The Best Coffee for Cold Brew (and How to Brew It Right)
The best coffee for cold brew is usually a medium-to-dark roast with chocolate, nut and caramel character, ground coarse. Longer roast times develop more of the sugars that make cold brew taste sweet. Here is how to choose the beans, and how to brew them.
Cold brew is not iced coffee, and the difference is the water
Worth settling before we talk about beans, because the two drinks get used interchangeably on menus and they are not the same thing.
Iced coffee is brewed hot using a standard method and then cooled down to serve. Cold brew is brewed with room-temperature or cooler water from the start, and it can be served hot or over ice. The National Coffee Association puts it plainly: cold brew is coffee made using room-temperature or cooler water, rather than the hot or even boiling water used in most brewing methods.
As Michael Phillips, Director of Coffee Culture at Blue Bottle Coffee, describes it, cold brew is "typically brewed at room temperature or colder so that the extraction time can extend over several hours." Cool water and a long steep are why bean choice matters here.
Reach for a medium-to-dark roast
Roast level is where the choosing starts.
Medium to dark roasts contain more fully developed sugars thanks to the longer roast times, meaning the cold brew will be sweeter. Sweetness, in other words, is something you pick at the roast level rather than build in the jar.
There is a ceiling, though. If your roast profile is too dark, you can end up extracting a greater volume of bitter flavour compounds than you may have anticipated. Charred is not the same as rich.
The research backs up how much roast level matters. A 2020 study in Foods comparing hot and cold brews across three roast levels concluded that roast has more influence on the acidity of the final brew than the water extraction temperature does. An earlier paper from the same researchers found chlorogenic acid in higher concentrations in medium roasts than in dark roasts, in both hot and cold brew extractions.
Chocolate, nut and caramel beat bright and floral over ice
Once you have the roast level right, origin decides which direction the cup leans.
Coffees from Central or South America, such as Brazil, Colombia or Guatemala, often work best for more traditional cold brew flavour profiles, which can mean more chocolate, nut and caramel flavours in your cup. East African coffees, meanwhile, such as those from Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, will often have more fruit-forward and floral tasting notes.
| Origin | Typical tasting notes |
|---|---|
| Central and South America — Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala | Often chocolate, nut, caramel; the traditional cold brew profile |
| East Africa — Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda | Often more fruit-forward and floral |
Neither column is wrong. The fruit-forward route simply gives you a different drink. Yiannis Taloumis, co-owner and CEO of Taf Coffee in Athens, notes that "usually, most people choose mild coffees for cold brew" before making the case for his own bergamot-and-chocolate coffee over ice.
Cold water does seem to flatter sweetness. In a 2022 sensory study of one medium-dark blend, trained tasters scored the cold brew higher for fruitiness and sweetness, while the hot brew of the same coffee tasted more bitter and astringent.
Three of ours that suit it
Our Cold Brew Coffee is the shortcut. It is 100% coffee with no additives, built on a dark French roast, and the grinds are coarse and specifically blended for cold brew. If you would rather not think about grinders at all, start here.
For a single origin, Brazil Santos lands squarely in the classic profile: a medium roast of Catuai and Mundo Novo grown at 750–1,050 m in Paraná and São Paulo, pulped natural and dried in the sun, giving an elegant, smooth cup with cocoa notes. Colombia brings dried orange, berry and chocolate, grown by smallholder farmers from Medellín at 1300–1500 m and fully washed. Both come as whole bean, so you control the grind.
Grind coarse, or the long steep works against you
Grind size is easy to get wrong at home, and it goes wrong in a predictable direction.
Cold brew typically requires a coarse grind, roughly the size of rock salt. The reason is the clock: coarser grind sizes work best to compensate for the longer extraction times, otherwise the coffee will overextract and taste bitter. Coarse is not a preference here. It is what the long steep asks for.
One caveat worth knowing, because it gets misquoted. A 2017 study in Scientific Reports found that grind size did not significantly change the caffeine or chlorogenic acid concentration of its cold brew samples. That is a measurement of two specific compounds, not of flavour — the paper did not test bitterness or body. Grind coarse anyway.
If you are choosing between buying beans and buying grounds more generally, we have written about that trade-off in whole bean vs ground coffee. Cold brew is the case where we think a bag ground coarse for the job earns its place.
How to brew it right
The method is forgiving, which is part of the appeal. Four decisions and a long wait.
- Pick your ratio. The National Coffee Association suggests 1 gram of coffee to 4–5 grams of water. Perfect Daily Grind's home recipe goes lighter, at coarsely ground coffee and filtered, room-temperature water at a ratio of 1:8, adjusted to taste. Start at one, move toward the other.
- Use room-temperature or cooler water and make sure every ground is wet before you walk away.
- Wait. Steeping times vary significantly, from as little as a few minutes to 12–18+ hours overnight. Julia Leach, President of Toddy, puts the usual window at 18 to 24 hours, on the basis that the low temperature means you are extracting water-soluble compounds over a longer period. Overnight on the counter is the easiest version to stick to.
- Get the grounds out. Once the time is up, plunge or remove the coffee grounds from the brewing vessel to avoid over extraction. Leaving them in is an easy way to turn a good batch bitter.
To serve a concentrate, start with one-third coffee concentrate to two-thirds water or milk, poured over ice, then adjust to taste. Perfect Daily Grind says you can keep cold brew in the refrigerator for up to 14 days, though ours has never lasted a week.
What cold brew actually changes about the cup
Cold brew has a reputation for being smoother and less acidic. The first half is well supported. The second is more interesting than the marketing suggests.
On smoothness, the National Coffee Association describes cold brew as giving a smoother, more mellow cup with a less bitter taste. That one sensory study agrees: in its panel, less bitterness, less astringency, more perceived sweetness.
Acidity is where it gets genuinely mixed. A 2018 study in Scientific Reports measured cold brew samples at pH 4.96 to 5.13 and hot brew samples at 4.85 to 5.10 — comparable ranges. But the same study found the hot extracts had larger measures of titratable acidity, indicating higher concentrations of extracted acids. The 2020 Foods paper, testing three roast levels, did find cold brew less acidic than its hot counterpart every time, by 0.20, 0.26 and 0.34 pH units. So: probably a bit gentler, depending on what you measure and which roast you use. Not a different beverage.
Two more things the research settles. Hot brew extracts showed higher antioxidant activity than their cold brew counterparts in that 2018 study, and in the 2020 study caffeine concentrations were comparable regardless of roast level or brewing temperature. Both of those were measured at matched coffee-to-water ratios, so they say nothing about a strong concentrate, which uses far more coffee per unit of water. If you want the fuller story on why the drink took off in the first place, our article on the rise of cold brew coffee covers the ground.
FAQ
What is the best coffee for cold brew?
A medium-to-dark roast with chocolate, nut and caramel character. Medium to dark roasts contain more fully developed sugars thanks to the longer roast times, meaning the cold brew will be sweeter, and coffees from Central or South America such as Brazil, Colombia or Guatemala often work best for that traditional profile.
Does cold brew need a coarse grind?
Yes. Cold brew typically requires a coarse grind, about the size of rock salt, because coarser grind sizes work best to compensate for the longer extraction times — otherwise the coffee will overextract and taste bitter.
How long should cold brew steep?
Steeping times vary significantly, from as little as a few minutes to 12–18+ hours overnight. Julia Leach of Toddy puts the usual range at 18 to 24 hours. A 2017 study found that caffeine and chlorogenic acid concentrations reached equilibrium between 6 and 7 hours, rather than the 10 to 24 hours outlined in typical cold brew methods — so a long steep is doing something other than adding caffeine.
Is cold brew less acidic than hot coffee?
Partly. One 2018 study found comparable pH between methods, at 4.96 to 5.13 for cold brew and 4.85 to 5.10 for hot, but higher titratable acidity in the hot extracts. A 2020 study of three roast levels found cold brew less acidic each time, by 0.20 to 0.34 pH units.
How long does cold brew keep in the fridge?
Perfect Daily Grind says you can store cold brew in the refrigerator for up to 14 days.
Where to start
If you want cold brew this weekend without buying a grinder or thinking about microns, our Cold Brew Coffee is already ground coarse and blended for the method — 100% coffee, dark French roast, nothing artificial. Scoop, add water, wait overnight, strain. That is the entire skill.
