Cold Brew and Iced Coffee: They’re Not the Same Thing
Walk into any café and you’ll see both cold brew and iced coffee on the menu. They’re both served cold, both refreshing, both coffee. That’s about where the overlap stops. They look identical in the glass. Dark, chilled, poured over ice. But order one when you meant the other and you’ll notice the difference immediately. One tastes smooth and mellow. The other is bright, maybe a little sharp. The reason comes down to how they’re brewed. Once you know the difference, you can stop guessing and start ordering the one you actually want. It all comes down to heat versus time. Iced Coffee: Heat and Shock Iced coffee is exactly what it sounds like: hot coffee that’s been cooled down. It’s brewed using standard methods like a drip brewer, with water between 195 and 205 degrees Fahrenheit. Hot water pulls flavor out of coffee grounds fast. It extracts the bright, acidic notes and the aromatic oils that give coffee its smell. Once brewed, the hot coffee is either refrigerated or poured st...
