Japanese Iced Coffee

Japanese Iced Coffee isn’t a new trend anymore but since now is the dry season where I live, I’ve been craving a good iced coffee filter. With the rising temperature, I would rather wake up to a nice iced filtered coffee than a hot cup of joe.

Thanks to my days in Laos, filtered coffee is growing on me and especially when I was there, I could chug 3-4 glass filtered coffee a day. And since I was hanging around the barista bar all day, I picked up one or two techniques that I use for my filtered coffee at home. When I was there, I was also seeing how they made their cold brew and it was just fascinating. They were using a simple dripper in which the above part was filled with ice cubes and coffee with water was dripping through it. Then, they would let it sit for 6-8 hours before it would be ready to serve. But Japanese Iced coffee is the faster version to enjoy a cold round cup of iced coffee.

The step-by-steps aren’t that different from v60 how to. If you want to know the basics of v60 and awesome tips, you can refer to my old how-to How to Bring Out the Best in Every Coffee. But now, with Japanese Iced Coffee, the key ingredients other than the coffee itself is ice cubes. The fascinating part of this coffee is that the ice doesn't melt as fast as when you instantly pour a hot coffee.

There are more technical ways to make it such as you need a scale and a lot of weighing with the scale. Ideally you need to have a cafe grade scale to weighing the ice cubes, and weighing the water too. These the standard at cafes, at least the good ones. The water could be a special water too but as the title suggests, this is my eyeballing version where you can put a reasonable amount of ice cubes, coffee grounds and water. However if you’ve been brewing one too many like I do, you’ll simply know the proportion to make a good filtered coffee that tastes just right and the one that brings out the best from that coffee beans. Though in this one, I would recommend 20gr to 200 to 250gr of water. You can also put more than 5 small ice cubes. If you want to properly weight them, you can use one as a sample to scale especially if you don't have a scale at home. Anyhow, without further adieu, here's how I brew mine at home.

Let’s Brew!

When it comes to the beans, I am sure you have your own preference. I simply love any beans from Starbucks and recently I got pike place. I am sure I’ve talked about it and reviewed it but couldn’t find the link. Anyhow, definitely, you can choose any beans you like and have them medium or medium fine.

Prepare the v60 by cleaning it out with water, ideally cold but you can also use hot water. Place them on top of the coffee server that’s already been filled with ice, then pour the coffee ground to the V60, lightly shake them to make it even. Then after that, boil the water, ideally in a gooseneck kettle. Let the water cool down for a minute then start pouring the water to the v60.

The first pour should be a light pour that would cover the surface of the coffee, then let it bloom for 30 seconds.

After that, add more water into the V60 slowly and let it drip into the ice. Once everything is extracted and dripped, lightly shake the server and enjoy while cold.

Spicing up filtered coffee

If you want to have fun with your filtered coffee & have a shaker, you can also pour the coffee into the shaker and shake them until they form foams. Then pour them into the cup and you would have the most delicious frappe-is coffee.

It is similar to Nescafe Frappe but with different beans and better quality ones.But you can also serve it with extra ice cubes and it is even colder. If you’re feeling a lot more fancy, you can add dehydrated lemon into it and they would make a pretty drink. But you can definitely stay basic like I usually drink it for a pick me morning coffee.

I would also recommend anything medium roast with cocoa and nutty flavor compared to others. Pike Place roast from Starbucks is definitely my favorite for filtered coffee. It’s as if you’re drinking light cocoa and they have a pleasant nutty aftertaste. But if you’re into something more fruity, there are a lot of options from the market too that you can choose.

That's it for my today's brew. See you in my next one. If you're interested learning about simple brews, check out my other coffee how to's below!

• Phin Filter- Vietnamese Coffee Cà Phê Đen Đá