Iced coffee takes a back seat to cold brew

ISeattle

WE are too fancy for iced coffee anymore. Now we drink cold brew, the magical caffeinated elixir that is suddenly everywhere, from your fussy, independent coffeeshop to the most proletarian of Dunkin' Donuts. It's the drink of young people. It's the drink of summer."It's iced coffee taken seriously, rather than iced coffee as an afterthought," said Peter Giuliano, senior director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America.

If only everyone who was ordering it actually knew what it is."It's like when people ask for a Kleenex when they want a tissue," said Josh Brodey, a manager at Slipstream, a Washington coffeeshop. "The word's just floating around. I think about 50 per cent of our customers that use the words 'cold brew' don't think of it any differently than iced coffee." But it is different. A traditional iced coffee is made with hot-brewed coffee that has been cooled down. But cold brew is steeped in room-temperature or chilled water, allowing the coffee to slowly infuse over time. Fans say the method results in a mellower, less acidic coffee. People who get heartburn from coffee tend to find cold brew a little easier to digest.