Cold Brew: The Quest for the Best

My quest for the best cold brew has been going on for a couple of years now. I have been trying different roasts, origins, and grounds in an effort to find the perfect flavor and concentration for my buckshot coffee shots.

Over the years, I thought I had found the answer a couple of times. Some may groan, but I kept landing on the espresso roast from Starbucks. The roast was obviously meant to be strong and give off that concentrated coffee flavor. It just made perfect sense. The issue I had was that it seemed too easy, so I tinkered.

In comes all the new origins, flavors, and grounds. I tried cold brewing everything from Maxwell House to the Costco home brand called Kirkland’s to local roasters in Kansas City and back to Starbucks. What did I find? Keep reading.

The traditional coffee brands taste like a cold version of that same coffee when cold brewed. Make a cold brewed Maxwell House and expect a 42 degree Maxwell House minus a little of the bitterness. Hmmm… I guess that was to be expected.

Then we move to the local companies and their best coffee options. Let me start by saying I like most of these coffees, but none of them fire me up when it comes to trying them as cold brew. I will be the first to admit that it could definitely be the cold brewery himself that is the problem.

So what does that leave us with? It leaves us with an old friend who knows coffee much better than me. That friend is a barista at Starbucks with 15+ years of experience. This dear friend of mine mentioned the espresso roast, but also pointed me in the direction of the Guatemala coffee. Well done friend. One other bit of advice from my friend was the coarseness of the grounds. We took the espresso and Guatemala coffees and ground them for cold brew, not the traditional medium grinds, or even the fine espresso grinds. This made all the difference.

Here’s where we have landed. The Starbucks Espresso and Starbucks Guatemala coffees ground on a setting of 8 in the Starbucks stores, just a couple of steps lighter than the coarsest setting, and you have yourself two great options for cold brew. The flavor profile is strong, but not overpowering. The concentration will hold up if you decide to use the cold brew in an Americano. There is also a good kick of caffeine. All the ingredients to cold brew happiness are included in the final product.

Have you ever made cold brew yourself? Do you have another coffee, grind, or origin that I should try? I would love to hear about it.