I do kind of a semi cold brew, It only takes about 10 min soaking time. I start with water about 130 degrees and let it soak for about 10 minutes. It takes about 50% more coffee than I would use in my coffee maker.
Starbucks has a light roast option usually (Veranda or something like that is the usual) and I don’t find their house roast (Pike’s Place) as dark or bitter as it used to be before they switched to it (late 2000s/early 2010s)? I don’t know. They don’t have that “burnt” taste – at least to me – that they did before the switch. That said, I’m more happy with just a McCafe coffee or a Dunkin Donuts coffee.
I’m aware that Starbucks has quite a few more options than in the past, but the trend to sell super dark roasts was self reinforcing - sell a $2-3 cup of coffee or a $5-6 latte that costs twice as much for only a bit more expensive in materials? No brainer.
I won’t pay to go there, but since we own a good bit of Starbucks stock, I won’t complain either.
But if you’re trying to determine if coffee is worth trying again per the OP after bad experiences, considering the roast is probably a bigger deal than the brewing method.
I would tend to agree, though cold brew does cut back on bitterness and sourness. I buy light roasts myself for coffee I make at home. It’s a good question, though, whether any places have cold brew served warm. I missed the “hot” part in the OP’s question. I can’t think of any I’ve seen out in the wild.
I’ve never seen any either. In fact most coffee shops who offer it that I’ve seen do so from a chilled pitcher. But if you make it at home, or buy some at the grocer’s to use at home, it’s a snap to heat up to your desired temperature. And the less bitter/sour flavor persists when warm. It’s my preferred hot coffee also.
I tried some today. It was at Starbucks, not my first choice, but there weren’t any Peet’s around that neighborhood. I got a nitro cold brew because that was the only cold brew they had on offer that wasn’t loaded up with sugar and, I guess, cream. I didn’t have them put anything in it (it really annoys me that Starbucks where I live are hiding all the coffee additives behind the counter) because I wanted to see what it was like by itself. Anyway, the verdict: I’m undecided. It’s obviously still coffee, but it didn’t make me want to spit it out. So I tried to savor it and took a few swallows over half an hour or so. It has a little catch-in-my-throat aftertaste; the taste was strong (to my palate) but not noticeably bitter or acidic or sour. On trying it again just now after a couple of hours, the after-taste is strongest in my soft palate rather than in my throat, as I first thought.
One advantage of getting it served chilled (not really cold, no ice, just chilled) is that I don’t have to worry about drinking it before it goes cold. The worst that it will be is room temperature, which seems fine.
The taste does seem to overwhelm other tastes for a little while after drinking it. I guess that’s why people tend to drink it at the ends of their meals, at least if they are trying to enjoy the food. I am considering whether to put milk and sweetener in what I have left of my purchase ($6 for a grande size coffee does seem a little larcenous) to see how that is. And I expect I will try something from Peet’s the next time I am near one.
Peet’s does have a couple medium roasts, but in general they really focus on dark roasts. I like Peet’s for espresso with milk (latte, cappuccino), but much prefer other roasters that do lighter roasts when I’m drinking black coffee or straight espresso or macchiato (the real kind, not the Starbucks macchiato abomination).
If you are looking for something without so much bitterness, I also recommend trying a light roast (either cold brew or regular brewing methods) for comparison. The Coffee Movement in SF on Washington and Powell, or Balboa and 19th Ave, is often serving a few lighter roasts.
I make my own, because I don’t always have the time to make it in the morning and I like the taste better. It is less efficient than other methods but not that bad, 7 oz: 2 cups seems off. I’d estimate that 7 oz of grounds would get me about 5 cups of concentrate or 10 cups drinkable (specifically, I grind 100 grams and just pour water until it’s full, but that’s about 600 ml of water). If that math is right. I also can soak the grounds for a second round the next day and mix it for a big concentrate jar. This is all done in my French press with French press coarse grind.
Bit of an old thread, but probably better to add to this one than start a new one.
Thanks to a friend I was visiting recently, I discovered cold-brew coffee – a commercial version, not homemade. I was sufficiently impressed that I bought a carton later to have at home. According to the description, it’s brewed in cold water for some ridiculous amount of time like 12 or 24 hours.
The result is different from what I might have expected. I normally have my regular coffee with cream and sugar, and neither seems to really meld with the cold brew. OTOH, on its own it’s a deeply flavourful strong coffee that evokes espresso. I don’t like it cold, but my current preference is to heat it in the microwave in a small cup, more or less the kind of small cup that you’d serve espresso in. I normally hate plain black coffee but this stuff is unique, very flavourful and needs no enhancement, plus, it’s got so much caffeine that it delivers a powerful caffeine buzz from even a small cup. As they say on eBay, “will buy again”!
I’ve never seen it served hot anywhere. In fact, I first clicked on this thread because I was confused. I’ve only seen cold brew as an icy, hot weather treat.
What’s next? “Should I try hot ice cream?”
.
What?!?
That’s the whole point for me. I drank it down like medicine (with a LOT of milk) when I started teaching. Needed the caffeine to focus and stay awake. Took a while until I got to like it.
I’ve got a 2lt mason jar and filter I use to make my own at home. Two and a half cups of ground coffee in the filter, fill the jar with water, let sit out for 24 hours or so. You can experiment with different coffees (my wife currently likes a hazelnut thing from Costco). I find even the no name stuff from the grocery store makes a decent cup. This makes a concentrate that I water down about 1/2 coffee and 1/2 water. I heat in microwave if I want hot, I can put in a frosty mug with ice if I want cold.
I find that 1/3 of a glass of coffee, 1/3 of a glass of cream with a boat load of simple syrup makes a credible replacement for Tim’s iced capp.
I mean that while I am not averse to caffeinated beverages, I don’t really find cold coffee very refreshing, and it’s got much more of a caffeine kick than I’m looking for in a beverage I’d be drinking for refreshment.
Or, if you dare, hot tea?
It seems some people are assuming that if it’s brewed cold (room temperature), it should be served cold (on ice). But that’s not necessarily true, right? Iced coffee can be brewed hot or cold. Hot coffee can be brewed hot or cold.
Both excellent points. Some beverages can be served hot or cold, others are better one way or the other. Tea is especially versatile. It can be iced, hot, or even room temperature. For me, coffee needs to be hot, even the unique cold-brew stuff.
P.S.- the friend who introduced me to cold-brew coffee is the one I visited because his house was well within the path of totality of the last eclipse. For me, cold-brew coffee will always be associated with the Total Eclipse of the Sun! 
I look at cold brew in much the same way I look at sun tea - a longer, slower, less aggressive brewing option. IMHO, it tends to mellow out some of the bitterness that a hot brew extracts with the same quality of tea/coffee.
IE - I can use cheaper grounds (or as I said upthread, decaf which is generally quality compromised if you don’t spend quite a lot of $$$) or teabags and still get a pretty good beverage that might be too strong / bitter / off if I had done a hot brew.
But, just as with sun tea, you have to put more time and forethought into it. And it’s generally not worth the effort for either unless you’re doing a minimum of a say a liter at a time. Which (especially for coffee) means a lot of drinking, as it can take up funny flavors fast, something tea is less likely to do.
But yeah, we’re heading slowly towards summer, and I still plan on doing cold brew decaf for an after dinner drink, especially on the weekends. Preferences vary, but I’m a lot more likely to add some booze to a coffee drink than a tea drink, when making post-dinner relaxing adult beverage.
Well, if you are going to drink that awful. roasted dirt shit, you want to brew it first and then cool it down.
Because coffee is much worse when it is warm.
Maybe not. They are testing “soniced” coffee which could be the next best thing.
I think I need to buy some ground decaf and make some coldbrew for evenings, especially as the weather’s warming up.
Well then, apparently technology marches on. Although, one advantage to cold brew, much like a French press for hot coffee, is the very low barrier for entry. Even a dedicated cold brew pitcher like mine is sub-$20. And you can do a more than adequate job with any number of mesh balls/cheesecloth bag, a filter, and any spare non-reactive vessel you care to name.
Just popping in to close out this topic (for myself) – having tried a cup of commercial cold brewed coffee, served at room temperature, I am no longer interested in it. I got further than I would have with hot coffee, but I find that the taste of coffee overpowers everything else, and the taste stayed in my mouth for some time afterward (it seemed like hours, but maybe not), which I found unpleasant. So I reckon I’ll just stick with tea. Thanks for any suggestions, and of course please carry on with your own experiences etc.