Summer Coffee
It’s going to be a long, hot summer. A cup of hot Hula Daddy coffee early in the morning is going to taste great, but later in the day you are going to want something cold. There are several cold coffee drinks using Hula Daddy coffee that taste good and are refreshing.
There are a number of ways to make cold coffee, each one creates different flavors. Pick the one you like.
Traditional Ice Coffee
Use freshly made Hula Daddy Kona Coffee brewed stronger than normal by adding more grounds or less water. Don’t use old, brewed coffee, coffee does not age well. Oxygen eats up the flavor of coffee. If you grind coffee in the morning, within a few hours it will have lost most of its flavor.
Use Kona Coffee ice cubes. When you have fresh coffee left over, pour it while it is still fresh into an ice tray and freeze it. Then put the cubes into a plastic freezer bag. Pour over the brewed Kona Coffee over the ice cubes. Ice coffee often gets weak and sour as the ice cubes melt. However, with coffee ice cube the coffee doesn’t get weaker.
Do not pour hot coffee into an ordinary glass as it may break. Another alternative is to pour the coffee into a closed container and shake the hot coffee with the coffee ice cubes. A metal cocktail shaker is perfect.
You can drink ice coffee black or with cream and sugar. It depends on what taste you want. Cream and sugar will block any subtle nuances in the Kona Coffee, but it is still a refreshing summer drink.
Cold Brew Coffee
Cold Brew Coffee uses an immersion style of brewing. Cold water and ground coffee are mixed, allowed to steep for hours or days and then the grounds are filtered out. The resulting brew is very strong, so it must be cut with either hot or cold water.
Cold Brew coffee is popular because it is less acidic and has a smoother mouth feel than hot brewed coffee. It is also convenient since it can be stored in the refrigerator and then served either hot or cold. The downside is that it has higher caffeine and less flavor than the same coffee hot brewed.
Once you make the cold brew liquor it can be stored in the refrigerator ready for a quick ice coffee. Cold Brew coffee can be stored in the refrigerator for a long time. So, you can’t make too much.
There are commercial cold brewers on the market ranging from a few dollars to thousands of dollars. However, you can brew using ordinary kitchen items. All you need is a grinder, a container and some kind of filter. A French press will work for small amounts.
Place medium-coarse ground coffee in a container and add four ounces of water for every ounce of coffee. Stir and seal. Let the mixture sit on the shelf or in the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours. Then decant the mixture through a filter into a carafe. Keep the brew in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.
Once you have the extract the rest is easy. Pour extract over ice in a glass. Pour an equal amount of cold water into the glass and enjoy. If you want to add cream just substitute for some of the water. Add sugar to taste.
Cold brew can be made with DIY materials, or you can buy cold coffee brewers.
If you want to DIY coarse grind your coffee and add it to a jar or pitcher. (french press will work too). Then add cold water on a ratio of one gram of coffee to 8 grams of water. Leave the jar in the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours. The longer the stronger and the more acid. If you used a french press push the plunger and decant. If you used a jar or pitcher pour the slurry into a brew basket with a filter. You can also use cheese cloth. Repeat if you want less solids in the coffee.
If you made enough for one cup, add hot or cold water to dilute and enjoy. If you make more, you can store it in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks. If you don’t want to DIY, there are Cold Coffee Brewers available on the market.
Cold Drip Coffee
Cold drip coffee is made with three vessels. The top vessel contains cold water. In some techniques the top vessel contains ice which is allowed to melt. Dripping the coffee directly onto the ice slows down oxidation and increases the flavor.
The second vessel contains ground coffee. The cold water is allowed to drip though the ground coffee and exits through a filter into the bottom vessel. This can take anywhere from 1 to 24 hours. Cold drip coffee is usually served over ice like an espresso-shot.
Cold drip coffee is almost acid free with a creamy, thick body. It is excellent when made with light roasted flavorful coffees.
Cold drip coffee requires a drip tower. Drip towers are available starting at around $60. More elaborate towers with hand blown glass can cost up to $10,000
Once you have a drip tower you can use the following recipe. Grind 1 gram of coffee for every 10 grams of water or ice. Use a normal pour over drip grind. Load the ground coffee in the second vessel and the ice/water in the top. Set the drip to about 1 drip per second. Check the drip about every two hours until all of the water is gone.
You can store Cold Drip coffee in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
Stay Cool
Hula Daddy Kona Coffee LLC is a boutique farm in Kona, Hawaii that grows, processes and roasts its own current crop coffee beans. We grow 7 different varieties of coffee and process them using 4 different methods. We roast date every bag of our coffee.
In 2019, Hula Daddy won First, Fourth and Fifth place in the Kona Coffee Competition. In 2018, Forbes Magazine picked Hula Daddy as one of the Top 12 Coffee Roasters in the United States and the only one that grows its own coffee. Also in 2018, Coffee Review selected Hula Daddy out of the thousands of coffees it tastes every year as the Number 1 Coffee of 2018. In 2017, we came in Second in the Hawaii Cupping Competition and in the Kona Coffee Cupping Competition. In 2017, Laura’s Reserve SL-28 received 97 points from Coffee Review and was Number 2 in the Top Coffees of 2017. In December 2016, Coffee Review rated our Laura’s Reserve SL-28 as Number 3 in the Top Coffees of 2016.
