With long, hot days like we’re lucky enough to be experiencing in the UK at the moment, cold-brewed coffee is a revelation.

Icing hot coffee, pah, old hat. Why? Acidity.

Although cold-brewed (aka cold-pressed) coffee takes much longer to make, the results are staggeringly different due to the lack of acidity and bitterness. The flavour of the coffee is king; clean, aromatic and fresh.

This gloriously refreshing and smooth caffeine hit is terribly simple to make at home, and can be kept in the fridge for up to a month. Now, there are fancy contraptions on the market and special ‘infusing jugs’ similar to a tea-tiers, but I just used a 2 litre plastic bottle.

Method:

Add 4tbsp of roughly ground coffee beans to 2 litres of cold water, leave it for 3 days and then filter. Enjoy with an ice cube or two!

The beans need to be coarsely ground so that you don’t end up with muddy coffee, and I’d recommend using a paper coffee filter to get it as clear as possible. You could always sieve out the grounds first to avoid clogging the filter. My experimentation to date has me concluding that although you can strain and drink it after 24 hours, the taste really improves after about 90 hours of steeping. I imagine it would be relatively hard to ever produce two batches exactly the same anyway.

Apparently cold-brew works well with milk and sugar should you be that way inclined, but I certainly haven’t tried it yet.