We recently wrote about a new craze in the coffee world, bottled cold brew coffee. Today we ask, what are the benefits of cold brew coffee? The Washington Post wonders the same and poses the question, why you should be drinking more cold-brew coffee.

[T]he cold-brew process swaps piping hot water for room-temperature water, and requires grounds to steep for up to 24 hours.

What results is a batch of coffee – which can be served iced or heated – that’s much less bitter than coffee brewed the traditional way. According to a study conducted by Intertek in 2005, cold-brewed coffee contains about 65 percent less acidity than coffee brewed in hot water, making it a viable alternative for sensitive stomachs.

“When you brew with cold water over a longer period of time, you extract the fruity and chocolaty notes as well as the caffeine, but you don’t extract the bitter notes,” says Terry Darcy, co-founder of Confluence Coffee Co., a D.C.-based line of cold-brew coffees.

If you are prone to gastritis or esophageal reflux it is probably a good idea to try the benefits of cold brew coffee. Another issue is the antioxidants in coffee. Are they preserved or lost when you cold brew coffee.

Antioxidants

We have written about regular and organic coffee antioxidants. Antioxidants reduce the effects of free radicals and are the reasons for many of health benefits of coffee, such as a reduced incidence of Type II diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and various forms of cancer. Are antioxidants preserved in the cold brew method? It turns out that no one has done any research to find out!

Is It All about Taste?

If you are looking for a less bitter coffee, that is one of the benefits of cold brew. Of all people, Business Insider writes about how to make cold brew.

Because cold brew extracts different flavors than those found in hot coffee, it also tastes much smoother and richer.

“The more delicate fruity and floral flavors that make great coffees distinct from one another need heat to make it into your cup —cold water simply can’t dissolve them,” Sam Lewontin, an award-winning barista and KRUPS brand ambassador, told Business Insider in an email. “What it can dissolve are the things that we think of as tasting like ‘coffee’: chocolatey, nutty, and toasty flavors.”

The most popular part of cold brew seems to be the less acidic taste combined with the toasty flavors that we normally associate with coffee.

With Gas

The next extension of cold brew coffee is to add a little fizz. That makes nitro coffee, the latest iced coffee trend. Read what Refinery29 has to say.

If you see your barista serving fellow coffee drinkers what looks like pints of beer, don’t panic. You may not have had your morning Joe just yet, but you’re not seeing things – and your local coffee shop isn’t attempting to get everyone tipsy on a Monday morning. Nitro cold-brew iced coffee is, in fact, the latest rapidly growing coffee trend (not to be confused with last year’s bubbly iced coffee du jour, espresso tonic).

So, what exactly is nitro cold-brew iced coffee? It’s regular cold-brew coffee, plus nitrogen, that is then pulled on a pressurized nitro tap (just like when you order beer on tap at a bar). The result is a bubbly coffee drink that has a head of foam, similar to a pint of brew.

Enjoy the flavor and the fizz if you like. And don’t forget that healthy organic coffee is best.