It’s that time of year again in New York City – iced coffee season is in full swing, and cold brew is seemingly everywhere.
If you’re still asking “what is cold brew?”, it might be time to catch up. This steep-and-strain method, brewing coffee without heat, was a niche item not too long ago. Yet, it has exploded in popularity and is now as ubiquitous as summer sandals. From sleek bottles to on-tap options and even ice pops, cold brew has become synonymous with the New York summer experience, right alongside humid subway platforms and the distant sound of ice cream trucks.
Iced coffee in a clear glass with ice cubes, showcasing a light brown beverage with visible condensation, set against a neutral background.
Refreshing iced coffee in a glass, the quintessential summer beverage.
However, some prominent voices in the coffee world argue that cold brew is a misstep. They contend it’s bland and uninspired, a disservice to high-quality beans. They see it as amateur hour, advocating instead for ice brew.
Ice brew is a variation on the pour-over method, where hot coffee is brewed directly over ice. The hot coffee hits the ice and cools instantly. This process quickly extracts more flavor from the coffee grounds compared to the lengthy cold brew steeping process. Crucially, the rapid cooling prevents the development of harsh, unpleasant flavors that can arise from slowly chilling hot coffee in a refrigerator. The result? You get the vibrant, nuanced flavors of hot coffee, but in a perfectly chilled drink. While ice brew was mentioned as a promising alternative in previous summers, the debate between cold brew and ice brew has intensified.
This is shaping up to be a significant clash in the iced coffee arena. Cold brew champions include industry giants like Blue Bottle Coffee, Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea, Stumptown Coffee Roasters, and Toby’s Estate Coffee. You can find cold brew readily available from Birch Coffee at Madison Square Eats, Kickstand’s bike deliveries, Grady’s Cold Brew nationwide shipping, and at cafes like Joe, Café Grumpy, Kaffe 1668, and Third Rail Coffee, among many others.
On the ice brew front, you’ll find advocates such as Counter Culture Coffee, George Howell Coffee, Ritual Coffee Roasters, and Wrecking Ball Coffee. Ice brew might be slightly harder to find in your average coffee shop, but it’s worth seeking out at places like Au Breve, Café Integral, and Sweetleaf.
Currently, cold brew undeniably holds the popular appeal. Its smooth, easy-drinking nature, simple preparation, and attractive packaging in stylish bottles contribute to its widespread popularity. Even critics concede that cold brew is often velvety, sweet, and remarkably low in acidity.
But this low acidity is precisely the issue for coffee connoisseurs. Coffee contains both desirable acids (like malic and phosphoric) and less desirable ones (such as acetic and quinic). The goal is to highlight the good acids and minimize the others. A bright, crisp acidity is a sought-after characteristic in many exceptional coffees, mirroring the appeal of acidity in other great flavors like strawberries, Rieslings, or gimlets. The recent harvests of Kenyan, Ethiopian, and other African coffees are celebrated for their dazzling acidity. Why would we want to mute this defining quality in iced coffee?
This fundamental difference in perspective is driving the iced coffee divide.
Last month, Peter Giuliano from Counter Culture Coffee shared a compelling argument for ice brew (which he refers to as the “Japanese ice method” or “flash cooled”). Lorenzo Perkins of Cuvee Coffee, a cold brew proponent, offered a response, and Nicholas Cho of Wrecking Ball Coffee provided his counter-perspective. Jaime van Schyndel of Barismo suggests exploring the “Cambridge technique.” Enthusiasts are experimenting with specialized equipment like the Hario Fretta and the Kalita Ice-N-Hot. The debate has sparked lively discussions across social media and coffee blogs.
While cold brew may be the crowd favorite, ice brew is gaining traction among coffee experts.
There’s a certain nostalgia associated with cold brew. For some, it evokes memories of past summers. Perhaps you remember leisurely afternoons with a glass of milky cold brew, reminiscing about summer adventures – maybe even thinking, “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” in terms of enjoying a truly refreshing drink.
It was with this appreciation for cold brew that I visited Counter Culture Coffee’s New York training lab for a comparative tasting: cold brew versus ice brew. Using the same coffee beans for both preparations and trying various iterations, I was surprised to find myself converted to ice brew. It offered a brighter, livelier, crisper, and more nuanced flavor profile. Simply put, it became my preferred iced coffee.
It’s worth noting that ice brew doesn’t pair well with milk, while cold brew complements the richness of dairy beautifully. Cold brew shines when prepared New Orleans style with full-fat milk, resembling a melted coffee ice cream. Even the ice brew advocates at Counter Culture Coffee enjoyed this indulgent preparation. However, in a side-by-side comparison without milk, cold brew fell short of the vibrancy of ice brew. If some consider cold brew to be past its prime, in comparison to ice brew, it can feel somewhat muted, like listening to a movie soundtrack through subpar headphones.
Whether this distinction matters depends on your preferences – your “movie,” so to speak, and your coffee. Recently, I prepared ice brew using Dukunde Kawa beans from Rwanda by Handsome Coffee Roasters. The result was reminiscent of lemonade – hitting all the bright, refreshing notes. A coffee with such delicate and bright characteristics seems almost wasted when cold brewed.
This summer, consider ice brewing. Perhaps it will gain wider popularity and become the next “it” coffee trend. And by then, coffee aficionados will likely be exploring the next innovative brewing method.
