Coffee Cold-Brewed in Coconut Water

These days I’ve been loving coconut water. It’s so refreshing during these hot Atlanta summer days. One day while sipping on this glorious liquid, I thought to myself, “Hmm…what if I combine coconut water and coffee in some way?” Here we are, my friends. Coffee cold-brewed in coconut water.

My intuition tells me this will be disastrous, but it is worth a fair shot. I like to do cold brews at double the concentration of standard hot drip. I do pour overs at 19g of coffee per 300g of water, so for this I’ll do 38g of coffee for 600g of coconut water. One bottle of coconut water yielded merely 518g of coconut water for me. Oh no! But no worries, it was time to finally put my mathematics degree to good use.

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Exciting, right?! This is getting scientific.

I used some fairly old beans from Toby’s Estate based in Brooklyn. I bought their single-origin Panama back in November, but cold-brewing with old beans has given me solid results in the past. Let’s see!

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I gave this a nice mix and let it steep in my fridge for 21 hours. Then filter through Chemex.

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What a lovely reddish color! Coconut water is naturally translucent, so this is an interesting consequence. But it’s time, the taste test!

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DISASTER. My intuition served me well here. Oh boy, this tastes just awful. It is harshly acidic on the tip of the tongue, and the finish leaves such an unpleasant taste in my mouth. I didn’t expect the interaction to turn out quite this badly. But, at least now I know this is not a good idea. Back to the drawing board.

Day 38 – 100 Happy Days

No better start to FriYAY than some morning brewin’. On my drive back from Indy, I stopped by a shop in Cincinnati called Collective Espresso and bought beans sourced from Sweet Bloom out of Denver. This coffee. Unbelievable. Hands down one of the best pours I’ve ever made, just wow. I’ve explored a lot of the specialty coffee heavyweight names like Intelligentsia, La Colombe, and Blue Bottle, but I think I ought to seek out these smaller roasters like Sweet Bloom. Sooo good!

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Day 37 – 100 Happy Days

It’s all about getting one for The Land. I love Steph, Ayesha, Riley, and Ryan as much as everyone else, but I think it’s about time LeBron pulls through for Cleveland. After a long, lackadaisical day at work, nothing beats kicking it at home and watching playoff basketball.

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Day 36 – 100 Happy Days

I’ve heard many people rave about a book that preaches to “never have lunch alone”. A solo lunch is sometimes the most blissful thing during my day. Some days you just don’t want to deal with people. An IDFWU type of mood. What’s wrong with that? Right now it’s just me, coconut water, and the fresh air. It’s relaxing, it’s therapeutic.
Speaking of coconut water, I’m planning a little experiment tonight: coffee cold brewed in coconut water. My intuition tells me this will be disastrous. Expect a post in the coming days!

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Day 35 – 100 Happy Days

Driving back to Atlanta today, but I’m taking a different route. Hopped eastward to Cincinnati and planning to head straight down 75 to Atlanta. I found this awesome shop in Cincinnati called Collective Espresso. Can’t remember the last time I had a solid shot of straight espresso. Just perfect.

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Day 34 – 100 Happy Days

Home court. This is the neighborhood tennis court in my hometown. Brownsburg, Indiana. My brother and I played so many times at this court when he was in college and I was in middle school. Life has changed immensely since, and now we revisit this court today with his babies running behind us. What a time to be alive.

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Day 33 – 100 Happy Days

I’m out grocery shopping with my mom and we saw baby clothes and of course had to pick something out for our dearest Mimi. I’m glad to see my mom back on her feet and active again. When I was last in Indy about three months ago, she underwent intense back surgery and stayed in the hospital for over a week. I stayed there with her each night, thankfully because I was in between jobs at the time. Right when she got back home from the hospital, I had to fly back to Atlanta to start my new gig. At the time she was wearing a neck brace and couldn’t walk at all. But she’s a true warrior, nothing can stop her. Just look at her today, happy and mobile as ever.

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Day 30 – 100 Happy Days

Back at it after a week hiatus of posts. It’s been an interesting past few days. My vehicle registration expired and my car failed an emissions test. I’ll have to do a $1300 repair before retesting and then renewing registration. And sadly I’ve already been pulled over twice by cops for my expired tag. But alas, this is my week’s drama and I have to handle it. Thankfully I have family in the burbs who I can stay with during my car-less days. Merely 2 miles from the office, wow. Such a short commute makes the burbs kinda appealing.

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