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For Dan Yee and Shoji Sasa of Artificer

Specialty Coffee Bar & Roastery in

Sydney’s Surry Hills, cold coffee

appreciation has come a long way.

Yee started bottling brews back in 2012,

and now, in peak season, the coffee trade

in their café hits nearly 50-50 hot to cold.

You may have had an espresso topped

up with cold milk – and Yee and Sasa

pour plenty of iced lattes – but for coffee

that starts and ends cold, that’s lighter

and more subtle than coffee made hot,

there are two main techniques: cold brew

or cold drip.

“Cold brew is an immersion method,”

says Yee. “Think of a big, cold tea bag.

With cold drip, water drops over a bed of

coffee, and works its way through a filter.”

Both versions are black and have their

fans, but Yee’s preference is for brew. “It’s

really measurable, really repeatable,” he

says, and doesn’t suffer from oxidisation.

It’s also a reliable home method. “It’s as

simple as getting a plunger, chucking

ground coffee in it, adding water, and

leaving it overnight in the fridge.”

Dedicated fans could invest in a

Toddy Cold Brew System – a scaled-down

version of what Yee and Sasa use at

Artificer – or even try brewing cold

in an AeroPress.

They tweak the ratio of coffee to water

according to the beans and taste the brew

as it steeps, bottling up when it hits the

sweet spot. Takeaway bottles are popular,

with Small Print in Perth and Blackstar in

Brisbane just two of many cafés bottling

their own cold coffee. But since cold

coffee is more relaxed than regular joe,

the fun doesn’t stop with twist tops:

Melbourne’s Industry Beans adds cold

drip to a bubble tea-style base, and

Mr Black has just added an amaro to its

cold-brew coffee liqueur line.

It’s all about refreshment after all.

Standard cold brew or drip may be a bit

watery to add milk to, for instance, but

it’s not unheard of – and if you’re playing

at home, you could always brew on the

strong side to compensate.

“You’re ordering cold coffee for a

reason: you want it to be quenchable,”

says Yee. “Just make it nice and cold and

smashable. That’s what we aim for.”

Artificer, 547 Bourke St, Surry Hills, NSW,

artificercoffee.comDAVID MATTHEWS

The cold truth

The taste for cold-brew coffee

shows no sign of waning – if you

haven’t joined in yet, summer’s

the time to give it a shot.

TREND

Pie design

Goodbye freakshakes, hello #PieArt.

Seattle resident Lauren Ko is behind

@lokokitchen, a pie-only Instagram

account that after only 27 posts had

83,000 followers (and counting).

The intricately spliced pies, with

dizzying braided crusts and cut-outs,

are works of pure pastry art.

Meet your next carry-on essential. The

Alpine+Sea Skin Waters are made with

ingredients sourced from family-owned

organic and biodynamic farms around

Australia. The Jet Lag mist has fragonia

for balance, ylang ylang for energy and

aloe vera and rose water for hydration;

$32 for 100ml. alpineandsea.com

To celebrate his new

cookbook, Hong Kong

Food City, Tony Tan will

host a three-course

dinner at Paper Bird in

Sydney on 29 January.

Tickets are $105 and

include a glass of wine

and copy of the book.

Call (02) 9326 9399

for reservations.

Artificer’s Cold

Brew Coffee,

$5 for 200ml.

Lokokitchen’s quince,

apple and cherry pie.

18 GOURMET TRAVELLER