The Ultimate Guide to Concentrated Coffee Made At Home

Best Recipe for Concentrated Coffee At Home 

Ever heard of concentrated coffee? If you’re a busy person craving a caffeinated pick-me-up but don’t have time to brew a whole pot of fresh coffee, concentrated coffee can be a fantastic alternative. It’s a great solution for quickly whipping up drinks that would normally be crafted with espresso or cold brew! This could include lattes, Americanos, and more. Indeed, having great cold brew concentrate (another name for concentrated coffee) on hand can be a total game-changer. 

So where can you get concentrated coffee?

One option is to buy it pre-made. However, many people prefer to avoid things like artificial ingredients and preservatives, which pre-made cold brew concentrate can be full of. 

Luckily, if you can access high-quality Arabica coffee (like this) and understand a few simple cold-brew bottling techniques, you can easily make concentrated coffee yourself. Brewing homemade concentrated coffee ahead of time can open up a world of delicious drinks on demand, and may even save you money in the long run! Not to mention, your hand-crafted concentrated coffee will be free of preservatives, emulsifiers, and other unnecessary additives.

Below, we’ll discuss what concentrated coffee is, how you can make it yourself at home, and which beverages pair best with concentrated coffee. We will also offer a few extra-strength coffee tips for faster, tastier, pick-me-up drinks!

What is concentrated coffee?

Concentrated bottled coffee, also called cold brew concentrate, has been around for a while. Lately, it has been growing in popularity due to its convenience and strong caffeine content. You’ve probably even seen a few new concentrated coffee products or ads on social media. If not, let’s quickly go over exactly what concentrated coffee is. 

Concentrated coffee is a type of coffee extracted at extra strength (generally at a 1:5 coffee-to-water ratio via cold brew steeping), made to mix with other ingredients like water, milk, ice, protein drinks, flavoring syrups, etc. Cold brew concentrate can be a great time-saver if you're too busy to brew fresh coffee. 

How to use cold brew concentrate?

Concentrated coffee (cold-brew concentrate) is used to make craft cold-brew drinks (or sometimes even lattes or Americanos) quickly without needing to brew a pot of coffee, make single-serve, or pull espresso shots. This highly concentrated coffee is simply poured over ice, mixed with milk, or even added to hot drinks to give them a Java kick. 

What does cold brew concentrate taste like?

Concentrated coffee should have a smooth, balanced taste and seamlessly integrate into a range of coffee beverages. With good cold-brew concentrate, you can get your caffeine fix without having to make a full pot of coffee or pull espresso shots. 

What to Know Before You Make Cold Brew Concentrate?

There are a few things to know before making concentrated coffee. For instance, concentrated coffee isn't made with heat. Instead, you will use cold water, a high ratio of coarse coffee grounds to water, and will want to keep your steeping times to a minimum of 12 hours. Here are some facts about cold brew concentrate to help you craft the best extra-strength brews possible! 

How to Make Cold Brew Concentrate at Home

You can make cold brew concentrate by simply adding the correct ratio of coarse coffee grounds to a bottle of purified water and allowing them to steep overnight. Then, you can strain the grounds out after at least 12 hours (but preferably 18) of steeping in the refrigerator. With this technique, you can craft some amazing cold brew concentrate at a fraction of what the store-bought stuff costs!

• Cold Water Steeping is Best

The best-tasting concentrated coffee is always made without heat, using a slow cold water steeping process. Just like with standard homemade cold brew, this overnight steeping gives you smoother flavors and less astringency. For concentrated coffee, you will need to use the correct water-to-coffee ratio as well, approximately a 1:5 coffee-to-water ratio. 

• Use a Glass Bottle and Filtered Water 

You also must have an airtight (preferably glass) storage container with a lid, and use quality Arabica coffee beans. Steeping your coarse grounds in filtered water is also smart, as it helps you avoid any strange chlorinated flavors. 

Understand Cold Brew Coffee-to-Water Ratios (Use a 1:5 Coffee-to-Water Ratio for Cold-Brew Concentrate)

Generally, the “golden ratio of coffee to water” lies between 1:12 and 1:16. That means for every 6 oz of water used, you will usually use about a tablespoon of coffee grounds. But that’s for HOT coffee. 

In contrast, with cold steeped concentrated coffee, you have to increase the coffee and water ratio substantially. This is because of the slow extraction and lower steeping temperatures. You’ll need to get your coffee-to-water ratio somewhere between 1:8 and 1:4. 

Smooth, straight cold brew coffee (the kind meant to be drunk “as is”  without ice, milk, or mixers) should be steeped at about a 1:8 - 1:6 coffee-to-water ratio. However, if you're going to be mixing your cold brew with other things like flavoring syrups, milk, powders, etc., it's best to brew cold-brew concentrate, using a 1:5 (one-part coffee to five-parts water) ratio. 

* Anything above a 1:4 ratio tends to just waste coffee grounds in the cold-steeping process. 

** Everyone's taste buds are different. you may have to experiment a little bit to get the perfect ratio. I like a one-part pure Arabica coffee to five-part water ratio, for my cold brew concentrate, steeped in the fridge for about 18 hours. 

Grind Size Is Another Factor to Consider (A Coarse French Press Grind is Your Best Bet)

Finally, before you start crafting cold brew concentrate, it can be helpful to understand how grind size comes into play. The size of your coffee grounds should be coarse, like a French Press grind. Similar to the consistency of Kosher salt. A nice French Press grind is highly recommended for any sort of cold brew coffee you will be steeping.

But why is this? Wouldn’t grinding coffee finer mean that you could make cold brew concentrate faster, or that it would come out stronger? Not really.

In fact, using a fine espresso grind for cold brew simply makes it harder to steep out the excess grounds later on. So, when it comes time to strain your concentrated coffee, save yourself some hassle and go with a nice coarse French Press grind. 

Why Pulling Bulk Espresso Shots Won’t Work for Concentrated Coffee (Unless You Have No Taste Buds)

Some may wonder, couldn't one simply craft a bunch of espresso at once and store it in the fridge? Unfortunately, no. Here’s the deal. You can’t craft cold-brew concentrate using heat, unless you really do not care at all what your coffee tastes like. The results you get from making bulk espresso and storing it in the fridge are, well, generally terrible. The crema separates, the oils go stale, and things get really acidic.

Making bulk espresso (or pots of extra-strength hot coffee) to store in the fridge for later just isn't a good idea. There are lots of reasons for this, and we won't get into them all here. All you need to know is that the oils and solvents in espresso aren’t well suited for cold storage. Have you ever noticed how a cup of coffee left out on the countertop to go cold tastes awful? It's the same principle here.

Best Homemade Concentrated Coffee Recipes

Now, let's go over a few of the best recipes for concentrated coffee. There are many different ways to make concentrated coffee at home. Different types of coffee beans and flavoring ingredients can be included as well, to make your concentrated coffee “pop”. Here are a few fun concentrated coffee recipe options to look into!

Standard Concentrated Coffee Recipe (Small-Batch)

Making concentrated coffee in small batches is smart, especially while you figure out your preferred coffee-to-water ratio. This is a traditional small-batch concentrated coffee recipe that can be prepared ahead of time and stored in a container with a lid such as a glass bottle for up to 4 days.

This recipe uses a 1:5 coffee-to-water ratio and would be a good option for road trips, pre-workout drinks, or other scenarios where you want coffee that can be concentrated to mix with milk, ice, or other ingredients on the go. 

Ingredients and Materials: 

• 1.5 Cups (About 24 Tbsp) of Grade AAA Arabica Coffee Ground Coarse (Like This Kind) 

• 24 oz of Purified Water 

• Coffee Grinder 

• Glass Container with a Lid 

• Filter / Sieve for Straining Grounds 

• Funnel

Instructions: 

1. Grind your coffee coarsely 

2. Fill a glass bottle with cold water 

3. Slowly dump in your coarse grounds and give everything a good shake

4. Allow the coffee mix to steep in the fridge for about 18 hours 

5. Strain the coffee grounds out and pour your concentrated coffee back into the glass bottle

6. Mix shots of your concentrated coffee with milk, ice, or other ingredients as you wish! This coffee is best when drunk within about 4 days of steeping, and should be stored in the refrigerator. 

Check Out This “Highlander White Russian” Cold Brew Concentrate Drink Recipe 

This drink is made with cold brew concentrate (cold brew coffee steeped at a 1:4 -1:5 coffee-to-water ratio). You simply craft a whole bottle of Highlander-Grogg flavored cold brew concentrate, and then pour some in a glass to mix it with ice and white chocolate powder. 

Flavored Concentrated Coffee Ideas

You can also make some pretty delicious flavored concentrated coffee! All you need to do is find a good retailer that sells 100% Arabica coffee beans that are infused with flavoring extracts during the roasting process. You can even find flavored whole-bean coffee or coarse-ground flavored coffee if you know where to look! For example, at www.onegreatcoffee.com there’s an extensive range of exclusive flavored Arabica coffee beans. You can click this link to see for yourself. 

More Concentrated Coffee / Cold Brew Concentrate Notes and Tips:

Here are a few more things that may be helpful to keep in mind as you learn to craft cold brew concentrate at home!

A Nice Coarse Grind Keeps Things Simpler 

Keep in mind that when you are making cold brew concentrate, you won't really get any additional extraction by grinding your coffee beans finer. you just end up with more trouble as you try to remove the grounds from your finished cold brew product. 

Using Too Much Coffee Isn’t Cost Effective

Moreover, there's no reason to increase the coffee-to-water ratio above 1 to 4. Anything above a 1:4 coffee-to-water ratio actually gives you reduced yield. This is because the coffee solvents can only be extracted to a certain limit. Going too high with your coffee ground ratio just wastes good coffee. After the steeping process in cold water ends, your actual cold brew concentrate yield will be about 50% of the final liquid beverage. The rest of the grounds and sludge get dumped out. 

To elaborate, in many commercial settings, about 2 and 1/2 lb of ground coffee will be mixed with 1 and 1/4 gallons of fresh water. The final result is about 1 and 1/4 gallons of ready-to-drink cold brew concentrate. The coffee grounds will swell and absorb water no matter what you do. This is why increasing the coffee ratio too much is pointless. The more you “super-concentrate” your coffee, the less cost-effective things get. 

Store Concentrated Coffee in the Fridge 

How you store concentrated coffee depends on the type of concentrated coffee you have. It's generally recommended to store concentrated coffee in the refrigerator to prevent the growth of bacteria or mold. This is true for opened bottles of concentrated coffee that you bought, or batches of concentrated coffee prepared at home.

However, unopened store-bought concentrated coffee can sometimes be stored in a cool, dark place, as long as you haven't broken the freshness seal. Most pre-made bottles of concentrated coffee will have storage and expiration date recommendations printed on them somewhere. 

Concentrated Coffee Is Best When Consumed Within a Week 

Concentrated coffee can last anywhere from 5 days in the fridge (if you make it at home) to 10 days after you open it (if it has preservatives. Some concentrated coffee products have emulsifiers and preservatives to extend their shelf life and thicken them. 

Cold Brew Concentrate Final Thoughts

Concentrated coffee can save busy people time, as they can prepare coffee drinks in just a few seconds using smooth, extra-strength shots of homemade cold brew! All this, without first needing to brew a whole pot of coffee, make single-serve coffee, or espresso.

Making your own concentrated coffee at home is not only easy but can save you a good bit of money. Once you get the hang of things, it’s an easy way to unlock delicious coffee drinks whenever you want them!