Desi brew French eshtlye

Think outside the box

This phrase is often tossed around in brainstorming sessions. I've heard my share during a stint with an ad agency. For disruptive thinking, I often disrupt my daily routine.

I had been on a vacation visiting family in SoCal recently. The imposing heat which soared to 100F by mid-morning daunted me from the kettle for a rolling boil to pour into the French Press. But I sorely missed my caffeine fix. After a sweltering run in the nearby baseball court one morning, I grudgingly prepared a hot brew to thwart sleep, which would have meant I'd miss out on picking up my niece and nephew from their Montessori.

As I sat beside the air vent, blasted by the cool air sipping my freshly pressed coffee, an idea germinated -

What if I used the French Press for making a cold brew?

As you've read before on this blog, Cold Brew is something I've toyed with in the past. Chiefly, it is low in acid

approximately 67% less acidic than coffee brewed by conventional hot-brew methods

However, purchasing an expensive and bulky apparatus deterred me from introducing it into my daily ritual. Using a coffee filter, propped into a funnel turned out to be tacky and time consuming; let's not forget messy!

I ran the idea by my brother. He was skeptical but I promised that we'd try it only if he liked the result the next morning. So, before hitting the sack I measured 8 coffee spoons and 3 cups of normal water into the glass carafe. I stirred the grounds into the water and then stuck it into the refrigerator. The next morning, there was froth gathered in the carafe when we took it out.

Since my sis-in-law prefers a lukewarm coffee, I heated and frothed the milk, and then poured the cold brew for her cuppa. My brother and I had our coffee piping hot with a dash of cinnamon. We collectively agreed that the coffee was smoother and less bitter than the regular French Press brew. Moreover, there was no residual at the bottom of the cup as all the fine particles settled down during the 12 hours the coffee steeped in the cooler.

For the remainder of my stay, I would fix up the coffee carafe the night before, so we could grab our caffeine fix first thing in the morning, without waiting 15 long minutes for the grounds to stew. Time saved is time earned. In my case it was a treat of spending the time playing and chatting with my toddler nephew and infant niece before they headed to the Montessori.