New Orleans Iced Coffee

Published Aug. 27, 2009 at 11:35 a.m.
New Orleans is hot and humid, so it only makes sense that New Orleans iced coffee (a.k.a. “iced Café Noir”) is a popular alternative to the hot version.

You can make your own New Orleans iced coffee at home by quickly cooling New Orleans black coffee in the freezer then pouring it over ice, or by brewing it extra strength and pouring it over ice immediately. However, it’s traditionally made with “cold extraction.”

Cold extraction (a.k.a. “cold brewing”) is a brewing method in which you use water that isn’t hot. Contrary to the chilly name, the water is more likely to be room temperature than it is to be truly cold, but the temperature makes a few big differences.

Aside from temperature, the first main difference between regular brewing and cold brewing is time. Hot water allows for very fast extractions, but cooler water takes much longer and may even require an overnight soak.

The second main difference is flavor. Slow extractions pull out different chemical compounds from the beans, and a different chemical balance equates to a different flavor balance. Generally speaking, cold-brewed coffees are smoother, sweeter and less bitter than their traditional counterparts.

When you’re talking about iced, cold-brewed coffee, there’s a third major difference, which is the chilling process. Coffee contains a number of chemical compounds that change when the temperature changes. Cooling coffee slowly (like in the fridge) can lead to an extremely bitter and (most agree) unpleasant taste. Brewing cool and then adding ice is much less likely to create the compounds, and the associated bitter tastes they cause.

If you want to make New Orleans iced coffee the traditional way, San Francisco’s famed coffee shop Blue Bottle sells a New Orleans iced coffee kit that makes it easy.

Photo (c) Lindsey Goodwin

New Orleans Iced Coffee originally appeared on About.com Coffee / Tea on Thursday, August 27th, 2009 at 16:35:40.

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