Brussels is burning. 35 degrees, a sky white with heat, one of the hottest summers ever recorded. All summer the sky wrote the recipe with fire — the same heat now demands something else. Cold brew at home isn't a summer compromise. It's the raw answer to wild weather: the same beans, a different law. No fire. Just time, cold water and patience.
Why cold brew at home, and not coffee over ice
They're two different things. Coffee over ice is hot espresso poured on cubes — it dilutes, it fades. Cold brew is a slow, cold extraction, 12 to 18 hours, where the water pulls only sweetness and body from the beans, leaving the acidity and bitterness outside.
The result: a round, sweet coffee with half the acidity of an espresso. The stomach feels it. The tongue forgives it. And at 35°C, it's the only one that makes sense.
The raw recipe, in five steps
No machine needed. A jar and a fine sieve are enough.
1. The grind — coarse as brown sugar
Cold brew forgives little. Grind too fine and you extract mud and bitterness. Grind coarse — the grain of raw sugar — and the water works clean. No grinder? Ask us to grind your beans for cold brew at the market.
2. The ratio — 1:8 for a concentrate
80 g of coffee to 640 ml of cold, filtered water. This is a concentrate you then stretch with water or milk, to taste. Want to drink it straight? Move toward 1:15.
3. Stir and let the sky wait
Pour the cold water slowly over the coffee, stir until everything is wet. Cover. 12 to 18 hours — in the fridge for more clarity and sweetness, on the counter for more intensity.
4. Filter
Pass through a fine sieve, then through a paper filter if you want total clarity. Don't squeeze the grounds — leave them.
5. Serve over ice
The concentrate keeps two weeks in the fridge. One part concentrate, two parts cold water or milk. Ice. That's all.
Which beans call for the cold
Not every coffee makes a good cold brew. Open-air roasted beans, with the weather written into them, behave differently in the cold. A medium roast releases caramel and chocolate, round and sweet. A lighter, floral one gives a cold brew almost like tea — vivid, fruity.
Our Ethiopia, with notes of red fruit, becomes a drink you don't forget when brewed cold. And if you don't know where to start, the Meteo Discovery Box gives you several origins to try cold. See everything we roast in the shop.
The same weather, a different cup
That's the whole idea of Meteo Koffie. The summer that turns fire-roasting wild is the same summer you tame in the cold, in your jar. Our Ethiopia proves it — hot or cold, the sky stays co-author.
We roast only on Saturday and Sunday, in the open air, at the Marché de l'Abattoir, exit of the Manufakture car park, Anderlecht. Come, grab a bag, make your Monday cold brew. Lots go fast — those who know, know.
Brut. Sauvage. Imprévisible.
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