Enjoy your summer coffee with homemade cold brew coffee! It’s super easy to do, need no special equipment, and you can store it in the fridge for longer too!
All you need is just some patience, grasshopper – and you get a smooth, Cinnamon Cold Brew Coffee without any of the acidity and bitterness of hot brewed coffee!
It’s not often that you come across life-changing experiences at a cafe, and even less often does it revolve around coffee, but that’s pretty much what happened to me the first time I drank cold brew coffee.
Wherever I go now, if cold brew coffee is on the menu, then by god, that’s what I’ll have.
And then I went and started making my own cold brew coffee at home and the rest as the say, is history. Hot or cold, summer, fall or winter, now I make cold brew coffee at home all the time.
I’ve already shared quite a few coffee and tea drinks on the blog. In my recipes for cookie butter cold brew coffee and cold brew mocha kit kat slam, I went into some detail about cold brew coffee and pairing it with cacao beans, so I’ll spare you guys the details this time. 🙂
As long as you have a little bit of patience, there’s really no reason not to make your own cold brew coffee at home, because it’s such a ridiculously easy thing to do that doesn’t require special equipment.
Which is another reason why I was really pumped to make flavored cold brew coffee this time with the new line of bakery-style coffees from Dunkin Donuts Bakery Series like the Cinnamon Roll Coffee, Vanilla Cupcake Coffee and Caramel Coffee Cake Coffee! The idea of cinnamon cold brew coffee really intrigued me.
I usually grind my own coffee to make cold brew so that I can keep it coarse. But not everyone’s able to grind their own coffee, or even wants to. Dunkin Donuts coffee that I use here is a pre-ground, medium-coarse coffee that’s actually perfect for drip coffee or your moka pot. However, with a couple of small adjustments, I made it work perfectly for cold brew coffee too! 🙂
Traditionally, cold brew is made with coarse ground coffee and then steeped in water for 12-24 hours. However, if you’re starting with pre-ground, medium-coarse coffee, then 8 hours of soaking is what works best. I have gone for as long as 12, but 8 hours hits the sweet spot for me.
While I was at the store, I couldn’t resist getting both cinnamon roll flavored coffee AND caramel coffee cake flavored coffee too! Then I closed my eyes and picked one to try first, and it turned out to be the cinnamon flavored one! 🙂
To enhance the subtle flavor (and the beautiful aroma) of cinnamon rolls in the coffee, I made a delicious brown sugar syrup infused with cinnamon to sweeten the Cold brew coffee as well.
As you know it is harder to dissolve sugar in cold brew coffee, so sugar syrup, or honey or liquid sweetener is the best option to sweeten the cold brew. The other advantage is that you don’t need to sweeten the cold brew much, because it doesn’t have the bitterness of hot brewed coffee!
I usually pair my coffee with half and half as creamer in my coffee, and this is especially true with flavored coffee. The creaminess of half and half enhances the flavor and texture of your coffee. Land O Lakes Half and Half is perfectly creamy and contributes to a very smooth, rich, creamy mouthfeel that makes your coffee that much more enjoyable!
It’s the perfect pairing. But with the plethora of flavored creamers that are now available, you can create endless combinations of flavored coffee drinks too.
Because cold brewed coffee has more flavor (and much less acidity and bitterness) compared to hot brewed coffee, pairing it with this cinnamon infused sugar syrup and creamy half and half will give you a truly indulgent cup of coffee!
And for something truly fancy, top it with a dollop of whipped cream and a sprinkling of cinnamon! 🙂
The flavors and aroma of cinnamon in this deliciously indulgent coffee drink are truly perfect for Fall. With those warming spices and a creamy and refreshing cup of coffee, you couldn’t have asked for a better start to your day!
Tips to make perfect cold brew coffee with pre-ground medium coarse coffee
Good quality coffee will have a big impact on the end result – this goes without saying.
For best results, use filtered water with no added chemicals or particulates. Tap water contains calcium and other particulate matter that’ll mess with the flavor and texture of your cold brew coffee. Using filtered or distilled water will obviously prevent that from happening.
Using a nut milk bag (see pictures) will make your life a lot easier, when your soaking your ground coffee. You can of course seep your coffee directly in water, but using a nut milk bag (or a big tea bag) means that you won’t be required to do too much filtering at the end of the process.
Make sure your coffee grounds are completely saturated with water. Cover the water soaked in coffee with plastic wrap or a cloth and store it somewhere cool (like the fridge).
I prefer using a glass container, but you can use a clean plastic container too. I just get paranoid thinking that the plastic might artificially flavor my coffee when it’s being infused like that for a number of hours. So far I have not been able to prove this either way, so it still remains nothing more than a paranoid thought in my head. 🙂
When you’re filtering the coffee at the end, don’t squeeze the coffee grounds too much. Just let it drip naturally and when all the liquid has drained naturally, gently press on it.
You can store the cold brewed coffee in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. Preferably in a glass container. 🙂
Why cold brew coffee?
- It’s so much easier than you’d think!
- The resulting cold brew isn’t bitter like its hot brewed counterpart, with a smoother, almost sweeter flavor and texture. This is because cold water doesn’t extract the bitter compounds of coffee as readily as hot water does.
- Because it has less bitterness, it requires less sweetener to sweeten your cup of coffee too!
- Cold brew coffee is also quite strong. So you have to dilute it with water or milk. My preference is half and half as I said before, because the fats and proteins in milk result in a very creamy, desirable mouthfeel in your cup of coffee.
- And for something different – add a few ice cubes and half and half in with your cold brewed coffee and blend it for a DELICIOUS frappuccino! Super creamy, frothy iced coffee, right at home! 🙂
What better way to start the day, right? Cafe-style Dunkin Donuts Coffee right at home! And maybe with a homemade doughnut or coffee doughnut(!) or blueberry muffin on the side? 🙂
You can check out the recipe for Affogato Sundae with mocha fudge sauce and crunchy coffee streusel here.
Recipe
Cinnamon Cold Brew Coffee
US based cup, teaspoon, tablespoon measurements. Weight measurements are recommended for accurate results whenever available.
Common Measurement ConversionsIngredients:
Cold Brew Coffee (yield – about 1.75 – 2L)
- 300 g coarse ground coffee
- 2.5 L distilled water
Cinnamon Sugar Syrup
- 200 g brown sugar 1 cup
- 240 mL of water 1 cup
- 3 sticks cinnamon
Cinnamon Cold Brew Coffee (per serving)
- 120 mL cold brewed coffee ½ cup
- 120 mL half and half ½ cup
- Cinnamon infused sugar syrup to taste
- Ice
- Whipped cream and ground cinnamon to serve
Instructions:
Cold Brew Coffee
- Transfer the ground coffee into a nut milk bag and place the bag in a glass container or jug.
- Pour the water cup by cup (over and right through the nut milk bag) to saturate the coffee grounds.
- Submerge the nut milk bag in the water and cover the glass container/jug with plastic wrap and keep it in a cool place or in the fridge.
- If you're not using a nut milk bag, place the coffee grounds directly in the container and drizzle the water over the coffee grounds in batches, stirring in between to make sure the coffee grounds are completely saturated with water. Cover and keep it in a cool place.
- Time it for 8 hours.
- After 8 hours, taste the coffee. It should be very strong, but not bitter. If you prefer even stronger coffee, steep the coffee for a further 2-4 hours.
- Strain the coffee grounds. If using a nut milk bag – place the bag over a strainer and let the liquid naturally drip down into the same container, and then gently press the coffee grounds to release extra liquid (do not squeeze too hard!). Discard the coffee grounds.
- If you are not using a nut milk bag – strain the coffee mix through a wide sieve to remove the larger grounds of coffee.
- To remove the smaller coffee grounds, place a fine sieve, or a coffee filter lined sieve over a container and filter the cold brew coffee in batches until all the coffee is filtered.
- Store the cold brew coffee covered in a glass jug/jar, in the fridge.
- Store for up to a week.
- Mix 50:50 of cold brew coffee with ice or milk to make yourself a cup of cold brew coffee!
Cinnamon Syrup
- Place the sugar, water and cinnamon sticks in a saucepan and heat over medium heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar and then let the syrup simmer for about 5-10 minutes until it’s slightly syruppy. Remove from the heat.
- Let the cinnamon sticks infuse while the sugar syrup cools down.
- Remove the cinnamon sticks and store the syrup in a jar, and use as needed.
Cinnamon Cold Brew Coffee
- Fill the glass halfway with cold brew coffee. Add some crushed ice, and pour in some half and half (approximately 2:1:1 ratio).
- Sweeten to taste with the cinnamon syrup.
- Top with whipped cream and ground cinnamon and serve.
Frappuccino
- Place the coffee, ice, half and half and sugar syrup in a blender. Blend until frothy and creamy and all the ice is crushed.
- Pour this into a mug and top with whipped cream and ground cinnamon and serve.
Nutrition Information:
“This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.”
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