Saturday, April 14, 2007

Cold-drip coffee


I like a cup of coffee in the morning, and what I drink is cold-drip, which is basically coffee concentrate added to hot water or milk. It's tasty, has low acidity, and is very convenient. I make the concentrate about every two weeks.

I first encountered cold-drip coffee in college, thanks to Regan Jones of Shreveport, La., who kept her dorm fridge stocked with it. Regan, where are you these days?

More recently a friend who also hails from Louisiana showed me how it's made, and next thing I knew I had a rig of my own.

Two companies make this setup (that I know of): Filtron and Toddy. I have the Filtron.
The plug goes in the hole underneath, the filter fits snugly in the little trough inside.

The coffee (coarsely ground) goes in the main chamber.

The surface-tension breaker goes on top of the grounds.

Fill the reservoir to the line marking.
The water reservoir fits on top of the main chamber. A tiny hole in the center drips water onto the coffee below. The surface-tension break ensures that the water seeps into the coffee instead of just pooling on top of it. The whole thing then sits for 12 hours or more.
When the grounds have soaked long enough, place the rig over the carafe that comes with it and pull the plug. VoilĂ ! You've got gourmet "instant" coffee.

3 comments:

  1. Toddy is all we drink. Cold and hot.

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  2. I just bought a Filtron. Do you know what the difference is between coffee made with the 24 hour time and the 12 hour?

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  3. Hi Connie! If you let it steep longer, you get a stronger concentrate, but it's also more acidic. Since I mix my concentrate with hot milk rather than hot water, I like it that way.

    Make sure you use coarse to medium grind coffee, so you don't clog the filter.

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