What Is the Difference between Cold Brew and Iced Coffee?

Imagine this. It’s the middle of the summer. The sun is shining so brightly you can barely see, and the air is so hot that it’s almost impossible to function normally. And that’s when you see it – a coffee shop serving delicious cold coffees. You enter and are blessed with the godsent called air conditioning. There, as your body temperature is going back to normal, you’re faced with a very difficult decision – should you go for a cold brew coffee or for an iced coffee? That’s the question.

Although some people might think that those two are the same thing, the truth is that they are completely different drinks. So, what exactly is the difference between cold brew and iced coffee? And which one should you choose? That’s something we will be talking about in the article below.

What is Iced Coffee?

In simple terms, an iced coffee is just an iced version of a regular coffee (espresso). While regular coffee is served, ice is added to make it a better drink for summer. The best way to make it is to add milk, ice (and some whipped cream) to the espresso.

How To Make It At Home

It is easy to make iced coffee at home. Here is a condensed  recipe for it:

 The first thing to do is get your ingredients:

• 1 cup brewed coffee (cooled)
• Ice cubes
• 1/4 cup milk or cream
• Sweetener (optional)

Once you have your ingredients, here is what you have to do:

• Brew a cup of coffee and let it cool to room temperature.
• Fill a glass with ice cubes and pour the cooled coffee over the ice.
• Add milk or cream and sweetener to taste.

What is Cold Brew?

If you are wondering what is cold brew coffee, it is a cold beverage made by steeping coffee grounds. It is also popularly known as cold water extraction or cold pressing. The brew is made at preferably cold temperatures in water for an extended period, which might extend up to 8 to 24 hours.

How To Make It At Home

If you are interested in brewing your coffee, here is a simple recipe for making cold-brew coffee at home:

First, you only need 1 cup of ground coffee and 4 cups of cold water to make a cold brew coffee.

Next, combine the ground coffee and water in a jar or pitcher.

Then, stir the mixture gently to mix the coffee grounds with the water.

Once it’s all mixed, cover and refrigerate for 12-18 hours.

Strain through a coffee filter or fine mesh sieve to remove the grounds.

Serve over ice and dilute with water or milk, if desired.

Cold Brew Coffee vs. Iced Coffee: Key Differences

The correct answer to the question “What is the difference between cold brew and iced coffee?” is that there are many.

The brewing process is the main difference between cold and iced coffee. While preparing iced coffee should take at most a few minutes; making a pot of cold brew coffee can take more than a day. Let us elaborate by explaining how exactly cold brew coffee is made.

If we want to be technical, we should actually call it cold brew coffee concentrate rather than just cold brew coffee, as the ice you’re adding later, when you’re serving it, actually dilutes it, making the beverage weaker. Of course, you can drink the concentrate straight. However, we wouldn’t recommend doing it if you’re not a fan of strong coffee, such as espresso.

Returning to the brewing method for cold brew coffee – it’s very simple, but, as we already mentioned, it requires time. Cold-brewed coffee is made by steeping ground coffee beans with cold water (it can also be water at room temperature, as long as it’s not hot). Here’s how to prepare it:

Prepare the ingredients – coffee grounds and water – as well as a large mason jar or pitcher.

Place the coarse-ground coffee beans in the jar/pitcher and add water. Stir gently. Place a kitchen towel or cheesecloth on top of the jar/pitcher so that the opening is completely covered. You can ensure that it stays in place by using a rubber band.

Leave it for at least 12 hours (you can also just leave it overnight).

Once enough time has passed, prepare another jar/pitcher and place a fine-mesh sieve with a clean cheesecloth. Pour the coffee into it. Remember not to stir the coffee grounds before you pour over your mixture, as it might cause your cold brew concentrate to become cloudy.

When you’re done, throw away the used cheesecloth. For the coffee grounds, check out our article on how to repurpose them—who knows, maybe you’ll be inspired.

Grab the sieve again and place a coffee filter in it. Put it over another clean jar/pitcher, and pour the concentrate into it without stirring – instead, allow it to drip into your container on its own. Keep in mind that it might take some time.

And you’re done! Depending on which one you choose, the mixture in the last jar or pitcher is your cold brew coffee concentrate. Place it in an airtight container and put it in a fridge to prevent it from going bad—you can leave it there for up to three weeks.

If you want to learn more about cold brew coffee, you can always check out this article we published a while back.

Iced coffee, on the other hand, doesn’t require any specific brewing method. It’s a regular coffee poured over some ice, meaning you can make it in your good old coffee maker if you have one. If you don’t, simply boil water and pour it over ground coffee. Let it cool down, and once you’re sure the ice cubes won’t melt right away, add ice to a cup and pour the coffee over it.

Tip: If you like stronger coffees and want your iced coffee to have a kick, double the amount of ground coffee beans you use.

Another method that is slowly gaining popularity among coffee lovers is making coffee ice cubes. How do you make them? Grab an ice cube tray and the regular brewed coffee you made (after it cooled down), pour it into the tray, and freeze. Once you’re ready to have your iced coffee, just pop one or two out and put them in your cup. Voila! You’ve made coffee ice cubes – easy, right?

Difference between Cold Brew and Iced Coffee

Based on everything that has been said so far, we can conclude that there are two main things that differentiate cold brew coffees from iced coffees—time and water temperature.

While iced coffee is pretty quick to make, cold brew coffee needs at least 12 hours to become the taste beverage many people know and love. You need hot water with iced coffee, while cold brew coffee can be prepared with cold or room temperature water.

Taste

Taste is one of the distinct features of cold brew coffee. Since the preparation process is all about slow and drawn-out extraction, the flavors have more time to come out, which is why regular cold brew coffee tends to have a smooth, chocolate-like taste. On the other hand, the iced coffee brewing method is much more rapid, resulting in the coffee having a more bitter and acidic taste, often with fruity notes.

Caffeine Content

You might be wondering – Okay, but which has more caffeine content? Well, a 16-oz cup of traditional iced coffee has about 165 mg of caffeine. On the other hand, a 16-oz cup of cold brew coffee has about 200 mg of caffeine. So, when it comes to caffeine levels, cold brew definitely wins.

Flavor & Acidity

The two coffees are as different as they can be regarding flavor palate. The major reason is that the level of acidity in both differs significantly. Due to the long-brewing process, cold-brew coffee is not very acidic and has a light earth-tone flavor. On the contrary, iced coffee has a high acidic rate, making it have a more bitter coffee flavor. However, the taste of iced coffee becomes less bitter as the added ice dilutes, making it more watery and lighter.

Price

While both drinks have their appeal, the difference between cold brew and iced coffee extends to cost. Surprisingly (or not), cold brew coffee is generally more expensive than iced coffee. While iced coffee involves more ingredients, such as milk, cream, and sweeteners, the coffee grounds required to make a cold brew are almost double what an iced coffee needs. So, even if a cold brew is made in a big batch, which will last you significantly longer, it will be more expensive than an iced coffee.

Iced Coffee and Cold Brew – Which One Should You Choose? 

Truthfully, that’s not a question we can answer, as everything depends on your personal preferences. If you want a stronger cup of coffee with a more chocolatey flavor, cold brew will be a better choice. On the other hand, if you like regular hot coffee and just want something cold to settle your thirst during the summer, iced coffee might be a perfect choice.

The Bottom Line 

During the summer, a cup of cold coffee can be a godsend. Just imagine – you’re walking in the middle of the day, the sun is shining directly into your eyes, you forgot your hat or umbrella at home, so there’s nothing you can cover yourself with, and you feel like you’re about to melt. But then you see it – a coffee shop. You enter, and you’re hit with one of the greatest inventions of all time – air conditioning. Now, one more obstacle is choosing which cold coffee you want to drink. Cold brew or iced coffee?

As you can see above, those two drinks are very different and have different flavors. That’s why which one will be the perfect cold beverage for you depends on your preferences. Either way, we hope that you enjoyed this article, and next time you decide whether to buy cold brew or iced coffee, it will be easy to make a choice.