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Drink

Cold Tea or Coffee

A chilled beverage made by steeping ground coffee in water for at least 30 minutes, then straining it through cheesecloth or flannel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Coffee and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,339 recipes. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓

Cold Tea or Coffee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grind the unroasted coffee berries finely.

  2. Combine 1 tablespoon of ground coffee with 1 cup of water.

Steep and serve

  1. Let it sit for at least 30 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture through cheesecloth or flannel.

  3. Serve with cream if desired.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Unroasted coffee berries
Supply the coffee flavour that the cold water slowly draws out of the grounds.
Water
Acts as the solvent that slowly extracts flavour from the ground coffee without heat.

The step that matters

Let it sit for at least 30 minutes. Cold water extracts flavour much more slowly than hot water, so cutting the steeping time short leaves the brew weak and underdeveloped. Allow the full time before straining.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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