More Cold Brew

I’ve been making a cup of cold brew, using this recipe, almost every day that I’m at home in the afternoon. Somehow, though, my bag of Wellsley Farms pre-ground breakfast blend never seems to run out. I still have a ton of it left. Today, though, I decided to shake things up:

  • 15 grams Lost Dog “La Esparanza” medium/medium dark roast blend beans
  • JX: 2 rotations minus 6 clicks (54 total clicks or 18 on the grind chart) for a medium to slightly fine grind
  1. Set AeroPress up in inverted orientation with plunger inserted about 1cm, and add coffee.
  2. Fill AeroPress to within about 1cm of the top with room temperature, filtered water.
  3. Start timer and stir vigorously for 1 minute.
  4. Flip AeroPress and press gently into an 8-ounce tumbler.
  5. Add a drop or two of stevia and stir.
  6. Add 2 or 3 ice cubes to chill.

This turned out pretty good. I think I like it a little bit better than the cold brew that I make with the pre-ground coffee, but it does seem slightly stronger. It would probably be fine with 13 to 14 grams of coffee, although I’d need to be careful playing around with the ratio since I’m measuring the water by volume and not weight. I’ve been using the stevia for a while now with this recipe, as I’ve found that I like a tiny hint of sweetness with cold brew. A little definitely goes a long way — a couple of drops is plenty.

Tomorrow, I’m going to try making a hot cup with these beans for the first time in a week or two. I figure I’ve got 9 or 10 cups worth of beans left, so I’ll see if I can get a good, repeatable recipe dialed in before I run out of them.

Niner

I ran 9 miles this morning, for the first time since June 15. I was surprised that it had been that long, especially given the cool weather we had during the second half of June. Today, the temperature at 8:00am was around 70, and the weather was overcast and muggy. I got 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep last night, and had a smoothie, cup of coffee, and some water before heading out. I ran at a relaxed pace of 11 minutes/mile on average, and my form felt really good throughout. All things considered, it was a great run. I expect that my pace will pick up a bit as we get into cooler weather, and I am looking forward to taking some longer runs this fall.

I used up the last of my “private house blend” coffee beans from German St Coffee and Candlery this morning. I bought these beans back in May. I used a bunch of them for cold brew, and also tried them in the French press, with pretty good results both times. After some initial failures, I eventually found an AeroPress recipe that produced a really nice cup with them, and I’ve been brewing this recipe exclusively for the past week or so, just in an effort to use up my older beans (plus, it was cool to be brewing consistently good cups of coffee with the AeroPress — maybe I’m getting better at this). Next on the list are the two bags of Lost Dog beans that I also bought in Shepherdstown in May.