Over the past year, I’ve experimented extensively with cold brew at home, spending too much on equipment and gadgets. This post is a distillation of my learnings.

Equipment

I was extremely dissatisfied with the Bruer device that shows up in a lot of search results; clean-up is easy, but setting the drip rate is fussy and repeatable brew results are almost impossible. Instead, I recommend the OXO cold brew tower. $50 is not bank-breaking, and the hassle-free clean up is well worth it.

A kitchen scale is a requirement as well; I’m reasonably satisfied with OXO’s 5-pound scale, but I find myself wanting a higher precision readout when I’m mixing drinks.

If you want to grind your own beans, a good burr grinder is worth investigating. A medium grind setting seems to work well.

Coffee Selection

The number of sources, blends, roasts, etc. can be overwhelming; if you don’t know what coffee to use, start with a medium roast house blend, then experiment.

Cold Brew Mocha Recipe

• 1 oz. chocolate syrup (I use and heartily recommend Torani’s Dark Chocolate Sauce)
• .5 oz. heavy whipping cream
• 5.5 oz. 2% milk
• 2 oz. water
• 3 oz. cold brew concentrate

Blend ingredients together thoroughly in a blender, and serve over ice (I use ice balls).

The quantities might seem strange, but are designed to sum up to 12 oz. The ratios of milk and water can be tweaked to taste, but I find more than 1/2 an ounce of cream makes the drink too rich, and less than 5 oz of milk makes the drink more watery than I like.