Cold Coffee 6 ways: How to Chill Out and Get Your Brew On

When the summer heat hits, many of us make the switch to iced coffee to make our caffeinated brew seasonally friendly. 

But let’s face it, making the rich, flavorful brews you get at your local coffee shop can seem impossible.

So what are you going to do?

Well, we’ve got your back.

Our coffee-obsessed team has put together the five easiest and tastiest ways to brew cold coffee at home – no mess, no stress.

So if you’re saying Heck Yes, let’s get this party started…

#1 - Dregs Iced Coffee AKA Too Much Saturday and Not Enough Sunday

Let’s kick this off with the easiest cold coffee of all. The one you make from the coffee left over in the pot. 

What’s that you say? You say you haven’t done this before? 

Liar. Pants on fire!!

Clearly, dregs aren’t the fanciest method. Just the fastest and easiest.

Coupla Tips:

- Use dregs from today, not yesterday or the week before.

- This is the ‘any port in a storm’ cold coffee method of choice.

- For best results, use dregs that are room temperature if not chilled.

#2 - Autodrip Machine Iced Coffee

Fresher than dregs, this method uses your autodrip machine to get you refreshingly wired. 

If you want cold coffee that’s got the complexity of hot, brewing hot and then chilling is the only way to go.

“But (we’ve heard you say), I tried to make iced coffee this way and it got so watery and weak!”

Metropolis has got your back with a slick little work-around so that your iced coffee stays strong. It’s all about brewing at double-strength!

RECIPE:

Makes 16oz

Ingredients:

29g / 4.5 level tablespoons of coffee ground for drip

8oz / 225g cold, filtered water

Method:

Brew just like hot coffee, then pour your brew into your favorite glass or jar, heaping with ice.

Coupla Tips:

- This method doesn’t keep particularly well, so only brew what you need right now.

- Use the same dosing for pourover.

- Sweeten with simple syrup: 1 part warm water to 1 part sugar of your choice. Stir until dissolved.

#3 - French Press Iced Coffee

Ok, you’ve tried the auto-drip method and still think it’s a little too watery. 

It’s true, it’s true. We know. We know. Could be a little richer. Yep.

For a thicker bodied brew, we recommend using a French Press, as its mesh filter lets the oils pass through. Mmmmmm. Creamy!

RECIPE: 

Makes 30oz

Ingredients:

28g / 5.5 level tablespoons of coffee ground for French Press.

7.5oz / 213g cold, filtered water

Method:

1. Using an 8-cup or 12-cup French Press, add the ground coffee to the bottom of the pot.
2. Bring your water to a rolling boil. Once it’s boiling, take it off the stove and wait one full minute. Set a 5-minute timer.
3. Pour the water over the grounds, start your timer, then stir the grounds just until they’re totally wet. Don’t go all Cuisinart on it!
4. Place the plunger at the top of the grounds to hold in the heat.
5. When the timer goes off, plunge immediately.
6. Pour over a glass filled to the top with ice.

Couple, two, three tips:

- If the plunger fights you on the way down, raise and lower several times. Coffee is powerful but it eventually surrenders to your will.

- To clean your press pot, fill the chamber with water, stir it with a spoon to loosen the grounds from the walls, then pour it through a strainer.

- Even better than the French Press is the American Press, which is like its French cousin only better. ‘Murica.

Cold Brew Coffee

Seems you can’t go anywhere without some random hipster coming up to you and shouting something like “Hey you! Cold brew coffee is so cool! Only squares drink iced coffee (clearly written by a Gen-Xer).

It seems like the whole world just discovered the stuff, you may be surprised to learn that cold brew coffee was invented in Kyoto, Japan in the 1600s (true story, we read about it on Wikipedia). 

360 years later, Todd Simpson updated the process by inventing the Toddy Cold Brew Device. He called it Toddy because, well, his name is Todd. 

Anyway, we don’t mean to pound out a history lesson here, only to say that cold brewing has been around a helluva long time.

At Metropolis, if we’re being honest here, well, we haven’t always been such big fans of cold brew coffee. So many cold brews taste sour or vegetal or worse. 

So, we spent a year developing a brew that tastes rich and velvety with a simple and sweet flavor like milk chocolate and hazelnut.

Once we figured out the magic ‘Cold Brew Blend’ formula, we discovered a ton of benefits to this method.

It’s so easy. Really, truly and honestly.  

Second, cold brew coffee mixes deliciously  well with other flavors like dairy/non-dairy, sweeteners, and even as a marinade in cooking.

Third, cold brew coffee is wildly caffeinated. Like 2-3X the caffeine in a regular cup of coffee, ounce for ounce. Buckle up buttercup! 

#4 – Cold Brew Coffee in a Pitcher. 

Want simple?

Well, this one’s for you.

All it really takes is your fave blend made with cold brewing in mind, a pitcher (or jar) and little bit of time.

RECIPE:

Makes 48oz.

Ingredients:

96g / 14T coarsely ground coffee

48oz cold filtered water

Method:

1. In a large jar or pitcher, mix the coffee and water together, making sure that all the coffee is wet. Cover it up.
2. Leave it at room temperature for 18 hours. Resist the urge to check on it. Really.
3. At 18 hours, pour it through a fine mesh strainer. You are now good to go.
4. Keeps up to 10 days, covered in the fridge.

Coupla Tips:

- Stir before pouring

- When you strain after brewing, don’t squeeze every last drop from the grounds. The last bit will taste a bit pungent.

- Sweeten with simple syrup: 1 part warm water to 1 part sugar of your choice. Stir until dissolved.

#5 - Cold Brew Coffee using Cold Brew Filter Packs

I know we said that cold brew coffee is unbelievably easy to make. That’s why we made it even easier with our Cold Brew Filter Packs.

We feel you! This product is for you. 

We invented the Metropolis Cold Brew Sachets with you in mind. These little buddies are pre-dosed with our awesome Cold Brew Blend to make 16oz. You can even pile up 2 or 3 of ‘em to get ahead of the game.

Here’s the recipe.

RECIPE:

Makes 16oz.

Ingredients:

1 Metropolis Cold Brew Sachet

16oz cold filtered water

Method:

1. In a jar or pitcher, mix the sachet and water together, making sure that the sachet is totally wet. Dunk it 5 or 6 times to make sure.
2. Leave it at room temperature for 18 hours. 
3. At 18 hours, remove the sachet. You are now good to go.
4. Keeps up to 12 days, covered in the fridge.

Coupla Tips:

- Go ahead and double or triple (or more) the recipe. 

- This is ideal for camping. Drop a sachet into your Nalgene at lunch. Wake up to cold brew coffee in the morning.

- Tastes great heated up too!

#6 - Cold Brew Coffee Using a Toddy Device

DYK that long before we called it ‘cold brew coffee’, coffee pros distinguished coffee brewed at room temperature over 12-24 hours as ‘toddy coffee’ because of that guy, Todd, we talked about pretty much inventing the whole dang thing?

Well, here’s our nod to you Toddy boy!

We love making our cold coffee using our Toddy Cold Brew System.

It’s pretty much the plug-and-play of the cold coffee world, since you just drop in one of the Toddy Cold Brew Filters, add some water and coffee. 

And bingo, bango – you’re enjoying chilly caffeine goodness in no time.

So get to brewin’ your cold or iced coffee espresso now!

I know we are.