Making Iced Coffee With A French Press

A French press pot can brew a rich and smooth cup of hot coffee, so can a French press pot make iced coffee?

Why not!

The easy-to-operate French press can make both hot and cold coffee through the lever and filter. If you haven't tried making cold coffee yet, read on to unlock more of the French press's amazing features!

Two Methods For French Press Iced Coffee

The French press is the steeping extraction principle, in the case of making hot coffee normally, with the same beans, the French press will produce a more balanced and thicker-tasting coffee than the hand-brewed form. In addition to hot coffee, French press pots can also be used to brew tea, iced coffee, froth milk, and more.

We are sharing two main ways to make French press iced coffee today: cold brew iced coffee and iced coffee. Traditionally, iced coffee is made with hot brewed coffee, and by now many cafes are starting to serve it with cold brewed coffee. The two look similar, but the production methods are completely different, so let's take a look at their respective pros and cons:

• Cold Brew Iced Coffee: Brew the coffee powder directly in cold water, put it in the refrigerator, wait for enough time, and enjoy. It is the same principle as Japanese cold brew tea and is particularly simple. The advantage is that you can make multiple servings of coffee at once, and you can leave it for a few days to drink. The drawback is that the waiting time is very long, usually about 12 to 24 hours.

• Iced coffee: This is the traditional method of making iced coffee. After making the espresso in hot water, pour it over the prepared ice cubes and the whole process can be completed in 10 minutes. The drawback is that the portion size needs to be determined according to the size of your French press pot, and the ratio of coffee powder to water should be small on the day of the ordinary French press pot coffee, otherwise, the coffee flavor will easily fade.

Best Coffee For Iced Coffee

What kind of coffee beans are most suitable for iced coffee?
Considering the need to add ice to dilute the coffee, it is not suitable to use lightly roasted coffee beans with high acidity to make iced coffee. Lightly roasted coffee beans will be diluted and make the taste thin, besides it is easy to soak lightly roasted coffee beans with bad flavors such as almond and peanut coating.

So we recommend choosing deep-roasted coffee beans. For example, you can try using Honduras sherry coffee beans, which are characterized by a mellow taste with rich vanilla, sherry reminiscent, perfect for steeping extraction.

Tools You'll Need

What utensils do we need? Of course, a French press pot is a necessity here, in addition to what you may also need:

• Coffee grounds: Depending on the size of your French press determine the ratio of coffee grounds.
• Coffee grinder (optional): If you need to grind your coffee beans, it is recommended to use a medium to coarse grind, suitable for French press pots to filter
• Filtered water: for coffee making, soft water is recommended
• Electronic scale (optional): if you can control the powder-to-water ratio, you can not choose to use the electronic scale.
• Kettle with a thermometer (optional): a kettle with a thermometer can help us to control the water temperature very well.

How To Make French Press Iced Coffee

Are you ready? So let's start making our French press iced coffee!

French Press-Iced Coffee

The traditional way of making iced coffee is to adjust a certain ratio of powder to water after the coffee is poured into the ice cubes, and the iced coffee is done. Today we are sharing the advanced version, let's discover it!

1. With a powder-to-water ratio of 1:6 and a water temperature of 201.2 °F, make the coffee liquid in the same way you would brew it every day. According to this ratio, pour a little hot water first, stir the coffee slightly and let it fully integrate with the water before pouring the rest into the French press pot, cover with the lid, without the pressure lever.
2. After 3-4 minutes of steeping, stir slightly and let the coffee powder settle to the bottom, then slowly lower the lever and pour out the coffee.
3. Hold back from enjoying the coffee when you get here! Place them in the ice compartment and then put them in the sub-zero refrigerator layer to freeze the coffee liquid into ice cubes.
4. It takes time for the coffee to freeze, so when the ice cubes are almost ready, make the coffee again, the same as the three steps above, making the same French press pot of coffee.
5. Finally you will get the original coffee ice cubes, and a superbly strong hot coffee liquid, mix them, and done! Please start enjoying your upgraded French press pot iced coffee!
6. If you like milk coffee, there is a note, the pouring must be iced milk, gently stir, perfect!

 

French Press-Cold Brew Coffee

Making cold brew in a French press is simple, and the most important thing is to seal it well and filter it.

1. The ratio of water to powder is 1:15, some people recommend 1:10, but I have tried several ratios, and this ratio is the most balanced taste.
2. The coarseness of the grind needs to be medium, because it takes a long time to extract, the grind needs to be a little coarser. Normal brewing process put it in the refrigerator for about 8-10 hours.
3. Normal brewing process, put in the refrigerator for about 8-10 hours.
4. 8-10 hours after taking out the French press pot, at this time can not yet enjoy, using filter paper first, the process is just like we do pour-over coffee. This will filter out all the fine coffee powder together, and the final cold brew will taste cleaner!

Points to note：

• Use chilled water for brewing, not normal-temperature water.
• The French press pot is not sealed, and putting it in the refrigerator will easily lead to flavor confusion, so make a good seal on the French press pot. You can use cling film to seal the mouth of the pot.

Some Helpful Notes

The key to making iced coffee is to have enough ice to cool the coffee and try to choose slightly larger ice cubes so that they will melt a little slower.

The total amount of ice dilution has to be taken into account to determine the ratio of our coffee powder. So the proportions of cold brew coffee and iced coffee are not the same. The final flavor is closely related to the coffee beans we choose.

So, what suits you the best, try more, and enjoy the process of making coffee!