Cold Coffee When It Is Not Summer

Cold coffee gets filed under summer, and then it gets forgotten. The pitcher comes out for long hot days. When the weather turns, a lot of people pack cold brew away, as if a smooth cup only belongs to that season.

We do not see it that way. At Santa Barbara Roasting Company (locals call us RoCo), we have been a family roaster in Santa Barbara since 1989. Cold brew is one of the coffees we keep for home all year. The case is the cup itself. A smooth chocolate glass does not ask what month it is.

Most cold coffee starts hot. It is brewed the usual way, then iced or set in the fridge. On our cold brew page we say what that can taste like: sharp and sour. We brew it cold instead. Grounds steep for a long time, about 24 hours, at a cold temperature around 40 degrees. Brewing cold slows the extraction down. That is how we get a smoother, full-bodied, chocolate cup, and the sweet flavor without the acidity.

You can drink that in January. The page also answers the caffeine question, so we will keep it to a few lines here. Cold brewing extracts less caffeine than hot coffee. Because we use about twice the coffee, the finished cup comes out about even with a normal cup. It is not a bigger buzz. It is still a daily coffee, brewed a different way.

Home is the path. Three products cover it.

The bag is Cold Brew Blend. It is our at-home cold brew blend, roasted Viennese and French, from Central and South America. The flavor is rich chocolate, not acidic or bitter, and the cup is smooth, intense, and full-bodied. You can buy it as a 12-ounce bag or a 5 lb bag, whole bean or already ground. The product page names the grind we prefer. The brew method stays on the cold brew page. We are not going to rewrite those steps here.

The pitcher is the Cold Brew Coffee Maker. It is for anyone who wants cold brew waiting in the fridge. The maker is a 51-ounce, temperature-safe glass pitcher, and it fits inside most fridge doors. Coffee and water go in, it brews cold, and the coffee stays fresh for up to 14 days. The maker page has the short instructions. What matters here is the habit: once the pitcher lives in the door, cold brew is an ordinary cup, not a summer project.

The no-wait path is bottled cold brew. The bottle page tells the same story we tell for cold brew: a long brew at a cold temperature, for a smoother, full-bodied, chocolate cup, rather than hot coffee poured over ice. Bottles are sold by the case, a half case of six or a full case of twelve. Reach for them when you want the glass and you do not want to mind a steep.

If you want the wider shelf, our cold brew coffee page is the lineup. To drink this at home all year, start with the blend, the maker, or a case of bottles. If you are in town, come visit the cafe at 321 Motor Way, where we roast all of our coffee. We are open every day. Then let the coffee do the talking.