On a hot summer day, getting an energy boost from your favorite chilled beverage is great. Chilled coffee won’t only refresh you but will also give you that treasured energy boost to get you through the day. With unique beverages popping up all over, what differentiates between cold brew coffee and iced coffee? You may be surprised, but each brew gives you unique benefits, and it all starts with how it’s made.
What changes the brewing process
Iced coffee is made the same way as hot coffee and then simply left to chill, whereas cold brewed coffee is never warmed up. It steeps in a chilled environment and uses time to extract the coffee benefits from the beans. The process is much more timely, taking over 12 hours to fully brew. Steeping your favorite coffee overnight will let you enjoy a delicious chilled coffee the next day.
What you get out of each coffee
Heating up coffee removes some of the caffeine and antioxidants found in the beans. While you’re still getting an energy boost in iced coffee, a coffee that’s cold brewed will give you double the caffeine since no heat goes into making it. That’s why you may feel even more energized when indulging in your favorite coffee that never felt heat.
What flavor profiles are present
Since iced coffee is just cooled-down coffee, the taste will pretty much mimic hot coffee. However, it will be a little more diluted because of the cooling process and ice that’s added. However, coffee that never has to cool produces a more robust, smoother and chocolatey taste. Because of the intense brewing process to make cold brewed coffee, all the flavors mesh together to create a unique flavor hot-brewed coffees don’t have.
While iced and cold seem pretty similar, in the coffee world, they couldn’t be more different. Whichever style of coffee you prefer has unique benefits that are exclusive to each brew.