Cold brew coffee has become much more popular over the past few years. But it can be expensive to buy cold brew coffee already made, and making cold brew yourself takes a significant amount of time. The minimum amount of time you should let your cold brew soak is eight hours! But you should be able to store cold brew coffee for later use right? Is there a way to preserve cold brew coffee?
Absolutely! You can preserve cold brew coffee by storing it in your refrigerator or freezing it in your freezer. If you store your cold brew coffee in your fridge, it will last up to two weeks and still be safe to drink. If you freeze your cold brew coffee, it can last up to six months.
But there are many other ways you can preserve cold brew coffee. We’ve done the research for you and added all the best ways to keep your coffee from spoiling. Continue reading to learn more about how to preserve cold brew coffee!
How to Preserve Cold Brew Coffee Effectively
Have you ever questioned why coffee gets stale? Why can’t you reuse cold brew? The answer is that you can! Follow the tips below and enjoy a long shelf life for your coffee. Here are some techniques we use to store our cold-brewed coffee.
Do Not Store at Room Temperature
Do not keep your cold brew coffee for a long time at room temperature (~65 Fahrenheit). If you keep your coffee out at room temperature, it will spoil much faster. So consider storing your cold brew coffee at room temperature for as short as possible.
Refrigerate Your Brewed Coffee
Store the cold-brewed coffee in the refrigerator (at least 40 Fahrendhiedt) as early as possible. It will enhance the shelf life of your cold brew for up to two weeks.
Besides, cold brew coffee is meant to be enjoyed cold!
Don’t Mix it with Other Ingredients
If you mix milk, cream, etc., it may become spoiled faster. So consider making cold coffee using coffee grounds only. This is because these other ingredients have a shorter shelf life than plain coffee.
Use milk, cream, or other flavorings right before you enjoy your cold brew.
Make Cold Brew Coffee Ice Cubes
You’ll need an ice cube tray and room temperature brewed coffee. Simply pour the cold brew coffee into the ice cube tray and let it freeze.
Author Note: You can then use the frozen cold brew cubes for many different things. They can be used in hot coffee, iced coffee, or cold-brewed coffee to make it extra strong. You can always add extra flavor to the trays before freezing too for extra flavor.
What Should You Do with Your Leftover Cold Brew Coffee?
What happens if you have prepared so much cold brew coffee that you can’t drink in time? Don’t worry. You need not waste your brewed coffee – there are plenty of options to use up the extra coffee.
Here are some ways you can use your leftover coffee.
Bake a Coffee Chocolate Cake
Almost everyone likes chocolate cake. Try using the remaining coffee in baking your next chocolate cake!
Your cold brew coffee will increase the taste of the chocolate cake and turn it into a mocha cake!
Cook Chili
A rather unexpected or unconventional use for coffee is to add it when making chili. That’s right, savory chili! Use your extra coffee with chili while cooking your vegetables. Coffee will enhance the flavors of the chili, and give it a caffeine kick.
We like adding coffee to spicy vegetarian chili recipes to get a deeper flavor. Here are some tips on cooking with coffee.
Hair Mask
Turns out coffee is a good ingredient for using in your hair. The caffeine and antioxidants of coffee will make your hair shiny and strong. Rinse your hair with the leftover coffee to help keep it healthy and luscious.
Water Your Plants
Coffee contains acidic ingredients that work like fertilizer. You can use any remaining cold brew coffee you have as a way to water your plants and give them the necessary acidity.
But be careful. Don’t overuse or use it every single day because it can make your soil too acidic. Research online to be sure your plant prefers or can tolerate acidity.
Some Facts about Cold Coffee Brewers
When hot summer days hit the globe, a perfectly brewed cold coffee can be the simplest way to cool down and get energized.
Here are some additional facts about cold brew and why it has become so popular in recent years.
A Complex but Perfect Blend
As I said earlier, the perfect taste, smell, and flavor of the coffee mainly rely on how you blend your coffee with other ingredients.
Cold brew is a method of steeping coffee grounds with water at room temperature for at least 12 hours or more. Therefore, filtered coffee results in a yummy flavor. Finally, add sugar, chocolate, milk to the brewed coffee for a perfect blend of taste.
Taste Sweeter than Hot Brew
A cold brew coffee takes much more time than to prepare a hot brew coffee. Cold brew coffee contains 67% less acidity than hot-brewed coffee.
Hot-brewed coffee is easily dissolved in hot water and extracts the caffeine out of the grounds fast. So, you experience a bitter taste. Cold-brew is extracted for a longer time resulting in brighter and sweeter coffee.
Allows Different Flavor
Author Note: You can enjoy different cold coffee varieties with various flavors of fruits, vanilla, and chocolate. Taste light roast and dark roast coffees depending on their brew time as well as caffeine and antioxidants extraction.
Used as Ice cubes
There are different usages of cold brew concentrate. To taste better on an exhausting day, use leftover cold brew to make coffee ice-cream, coffee ice cubes with milk, or a yogurt blend.
Additional Ways to Store Coffee
Usually, it takes more than 12 hours to 24 hours to make cold brew coffee. Because it takes so long, we usually prepare coffee for a week and preserve it. Coffee will get moldy and tasteless if you don’t store it properly.
Let’s have a look at additional ways to store cold brew coffee.
Mocha Pot
Mocha pot is the built-in filter jug with 3 structures, including the bottom reservoir, filter in the middle, and the exit mouth of the pot. It is easy to preserve cold brew using a mocha pot.
Here are the instructions:
1) Pour water on the bottom reservoir and fill the filter with coffee ground
2) Attach both reservoir and filter. Let it brew.
3) Cool the brewed coffee and stir up.
4) Pour the coffee into your container and add some water and sugar to taste.
5) Next, shake it closing the cork, and place it in the refrigerator until it turns into bright and fresh coffee.
In this way, you can preserve the cold brew for 3 days.
What happens if you go for a picnic or a trip? It’s simple. Just put the container in your cooler bag and enjoy at the time of drink.
Coffee Cubes
Coffee cubes another popular to preserve coffee for a week. All you need is a typical ice tray, cold brew coffee, and a freezer.
Here are the instructions.
1) Combine hot water with coffee grounds.
2) Let it cool, then mix sugar, milk, and any other flavors you like.
3) Mix it up thoroughly.
4) Pour it into the coffee trays and put it in the refrigerator to freeze.
5) You can also pour coffee powder on the whipped surface before serving.
Silican Granita
Another way to preserve coffee is Silican Granita. It requires hot espresso, vanilla, sugar, milk, and whipped cream to make a Silican Granita
Instructions
1) Make several cups of hot coffee and pour it into a large jar.
2) Add sugar and stir up.
3) Mix vanilla powder and milk and stir up again.
4) Freeze until it is scooped, and bear in mind to stir up every 30 minutes.
5) Make sure to freeze one day ahead.
6) Serve with sprinkles over whipped cream whenever you need.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Can coffee be stored in a clear container?
You should store coffee beans in an opaque air-tight container to keep their fresh roasted flavor for a long time. Try to keep your beans at room temperature in the container. You shouldn’t use a clear container because UV light can hit the beans and degrade their flavor. UV reacts with coffee beans over time and makes them stale.
How do you keep coffee fresh after opening?
Author Note: Before roasting, the coffee beans have the same carbon dioxide structure as their outer surroundings. But oxidization begins once the beans are exposed to air. Oxygen is the reason why oxidization occurs. To keep your coffee fresh after opening, close the container’s cap firmly to protect against oxidization.
How long can I keep coffee in the fridge?
According to experts, you can keep coffee for up to 14 days in your fridge. The flavor of coffee remains stable when you store it in a cold setting for this amount of time. The taste, however, may be slightly different when you reheat the coffee.
Is day-old coffee OK to drink?
If you stored the coffee in the fridge, then yes it is ok to drink. If you left it out on the counter, however, you should dump it. It’s probably safe to drink, but we wouldn’t risk it. It also will have oxidized and not taste good anymore.
Conclusion
We hope you got a clear understanding of how you can preserve your cold brew coffee. Do you use any other techniques to preserve your coffee? Please share your experiences in the comments below.
Stay caffeinated, friends!