Cold Drip

The Kyoto tower: three chambers of glass, one valve, and hours of patience. Cold water and ice drip through the bed a drop at a time, and what collects at the bottom is a concentrate — sweeter and heavier than cold brew, and clean in a way immersion never quite is.

Overview

Ours 1:10·60 g·600 g·20 °C·Medium-coarse · 700–900 µm·5 h Make it yours

Brew with us

Cold Drip

Grinder

Grind Medium-coarse 700–900 µm

Ratio 1:

Dose g

Water g

Water temp °C

Total time 5 h

STEP 1 / 7 0:00 / 0:00

Notes

We set the rate with the bed already in and then do not touch it again — every adjustment mid-brew makes the top of the batch and the bottom of it two different drinks. What comes out is a concentrate; taste it before you dilute.

Weigh beans

Weigh out the beans — fresh, not pre-ground.

Grind

Grind medium-coarse.

Add the grounds

Level the bed in the middle chamber.

Fill the tower

Cold water and ice into the top bulb.

Set the drip rate

Open the valve to about one drop a second.

Drip

Let it drip four to six hours.

Enjoy

It is a concentrate — dilute to taste, or pour it over ice.

Behind every step

1Weigh beans
0:05

Weighing instead of scooping is the only way to repeat a brew — beans differ in density and roast, so a scoop of one is not a scoop of another. Fix the dose and every other variable finally means something.
2Grind
0:15

Cold DRIP is percolation, not immersion, which is why it grinds finer than a cold brew jar despite both being cold. Fine enough that a drop has something to extract from on its way past; coarse enough that the bed does not compact and stall somewhere in hour four.
3Add the grounds
0:10

Level matters more here than on any other brewer on this site. A drop a second has no force behind it at all, so it will find the lowest point of a sloped bed and run down that one channel for six hours while the rest of the coffee sits dry.
4Fill the tower
0:30

Cold water and ice, and the ice is not decoration: it keeps the reservoir cold across the hours this takes, and as it melts it slows the drip a little, which is closer to how the method is actually run than a fixed rate would be. Fill the bulb before you open the valve — topping it up mid-brew resets the rate you spent time setting.
5Set the drip rate
0:30

Set it with the chamber already loaded, and watch it for a full thirty seconds rather than trusting the first few drops — a valve that looks right for five seconds often is not. Then leave it: this is the only control the method has.
6Drip
300:00

Four to six hours, and the only correct thing to do is nothing. The bed stays cold and wet the whole time and extraction happens drop by drop rather than all at once, which is where the sweetness and the almost syrupy body come from — and why the result is a concentrate rather than a finished cup.
7Enjoy
0:10

Coffee keeps changing as it cools: aromatics fade, acidity sharpens and sweetness comes forward. Drink it soon after brewing, and taste it as it drops in temperature — that's how you learn what to adjust next time.

Fix it by taste

Rate first, grind second, and nothing else. Start at 60 g to 600 g with the valve near a drop a second and expect four to six hours. Watery? Slow the valve. Stalling? Coarsen. Do not change both, and do not change either halfway through — a tower adjusted at hour three makes the top of the batch and the bottom of it two different drinks.

Watery, thin concentrate

The valve ran too fast

Fix · Closer to one drop a second; a stream is not a drip
Stalls, chamber floods

Grind too fine, or the bed compacted

Fix · Coarsen a step and level the bed without pressing it
Uneven, one channel through the bed

The bed was sloped

Fix · Level it properly — a drop has no force to spread itself
First and last of the batch taste different

The rate was adjusted mid-brew

Fix · Set it once, before you walk away, and leave it

What you need

A tower, which is the whole cost of this method and the reason it stays a café thing. Nothing else is needed and nothing else helps. A cheap tower with a coarse valve is the one real trap: if it will not hold a drop a second, it will not make this drink.

Beans & roast

Medium roasts, and fruit-forward washed coffees do especially well — the slow cold extraction pulls sweetness forward and leaves acidity soft, which flatters something with fruit in it. Dark roasts turn heavy and ashy over six hours.

Variations to try

Longer and slower

A drop every two seconds over eight to twelve hours — sweeter still, and the classic café setting
Straight over ice

Skip diluting: pour the concentrate onto ice and let the melt do it
Aged

Rest the concentrate a day in the fridge; it rounds out noticeably

Cold Drip FAQ

What is the difference between cold drip and cold brew?

Cold brew is immersion — grounds sit in water for twelve to twenty-four hours. Cold drip is percolation — water passes through the bed once, a drop at a time, over four to six. Same temperature, completely different mechanism, and the drip is cleaner, sweeter and more concentrated for it.

How fast should it drip?

About one drop a second is the everyday setting, and cafés often run slower — a drop every two or three seconds over eight to twelve hours. Set it with the bed already loaded, watch it for thirty full seconds, and then do not touch it again.

Do I have to use ice?

Not strictly, but it helps twice over: it keeps the reservoir cold across a long brew, and as it melts it slows the drip slightly, which is closer to how the method is actually run than a fixed rate. Fill the bulb before opening the valve either way.