Don’t own a coffee maker but still want to enjoy a cup of fresh made coffee at home? This Turkish style cardamom cold-brewed coffee will definitely satisfy your craving for coffee.
Although it’s officially spring now, the weather was brisk when I dropped Leo off at his preschool today. I need coffee!
By the way, did you hear the news about coffee? I’m thrilled that most of it is good.
Last fall, my husband, Brad went through a major surgery. During his recovering, we heard that coffee can be beneficial to our health. As a former chemistry researcher, I dug down deep to find the original research paper. It states that:
“Higher consumption of total coffee (caffeinated and decaffeinated) was associated with a lower risk of total mortality.” Circulation. 2015;115.017341
If the terminology in this paper is more than you want to trudge through, here is a good blog post by a faculty from the Harvard Health Publications. It explains the beneficial effect of drinking coffee in a way that is easier to understand.
So, after studying the paper, I dusted off my old coffee maker to get it ready for a pot of freshly brewed coffee. We’ve been drinking coffee daily ever since.
Brad likes dark coffee while I like to add some natural flavors to it. I don’t like adding flavored syrup to my coffee at all. Mixing spices, such as cardamom, cinnamon or vanilla beans with ground coffee during the brewing process is the best way to intensify the flavors. So that means making a separate pot of coffee if I want to enjoy my flavored coffee. I found using a cold-brewed method works really well and is almost effortless.
When using the cold-brewed method, you definitely don’t want to overdo it. Here are a few tips that you’ll find helpful.
- Ground coffee beans: Use coarsely ground coffee (with or without spices). If the particles of ground coffee are a finer texture, the filtering process will be a little more difficult. The brewing time also needs to be shorter as well (see tip 2 below).
- Timing: Use cold water to brew for at least 12 hours but no longer than 15 hours at room temperature or refrigerated. The longer the ground coffee is infused in coffee, the stronger the flavor. However, it can give you some unpleasant bitterness if you brew it too long. Finer ground coffee has more surface area in contact with the water. The finer the ground coffee, the less time you need to brew it.
- Ratio: A good rule of thumb for making cold-brewed coffee is using 4 oz (by weight) of ground coffee to 4 cups of water. Measurements of coffee by weight instead of using “cups and tablespoons” are more accurate.
The cold-brewed method will give you a much more concentrated cold coffee. This gives you complete freedom to dilute with either water or creamer. I add a good quality coconut milk to this cardamom cold-brewed coffee to give a richer and creamer taste.
You can either warm your cup in the microwave oven or enjoy it with addition of some ice-cubes. Hang in there, I know warm weather is on its way. A glass of cardamom iced coffee sure will be fantastic.
- 5 cardamom pods
- 4 oz by weight coarsely ground coffee
- 4 cups water distilled or filtered preferred
- optional 1 cup coconut milk or other non-dairy milk if vegan option is desired
- optional pure stevia extract powder to taste
- Coarsely grind the cardamom pods in a coffee grinder. If you don’t have coffee grinder, you can use a pan with a heavy bottom to crush the pods on a cutting board.
- Combine cardamom pods, ground coffee, and water in a glass jar. Let the jar sit at room temperature or refrigerator for at least 12 hours but no longer than 15 hours.
- Filter the brewed cold coffee through a fine mesh-sieve, coffee filter or cheesecloth. Dilute with coconut milk or water to the concentration you prefer. Serve cold or hot.
Thanks for sharing an insightful article and recipe of cardamom cold brewed coffee.