how coarse the grind is.
How long to steep cold brew coffee — can you over-extract it?
The optimal range is 14 to 18 hours. At 12 hours the brew is weak and slightly sour. At 16 hours it hits the sweet spot: smooth, rich and chocolatey with almost no acidity. Beyond 20 hours it develops a sharp, whisky-like harshness that dilution does not fully fix. Once you reach your target steep time, strain and remove the grounds immediately — leaving them in the concentrate continues extraction and the flavor deteriorates quickly.
What grind size is best for cold brew — coarse or medium?
Medium-coarse is ideal — the grounds should look like kosher salt or coarse sugar. Very coarse (like a standard pour-over grind) produces weak, watery cold brew because cold water extracts less efficiently than hot. Too fine (like espresso or standard drip) produces bitter, cloudy concentrate that is difficult to filter. If you are using pre-ground supermarket coffee (a medium drip grind), it will work but the result is slightly more bitter and cloudier than fresh-ground medium-coarse.
What is the difference between cold brew and iced coffee?
Cold brew is brewed entirely with cold water over 14 to 18 hours — no heat ever touches it. The absence of heat means the organic acids that create sharpness and bitterness in hot coffee never fully develop, giving cold brew its characteristic smooth, chocolatey flavor that drinks well without sugar. Iced coffee is regular hot-brewed coffee poured over ice. It retains the full acidity of hot coffee and gets watered down as the ice melts. Cold brew concentrate is also more shelf-stable: up to two weeks in the fridge versus a few days for brewed hot coffee.
How long does homemade cold brew last in the fridge and how to store it properly?
Cold brew concentrate keeps for up to 14 days in the refrigerator in a sealed glass jar or bottle. The flavor is at its peak in the first 7 days — after that it slowly loses brightness. Diluted cold brew (already mixed with water or milk) keeps for 3 to 5 days. Never store the concentrate with the grounds in it: strain as soon as brewing is complete. For longer storage, freeze the concentrate in an ice cube tray and transfer to a bag — frozen coffee cubes keep for up to 3 months.
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Comments (1)
Pre-warming your mugs makes a surprising difference for this cold brew coffee. Pour boiling water into them while you prepare the drink, then empty just before serving. It stays hot nearly twice as long.