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How To Make Cold-Brew Coffee at Home...it takes no time and very minimal effort! You'll wake up to the most amazing iced coffee drink. Just in time for summer!

This is my new summer obsession. Homemade cold-brew iced coffee with half-and-half and sweetened condensed milk. I have a large glass of it every morning and I’ve stopped going to the coffee shop around the corner from work because it’s SO easy to make at home and helps me pocket that $3 I used to spend daily.

I posted this cold-brew photo on Instagram a couple weekends ago and was surprised how many people wanted to know how to make it themselves! I wasn’t going to make a blog post out of it but since there was demand, I figured why the heck not? People were saying that they weren’t sure they could handle the time commitment for cold-brew. There is virtually NONE! You literally soak coffee grounds overnight in the fridge and you wake up to the most amazing elixir of life.

Directions below on how to make cold brew coffee at home! :)

How To Make Cold-Brew Coffee at Home...it takes no time and very minimal effort! You'll wake up to the most amazing iced coffee drink. Just in time for summer!

Ok, so don’t be like me and pour the coffee super fast or you’ll end up with a spill (like the one you see below, haha) and you don’t want to waste a drop of this!!cold-brew-coffee-collage-2

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5 from 1 vote

How to Make Cold Brew Coffee at Home

It takes no time and very minimal effort! Just in time for summer!
Prep Time: 12 hours
Total Time: 12 hours
Servings: 10 cups

Ingredients 

  • 12 ounce bag of ground coffee
  • 10 ½ cups of room temperature water

Instructions 

  • Pour the coffee grounds into a large plastic container with a lid.
  • Fill the plastic container with water and stir the coffee grounds around with a spoon until all grounds are moistened.
  • Place lid on the plastic container and pop into the refrigerator overnight.
  • After the overnight process, place a layer of cheese cloth over a fine-mesh strainer. Place the strainer over another large plastic container with a lid.
  • Gently and SLOWLY pour the coffee over the strainer. If it becomes too full, stop and let it drain before continuing.
  • Keep pouring until all the coffee liquid has passed through the strainer and you're left with coffee grounds. You can also gently press the coffee grounds in the strainer with the back of a spoon to squeeze out more liquid.
  • Store in the fridge for up to three months (you'll likely finish it way before then!)
  • Read notes below before fixin' your own coffee drink! :)

Notes

Keep in mind that this is a coffee concentrate so you'll need to dilute your coffee with some water when you make your coffee drink (unless you really like strong coffee). This is what I do:
In a 16-ounce cold drink tumbler, fill with ice. Fill half the tumbler with your cold-brew coffee concentrate and just under a half of the rest of the tumbler with cold water. I add about 1/2 tablespoon of half-and-half and 1/2 tablespoon of sweetened condensed milk. Screw the lid on, pop in the straw, stir well and you've got yourself a refreshing coffee drink!!
If you don't have a 16-ounce cold drink tumbler, you can just use a regular glass or mason jar or whatever you have. You don't have to make your coffee recipe exactly like how I make mine - everyone takes their coffee differently! This is just merely an idea of how I make mine :)

Nutrition

Serving: 1cup, Calories: 0.3kcal, Protein: 0.04g, Fat: 0.01g, Saturated Fat: 0.001g, Monounsaturated Fat: 0.01g, Sodium: 13mg, Potassium: 17mg

This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition information can vary for a variety of reasons. For the most precise nutritional data use your preferred nutrition calculator based on the actual ingredients you used in the recipe.

The default measuring system for this website is US Customary. Unit conversions are provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. While we strive to provide accurate unit conversions, please be aware that there may be some discrepancies.

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57 Comments

  1. I used a finer grind, so that was probably some or all of the problem…but, after steeping for 12 hours, the cold brew wasn’t ready at all. The coffee was weak. So, I let it steep another 12 and YUCK! I ended up with a darker, very bitter brew. Even when diluted and drowned in vanilla creamer and/or half & half, it was just awful. We had to throw it out. ? For my next attempt, I did use course ground coffee. I secured about 1-1/2 cups of the ground coffee in cheese cloth and put that in a gallon jar of water. I let it “marinate” for about 12-18 hours, testing the strength hourly after 12 hours. When it was just right, all I had to do was take out the cheese cloth “package” and, voila, great cold brew! I washed out the cloth and saved it for next time. Thanks for this recipe, it got me started making my own cold brew!! It’s the only coffee I can drink, after my gastric sleeve surgery last year, that doesn’t hurt my tummy!

  2. I would like to post this for cold coffee that is better than Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts to me and 210 others. You will need hot coffee “ANY BRAND” and half and half and six 12 oz bottles.
    1-In a coffee pot put in 12 rounded Coffee spoons of any coffee
    2- Fill your pot to 10 cups of cold water.
    3 Turn on your pot and let it brew until done.
    4. Pour hot coffee back into pot with the grounds, run hot coffee again until done.
    5 Pour the coffee into a pitcher and and ad 2 3/4’s cups sugar in pitcher let it get very cold or place in freezer until cold.
    Pour 3/4’s cup of coffee into a bottle which i do and put in 3/4’s cup of half and half and ad two teaspoons of chocolate syrup and shake.
    Anyone will love this and i keep 15 bottles in the fridge everyday and after drinking one i rinse the bottle and pour in coffee and half and half and then syrup. Trust me.

    1. I usually just grind it coarsely. If you grind it at the store, they usually have an option for ‘pour over’ grind – in that case, I do that one.

  3. Awesome recipe! I made ice cubes from coffee (just brew some coffee the regular way and pour into ice
    cube trays and freeze) and I use those in my iced coffee so it doesn’t get watered down.