iced coffee

How to Make Iced Coffee with the December Dripper

May 9, 2018 By Michael 3 Comments

Last year, the December Dripper emerged on the scene with a simple but revolutionary design. The brewing device uses a silicon gasket to adjust the flow rate with a simple twist. One of the more interesting applications of this design feature is making flash-chilled iced coffee– sometimes called Japanese iced coffee or an iced pour-over.

The biggest problem with brewing over a bed of ice is that it’s difficult to get a full extraction. The best iced pour-overs are light and bright with a lively acidity, but they lack the deep sweetness of a fully extracted coffee. The ability to slow and even stop the flow rate with the December Dripper means you can …

The Only Iced Coffee Maker You’ll Ever Need

July 15, 2017 By Michael 4 Comments

Let’s be honest, iced coffee is usually disappointing. Sure, enough cream and sugar makes anything tolerable, but iced coffee often lacks the sweetness and complexity we expect from a really great coffee. The disappointment transcends categories.

The Problem

Iced coffee typically falls into one of three camps: cold brew, iced Americano, and Japanese iced coffee. For the purpose of home brewing, we can rule out iced Americanos. There are some solid consumer espresso machines on the market, but for most coffee nerds home espresso remains a dream. (And to be perfectly honest, even the best iced Americanos we’ve tasted have a certain aftertaste we just can’t shake.) Cold brew, perhaps the most divisive beverage in specialty coffee, is easy to make, but lacks the refreshing acidity most specialty coffee consumers crave. Japanese iced coffee, made by brewing double strength hot coffee over ice, is high in acidity, but the lower extraction lacks the complex sweetness of the best cups of coffee.

Is it even possible to enjoy an iced coffee that has the same complexity as the best cups of hot coffee? Until recently, many coffee professionals would have said no. Aside from a few mostly unsuccessful attempts at appropriating wort chillers to make iced coffee, most iced coffee makers simply embraced one of the short comings above.

Riding the Coldwave

That was, until the Coldwave Coffee Chiller came out this summer. While technically not a coffee maker, the Coldwave makes hot coffee cold without diluting your brew. It preserves the complexity of hot coffee while providing the refreshing coolness of iced. Perhaps most ingeniously, it works with any type of filter coffee, be it pour-over, Aeropress, or autodrip. …

Learn How to Make Iced Coffee With La Colombe

June 14, 2016 By Michael 1 Comment

La Colombe iced coffee

It’s no secret: we’ve shared some iced coffee tutorials before. We’ve even shared a Japanese iced coffee tutorial before. But summer is upon us and the need for fresh content has us once again sharing an iced coffee how-to video, this time from our friends at La Colombe Coffee, a Philadelphia-based coffee roaster with cafés in a growing number of American cities. Unlike other methods, this video uses everyone’s favorite brewing device in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art: the Chemex. Don’t forget, if you want good iced coffee, you need some good ice. We’re fans of these perfect cubes for an ideal temperature/dilution ratio….

Double, Double, Coil and Trouble: An Interview with Tyler Deeb of Misc. Goods Co.

December 16, 2014 By Michael 1 Comment

With more than a week left, designer Tyler Deeb has already successfully funded his second Kickstarter project. Coil is a device that flash chills coffee without diluting the brew. Tyler enlisted the Coffee Compass to beta test his prototype, and we were very impressed. Our brews featured a depth of flavor and a balance of acidity and sweetness we had yet to experience in an iced coffee. Needless to say, we’re excited to see this device go into production. We met with Tyler and asked him a few questions about …

Full Immersion Entrepreneurship: An Interview with Luke and Hugh of Sandows London

July 28, 2014 By Michael 1 Comment

Sandow London

At The Compass we have tremendous respect for entrepreneurs. A great book we’re reading on the subject says that it takes heart, smarts, guts, and luck to successively start a business. In our estimation, Sandows London has got what it takes. Sure, it may sound kind of risky selling bottled cold brew coffee in a country best known for drinking hot tea, but like their Victorian strongman namesake, Sandows London is defying the odds. We got the chance to chat with founders Luke Suddards and Hugh Duffie and find out what it takes to start your own company in one of the world’s coffee capitals.

Tell us a bit about yourselves. How did you find yourself starting a cold brew coffee company?

Sandows London is Luke Suddards (25) and Hugh Duffie (22) and we became best mates working together at TAP Coffee, where we’ve been for the last few years. (Luke 3.5 years, Hugh 1.5 years) We’ve been fortunate …

How to Make Cold Brew Coffee with a French Press

June 30, 2014 By Michael 51 Comments

Cold brew coffee has never been hotter. Most of the major brands have ready-to-drink cold brew sold by the bottle or carton. Many cafes are now offering cold brew on tap or even on nitro.

As we’ve written before, Japanese iced coffee is our favorite way to drink coffee in the warmer months, but there are many reasons why cold brew is a great summer treat. For one, cold brew tastes a lot better with cream and sugar than other iced coffee methods. Sure, you might be a coffee snob, but you probably have a friend who likes a little dairy in their coffee. Cold brew is also a great way to use older coffee which would taste stale brewed hot. But, most importantly, cold brew is ridiculously easy to make. In fact, it’s quite possibly the the easiest way to make coffee ever. As an added bonus, cold brew is perfect for larger batches of coffee and it keeps for several days (which solves the age old dilemma, “How can you make coffee before you’ve had coffee?”).

Cold brew is quite possibly the the easiest way to make coffee ever.

The most delicious cold brew we’ve ever had was brewed with a Yama Kyoto dripper. But unless you have $250 burning a hole in your pocket and a overabundance of counter space, you’re probably looking for a simpler option. The good news is that you probably already have everything you need to make delicious cold brew. So, without further ado, here is the official Compass guide on How to Make Cold Brew Coffee with a French Press. …

How To Make Japanese Iced Coffee

June 5, 2013 By Michael 9 Comments

How to Make Japanese Iced Coffee

All across North America thermometers are rising, windows are being rolled down, and old jeans are being turned into cut-offs. Summer is upon us. One of our favorite ways to beat Kentucky’s brutal heat is sippin’ on a glass of iced coffee. Cold brew coffee has been oh-so-trendy in recent years, and iced lattes are a delicious indulgence, but our go-to brew method is …