Source:Best Coffee > News Author:qjroot Published:2025-12-21 12:46:10

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The 4 common types of iced coffee we encounter are iced americano, iced pour-over, cold brew and iced drip coffee. Some friends may not be very familiar with these 4 types of iced coffee, so FrontStreet has tried to explain their characteristics and differences from several aspects.
From the perspective of extraction methods, both iced americano and iced pour-over coffee are made by rapidly cooling freshly brewed hot coffee with ice; cold brew and iced drip coffee are extracted using cold water throughout the entire process.

An iced americano is made by extracting espresso with an espresso machine, then adding an appropriate amount of ice water to cool and dilute the coffee. Iced americano recipe: grind 20g of FrontStreet specialty espresso blend coffee powder, extract 40g of coffee liquid at a 1:2 coffee-to-water ratio in 25-33 seconds, prepare a 300ml glass, add 90g of ice cubes and 180g of drinking water, then pour in the extracted espresso, stir and it is ready to drink.

An iced americano made with Qianjie specialty espresso blend beans greets you with a rich coffee aroma the moment it touches your lips; the flavors of chocolate, nuts and caramel come with the smoothness of cream, icy yet full-bodied, extremely satisfying to drink in summer.
Iced hand brew is made by first brewing hot coffee in the pour-over style (slightly stronger than a normal serving), then adding ice cubes to cool and dilute it; the detailed method is as follows. Here Qianjie takes medium-light roasted Qianjie Guodingding as an example, using the high-concentration, high-extraction iced brew parameters as follows:

Dose: 15 g
10x hot water: 150 g
5x ice: 75 g
Water temperature: 92°C
Grind size: 83% passing a No. 20 sieve (EK43s setting 9, C40 setting 22)
Dripper: Hario V60
Method: three-pour

First, put 75g of ice cubes into the server, then pour 15g of ground coffee into the dripper and gently tap it level. For the first pour, use a slow stream of 3ml/s to pour 30g of hot water in small circles from the center outward, and let it bloom for 30 seconds; after 30 seconds, pour the second stage of 60g of water in the same manner, taking care not to raise the water level too high, which easily causes under-extraction; when the coffee liquid is about to run dry, pour in all of the remaining 60g of hot water at a flow rate of 3ml/s, making sure the extraction time falls within 1 minute 50 seconds to 2 minutes.

Cold brew coffee is made by steeping ground coffee in cold water, usually for a relatively long time, then filtering out the grounds before drinking. The method is as follows.

To make cold brew coffee, use 60g of Qianjie Strawberry Candy coffee beans, then use a 1L cold brew pitcher, and grind to the size of fine granulated sugar (80% passing through a China No. 20 standard test sieve); the specific coarseness is as follows. Next, pour the ground coffee into the pitcher, add 600g of drinking water at a 1:10 coffee-to-water ratio, find a long spoon and stir evenly, then seal it and place it in the refrigerator to chill for 8 to 12 hours. Once steeping is complete, take out the cold brew pitcher, stir it thoroughly again with a spoon, then pour it into a filter paper to remove the grounds until all the coffee liquid has been filtered clean, and the cold brew is finished.

Cold drip coffee is made by using ice water to drip drop by drop into the coffee grounds to extract the coffee liquid. The production time is generally relatively long, and the drip-filtered coffee liquid needs to be refrigerated before drinking. The specific production method is as follows:

The flow rate is the same as that of pour-over, but the flow rate of cold drip is calculated by the number of drops per second. The slower the flow rate, the longer the total time required, and over-extraction is also more likely to occur. Qianjie generally uses 7 drops per 10 seconds for extraction, and each person can adjust the flow rate according to their own preference. The coffee-to-water ratio is 1:10. Because Qianjie's cold drip coffee is diluted with ice cubes before drinking, a higher concentration is used. If making it at home, 1:12-1:14 can be used for extraction. Qianjie makes cold drip by grinding 60g of coffee beans into powder, placing a round filter paper in the powder cup, pouring in the coffee grounds, and finally laying another filter paper on the surface, then wetting the coffee grounds with water, which can save drip time and avoid uneven extraction. Fill the upper pot with an ice-water mixture, that is, ice and water at 1:1, extracting a total of 600g of coffee liquid.

The espresso machine needed for iced Americano and the equipment needed for ice drip coffee are somewhat more expensive.



Iced pour-over coffee is characterized by a clean and refreshing mouthfeel; it easily highlights the main flavors of the coffee beans, and the liquid is clear and bright.

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