Iced Coffee on the Hario

For the past few months I have been wondering what iced coffee made to order on the Hario platform would be best at. Like most things that one only wonders at I only dabbled and tried a few times. The results were nice but not satisfactory. A few weeks ago I started a team effort to test a wide range of parameters.

We started with the tried and true full dose of coffee/half dose water brewed into ice. Works wonders in a Fetco Extractor at 3.6 litre plus batch size. Not so good on a 21-26 gram Hario.

So far in the study we have tried:

Starting with a new harvest El Salvador Bourbon washed from Gloria Rodriguez:
(Our standard Hario hand pour coffee ratio is between 21-24 grams coffee to 310-323 grams/Ml water at about 2:15-2:30 time.)

1. 24 g grounds : 180ml liquid: 300 ml ice——–>sweet but thin & lacking flavor

2. 24 g grounds: 180 ml liquid: 200 ml ice——–>Much more flavor but bitter & underextracted

3. 20 g grounds: 200 ml liquid: 200 ml ice——–>Body great. Bitter.

4. 20 g grounds: 200 ml liquid 100 ml ice.——–> Best of all but Bitter

Overall extraction time: 24g: 1:40, 20g: 1:30

Over the last two weeks we went through another couple dozen versions of the full dose coffee/lower dose of hot water over ice. But overall the result was a mega overdose of bitter tannins in the back of your mouth and a bitey finish no matter the ratio or time or grind. We changed a great many things and tried quite a few methods and techniques.

We changed the dose from 20 to 30 grams, the water from 150 to 300 grams and the grind up and down a few notches on our Mahlkoenigs. We experimented with the amount of ice in relation to the hot water ratio and a few other experiments. We found various nice attributes but overall we felt let down and they all tended towards bitter.

So today we had a double epiphany. We tended to like the flavors, acidity, cleanliness and sweetness of the higher doses. But we still got the string tannin bitter finish. And we felt that often we were getting under extracted flavors. And we thought that the coffee hitting the ice right away was introducing the bitter overbearing tannins.

So here is what we did.

1. Upped the dose to 28 grams of coffee
2. Upped the water dose to 250 grams of hot water
3. Standard Barefoot Hand Pour technique
4. Brew time a bit shorter due to less water so closer to 1:50
5. Straight into Hario beaker NO ice
6. Then put about 400ml of ice in a Boston style martini shaker
7. Pour hot coffee over ice
8. Shake firmly but slowly only 2-4 times to crystallize ice, chill coffee and introduce slight oxygen bubbles
9. Serve in glass used for shaking with only 1/3rd of the ice used to shake.

The result is astoundingly sweet, clean and refreshing. The flavors of the coffee shine through bright and clear. Everyone could easily taste which coffee it was. The El Salvador San Jose Rojo had wonderful florals, sweet shining acidity with citrus and pineapple notes, and a strong smooth butterscotch finish and mouthfeel. Many people remarked that it at first tasted “watery” but not weak. We found that what they meant was that it was super clean and refreshing like cold clean spring water but that it was abundant in flavors just like a hot Hand Pour coffee.

So the techniques are not at all revolutionary but the combination of how we did them has produced the single best tasting iced coffee  have ever had. No bitterness beyond what the coffee has naturally. And really sweet and delicious. I kept it sitting around in today’s 102 F heat until it was hot and it was still sweet and complexly flavored. Not too shabby and super delicious.

We launched this service today at our Barefoot Santa Clara Coffee Bar. It has been quite a hit and people seem to be loving it. It helps that it has been 100 F for the last few days but the flavors are really great.

Anyone else have any iced coffee recipes that work wonders for a brew on demand cup at a time process in a busy coffee bar?

Enter your comment here

Thank you for this. Since I’ve transferred over to the world of Slow Drinks, especially in regard to cocktails, having a to-order iced coffee method that is tasty, replicable, and respectable to the coffee, is invaluable.

I’ve adapted your ratios to the Chemex and I’m eager to try it out as a batch (and serve it in a pitcher with lemon slices). Also, the Boston Shaker is a nice touch.

Cheers.

March 11th, 2011

BruceLeeAdama

[...] 26, 2010 by Daniel Markham Thanks to Mr. Bradley Allen for linking – à la his Twitter – to Barefoot Coffee’s method of brewing up single-serving cups of iced coffee off the Hario V60. I have a soft-spot for anyone who gives iced coffee its due as a respectable and delicious way to [...]

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August 26th, 2010

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