Cold Brew at The Underdog
It was a hot day, on my way to Athens Agora, I decided on a small detour to try a cold brew at The Underdog, one of my favourite coffee shops in Athens.
What a difference a day makes. Yesterday quiet, or at least relatively so.
Today, as I walked up the stairs, hit by a wall of sound.
Yesterday, not very busy, today packed. I was lucky to find a seat.
What The Underdog are serving as cold brew coffee is not.
Cold brew is coffee brewed in cold water, either immersed in cold water for several hours or a cold drip tower, where cold water is dripped on coffee, one drip of water once a second. Either method takes several hours to produce the cold brew. It is then stored in a fridge, served cold with ice.
Japanese iced coffee, is a V60, Chemex or similar, where ice is placed in a carafe, the coffee instantly chilled served with ice.
What The Underdog are brewing is neither of these methods. Coffee is made in a Chemex, poured into bottles, then stored in a fridge. In essence hot filter coffee rapidly cooled.
Note: I was wrong. What I thought I observed is not what was happening. I thought, brewed in Chemex, then store in the fridge. I was wrong. Immersion, the Chemex simply used as a carafe before being decanted into bottles. Served from the bottles which are stored in a fridge.
Note: I have subsequently learnt, how I originally stated was brewed was correct, or maybe they keep changing the method. I asked why. Greater consistency of the brew than able to achieve with cold brew.
How was it served?
I was brought a bottle of iced cold water. Then a bottle of cold brew with a glass and within the glass an ice cube, a very large ice cube.
Note: Ice cube singular, one ice cube only. One ice cube that was maybe two centimetres across.
It had a white frosted surface. I queried this.
Was it stored in a freezer at minus 22 C? They said yes, but not so low a temperature. They said the appearance was due to the special water they used.
I can see that one large ice cube will melt much slower, also if at a low temperature. This has the big advantage of cooling the cold brew, or at least keeping cool, without diluting the cold brew. Quite clever.
