Now, don’t shout at me here, but I’m starting to think Christmas presents. I appreciate you might be still dusting the sand off your feet from your summer hols, but here in blog-ville we’ve been thinking about chocolate mince pies (Fortnum & Mason) and scented tree decorations (Jo Malone London) since mid July.
It was over the summer that this Blue Bottle Coffee slow brew coffee gadget came into its own. Middleagedad considers himself something of a coffee connoisseur. We’ve been through Gaggia machines (don’t throw away the packaging, you’ll need it when it breaks down), Nespresso machines (all those tiny capsules in the bin don’t look very sustainable) and fancy filter jugs. We’ve visited cult coffee stores around the globe and have been through many, many different brands of beans (I still think Monmouth is the best). We can whip up frothy milk for your macchiato or cappuccino in seconds, it’s no wonder our window cleaner claims we do the best coffee in our street.
However, all the fancy theatre and hissing steam could well be a thing of the past, as the latest (and in my view best) coffee MAD has ever produced is from this simple infusion bottle.The above bottle is by the Blue Coffee company and was bought in the US for MAD by one of his mates. It is very pleasingly designed and easy to use.
Cold brew is where you add ground coffee to the filter, fill with cold water and leave overnight in the fridge (or drip artfully from laboratory-style glass tube displays, depending on if you are in Brooklyn or Barnes). You take the filter bit out in the morning so it doesn’t over-stew and leave the brew in the jug for all-day consumption. It is the current ‘brew du jour’ in stupidly trendy coffee shops in hipster-villes globally.
The resulting coffee is smooth, super tasty and not bitter, due to no heat being applied to the grounds. It also packs a caffeinated punch as all the caffeine has been absorbed into the water.
Chilled coffee went down a treat over the summer, when the weather suited it. Now it’s colder, we just stand the jug on the Aga or blitz a cup full in the microwave. The simplicity is a relief. Also the lack of expensive, takes-up-space-in-the-kitchen machinery. Although MAD still longs for a plumbed in E61 Limited Edition Faema, I am going to be sticking with cold brew.
The Blue Bottle Coffee bottle seems unavailable in the UK, so you might need to find a US based friend to buy it. I bought Eldestson the Oxo Cold Brew Coffee Maker, which he claims is excellent, or there’s the similar looking Hario 600 Mizudashi one, which comes from Japan so I suspect is excellent too.
One for the present list?
I never understood people’s need to buy into the seemingly never-ending coffee trends — who really needs a Nespresso machine just because it’s hyped in the media ? The pods are not sustainable and at whatever they now cost per.cup are way beyond most people’s budgets. I’m not sure why good old fashioned cafetieres have been replaced by hulking chrome machines that are then discarded in favour of the next trend. Consumerism gone mad !
Any reason we can’t do the whole thing with a cafetiere in the fridge? Less gadgets, spend the money on the bean?
I think Harriet, if you remove the coffee from contact with the bean grounds after a few hours, it’s the same thing. Just pour cold water over and leave as usual. The only advantage of the smaller jug is that it fits in the fridge door and is another gadget to clutter up the kitchen with.
Totes agree Sue, coffee seems to have a particular hold on some people. I’m very glad things have gone back to being simple. Metaphor for life, perhaps? Ax
Nice post. Thanks for sharing this post.
I can recommend the Aeropress. Cheap and cheerful and makes a surprisingly delicate and fragrant coffee.
If you remove the coffee from contact with the bean grounds after a few hours, it’s the same thing. Just pour cold water over and leave as usual. The only advantage of the smaller jug is that it fits in the fridge door and is another gadget to clutter up the kitchen with.
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