Cold brew verdict

OK. I reheated the cold brew I left in the refrigerator using the microwave for 20s. Well... I kinda think this is not bad... but it's definitely not as enjoyable as hot brewed ones.

2nd Cold Brew!

I had said I'll do another cold brew on the 3rd Feb night but it didn't happen. *sorry* i got carried away by personal matters... :p To be honest, I almost abandoned the project after doing some further reading on cold brew. Apparently there was this other "Japanese" method that was better for making ice coffee. You basically just do drip coffee directly over ice so the coffee cools down instantly. The coffee is supposed to be as good as the cold brew method I've tried and best of all, it's fresh. I got sucked into the point that cold brewed coffee would oxidise and become stale after a few days. So, it won't be good and it made me not want to try it. BUT, I regained my senses and got back to the root reason why I wanted to do cold brew was that I wanted to make good coffee once over and keep it for a few days so I could make breakfast affairs more efficient. Yeap, so I'm back to the business of trying out cold brew:

(*clap*clap* this time i put more effort to take picture to document my process ^_^ )

Step 1: Grinding and pouring 2-Aeropress-spoons of finely ground coffee into my 3-cup Bodum french press.

Step 2: Pour room temperature water into the container. Note: I thought my last try was diluted and wanted to add less water to the grounds but somehow as I started to seriously measure 4:1 ratio, the water turns out to be more than the last time!! And since what's done cannot be undone, I just left it as is...

Step 3: Stirring the mixture after 10minutes to "agitate" it.

Step 4: Sealing the container and leave it for 24 hours!!

tick-tock-tick-tock...

        After 24 hours...

Step 5: Remove seal and press to separate grounds from the coffee.

Step 6: Since I have no drip cups and filters, I decided to use the Aeropress as filter. ... yeap.

Step 7: Waiting for the coffee to drip through. *yawnz* It was taking damn long... zzz

It took so long to drip (like an hour or so!) that I gave up the last bit! Poured those still in the Aeropress back into the Bodum and continued doing whatever else I need to... ha. impatient me.

Alrighty. Here's what I have- cold coffee. Somehow I couldn't resist heating some of it in the microwave. This time I did 15+5seconds (15s - coffee wasn't warm enough so i did another 5s. however, it still wasn't hot and i didn't want to warm it longer than that due to bad experience with burnt smell the last time) and there wasn't a burnt smell. /hmmm. Strange. Coffee was lukewarm but tasted fine. No strong aromas (like the last time) but its taste was very similar (but definitely not the same) to the hot version. Not bad!

Took another sample and added hot water to it. 1:1 ratio. Well... there was a certain new taste I can't describe. Didn't taste as much like the hot version as the microwaved one. Maybe its just the taste of water. 

Lastly, I'm keeping 50ml of the concentrate in the fridge so I can try heating up tomorrow to see if it's good! I hope it is. It's really a good way to speed up coffee making in the mornings, especially when I need to rush somewhere. Will update you the results and draw a conclusion tomorrow!!

First Cold Brew

The extract after I had filtered the coffee.

I finally DID it. I made my first cold brew following the instructions here[link]!

Details on what I did:

1. I used two Aeropress spoonfuls of Peet's Major Dickson's Blend beans, grounded finely and combined the powder with 240ml of room temperature water in my 3-cup Bodum Brazil. I usually use two Bodum spoonfuls of coffee with 300ml of hot water if I do a french press. The link does not state the coffee-water combination so I thought maybe I should use more coffee with less water since it's a cold brew and won't be so efficient in extracting the flavours.
2. Then, after stirring the mixture 10minutes into steeping time, I left it to sit for 24hours, as specified by the instructions.
3. This morning, I put on my Brazil's cap and pushed the plunger, thus separating most of the grounds from the liquid. 
4. Lastly, I filtered the liquid to ensure a clean cup. 
5. No, I did not add kosher salt because I'd like to taste the original flavour of my food if possible. I'll only add flavouring if I know it'll taste very bad without it.

Review for cold version:
The aroma of coffee was noticeably weak in the cold version and I was a tad disappointed. I had always thought the aroma is one of the charms of coffee!

In terms of taste, it was... not bitter... and in fact, it was a little sweet, perhaps due to the cold water? And it still retained a teeny bit of Major Dickson's Blend's slight acerbic taste, which I like.

Maybe my concentration of coffee grounds and water wasn't right as I felt the coffee was a little diluted. I wouldn't add more ice or water to it.


Review for heated up version:

I poured some coffee out and heated it in the microwave for 2minutes, 45seconds and 15seconds respectively. In all three timings, I smelt bad aroma from the coffee with varying degrees, as if it was burnt. The longer it was microwaved, the worse the smell. However, when I tasted the coffee, there was no burnt taste.

I noted that the coffee did not taste anything like the hot brewed version.

I also tried pouring hot water to the coffee to increase its temperature. Since the cold coffee already tasted diluted, add hot water didn't make it better.


Conclusion:

1. The cold version was actually good, just a little diluted. If it were thicker, it would make a good iced drink when I return to tropical Singapore or if I stay here for summer. Hence, I would definitely brew it again tonight with greater ratio of coffee grounds to water. 
2. If the coffee turns out thick, I'll try to add hot water again to see if the taste works. Breakfast and getting out of the house would be more efficient if I could brew more coffee at a go and heat it up over the next few days!
3. Microwaving is definitely out due to the smell. 

#Update: 

Oh dear! I'm so careless I didn't read the cold brew link properly! There's actually a recipe but there were harsh comments and it didn't work well for other. Here's another recipe: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/dining/276drex.html. I think I'll try this one instead.

Economics of Coffee #1 : Is fresh coffee a luxury?

Each pack of decent coffee beans here costs about US $10 (or more) and I've started to wonder if I'm living a bit too extravagantly. Am I? Let me do some calculations using a persona to find out:

(*Note: this is a very generic calculation. pls do not take this too seriously!*)

Let's take an entry level educated Singapore adult, maybe a university graduate or a very successful polytechnic graduate + he knows how to appreciate good coffee. He earns say... S$3000/month.

Starting money: $3000

If I'm not wrong, he needs to deduct 20% for CPF (a form of compulsory savings for citizens and permanent residents). So, his actual take-home pay is $2400.

Money after CPF deduction: $2400

Being an Asian society, many of us still conform to values such as respect and gratitude towards our parents. So, we give our parents token sum of money as "allowance". The rate among my friends is 10% of income for each parent. Therefore, for our modest Singapore adult example, let's imagine he gives $600 for 2 parents.

Money after parent allowances: $1800

It's important to save for the rainy day, right? So, let's say he purchases some basic hospitalisation and life insurance. And let's give him a family. He's married but has no children yet. So, he has a house. There's no need to worry about housing loan because it can be paid using his CPF. But he needs to get some fire insurance for the house. In addition, he wants to put aside some money for future use, such as for raising children or a holiday trip. So in total, he puts aside say $1000, which is actually not a lot.

Money after saving: $800

How about food expenses? I'm going to calculate this loosely. Let's say he eats out everyday. On weekdays, he'll dine at a food court for lunch and dinner: $5/meal x 2meals/day x 22weekdays/month = $220. On weekends, he likes to reward himself and perhaps go for better meals for dinners but still eat at a food court for lunch: ($5/food court lunch x 2 + $25/better dinner x 2) x 4 weekends = $240. So, in total, he spends a modest $460 for meals. Let's round it up to $500 since we don't know when he'll want to have a drink with friends in a bar, etc.

Money after food: $300

Then, we still need to account for transport. Given his income, he definitely can't afford a car in Singapore. He'll have to take public transport. Let's just say he spends $150 for public transport, which means $5/day averagely. Each single trip should not cost more than $2 but maybe some days he stays home and doesn't travel or he could take a cab because he's late for work. So $150 is fine.

Money after transport: $150

Given that he has a house, he needs to pay utilities and other miscellaneous things. I'll imagine he doesn't stay home in the day. So utilities won't be so bad. So perhaps we'll use $80.

Money after utilities and miscellaneous expenditures: $70

How about clothing? Even if he lives modestly, he need to replace old clothes. Good thing he's a man. So maybe he'll just use $50/month for shopping.

Money after shopping: $20

Well, now that he only has $20 left, I don't think he can be a regular fresh coffee drinker. Fresh coffee beans in Singapore cost an average of S$15/250grams and that'll probably last only 2 weeks if a person drinks 1 cup/day. This means he needs $30 if he wants to drink one cup of fresh coffee per day. He's a little short of cash. /hmmm


Conclusion: 

Well, given this set of calculation, I think fresh coffee is a luxury. It's not a staple for an entry level working adult with financial responsibilities. That says a lot about the people who drink fresh coffee in Singapore.

That said, I still love fresh coffee and I'm glad I can afford it!

French Press, nice to meet you again!

Equipment

Breakfast with Kaya (egg+coconut jam) toast. I'm Singaporean!

Residue at the bottom of the cup

After Aeropress-ing for more than a month, I heard my poor Bodum calling out to me. The poor thing was covered with layer of neglect. Yeap, so I brought it out and used it today!

I took 2 scoops of coffee beans using the Bodum scoop, which is much smaller than an Aeropress' and grinded coffee with my Hario turned 10 clicks away from the tightest configuration. 300ml of hot water was added to the device and steeped for 4mins before pressing. The plunger went down easily. Too easily, I think. I'll grind the beans 8 clicks away from the tightest configuration next time. By the way, not much bubbling and "foam" was observed. Does this mean the coffee really isn't fresh?

I noticed that the coffee made by the french press had a glistening layer of oil on the surface. Perhaps the psychological effect of the visuals, I felt the coffee tasted slightly "creamier" than an Aeropress-ed one. All in all, the end result was acceptable and still good.

However, the Starbucks blend isn't doing very well with us. My husband stopped asking for coffee recently because his right thumb started trembling uncontrollably. He has vitamin B-12 and D deficiency and we thought that maybe coffee isn't good for his condition. So, it's just me now.