- 6 oz. coffee, ground coarsely
- 36 oz. cold water (filtered, if possible)
Mix ground coffee and water, stirring to make sure all the grounds get wet.
Let sit on a counter at least overnight (I usually leave it for 24 hours), then filter through a regular paper filter and refrigerate. I’ll often pass the mixture through a mesh colander before filtering to remove the bulk of the grounds and avoid clogging the paper filter.
Many folks would describe the resulting strong coffee as “concentrate” and suggest diluting it with water or milk, but I think it’s also great as-is.
The key points here are:
- Use good coffee and either filtered or spring water. It genuinely makes a difference.
- Mix at a 6:1 weight ratio of water to coffee. That will seem like way too much coffee, but you really do need a lot, and weak cold brew is deeply disappointing.
- Use a coarse grind. You might think a finer grind would increase, I don’t know, flavor extraction or something, but actually the fine particles will just pass through the paper filter and leave you with cloudy and unsightly coffee that’s not appreciably stronger.