Kyoto-style slow drip cold brew
Ice water drips through coffee about one drop per second for a few hours. Clean and sparkly.
⏱️ 300 minA little practice
Starting recipe
100 g coffee + 1000 g ice water (1:10), at about 1 drop per second, finished in 3–8 hours. Half batch: 50 g + 500 g.
Grind: Medium, like coarse sand
You need
- 100 g fresh coffee, ground medium (like coarse sand)
- 1000 g ice and cold water (about half ice, half water)
- A slow-drip tower with its valve and coffee chamber
- A paper filter disc for the top of the coffee bed
- A kitchen scale
- A clean bottle for storing
Step by step
Grind medium
Weigh 100 g of coffee (or 50 g for a half batch in a small tower) and grind medium, like coarse sand. Slow drip spends less time with the coffee than immersion, so it needs a finer grind than jar cold brew.
Prepare the coffee chamber
Fit the bottom filter into the coffee chamber, add the grounds, and tap gently to level the bed.
Pre-wet the grounds
Slowly pour a little cold water, about 50–100 g, evenly over the coffee so it's damp all the way through. Dry pockets make the drips run straight through without extracting.
Cap it with a paper filter
Place a wet paper filter disc on top of the coffee. It spreads each drop out so the water doesn't drill a hole in one spot.
Fill the top with ice water
Put the top vessel in place, close the valve and fill it with the rest of the ice and cold water, up to 1000 g in total including the pre-wet.
Set the drip rate
Open the valve slowly until you get about one drop per second (around 40–60 drops a minute). Count for 15 seconds to check.
The rate usually slows as the water level drops and the ice melts. Check and nudge the valve every 30–60 minutes.
15 sWait and check in
Let it drip. A full batch takes about 3–8 hours depending on the rate. Check back every half hour or so.
30:00Bottle and chill
When the dripping stops, bottle the coffee and keep it in the fridge. Enjoy it straight over ice, or dilute a little with water or milk.
Taste and adjust
Sour or thin? Grind finer or drip slower. Bitter or dry? Grind coarser or drip faster. Weak? Use more coffee next time.
Common mistakes
- Skipping the pre-wet, so the water channels through dry spots.
- Setting the drip once and never checking: it slows down as the water level drops.
- Opening the valve so far it streams instead of drips.
- Grinding extra coarse like jar cold brew: the water rushes through and the result tastes thin.
- Forgetting the paper disc on top, so drops dig a hole in the bed.
Tastes off? Fix it
| If it… | Try this |
|---|---|
| Sour or thin | Grind a little finer or slow the drip so the water spends longer in the coffee. |
| Bitter or dry | Grind a little coarser or speed the drip up a bit. |
| Weak | Use more coffee for the same water, for example 110 g instead of 100 g. |
| Too strong | Dilute when serving, or use a bit less coffee for the same water next time. |
| Drips stop or the coffee chamber floods | The grind is too fine or there are lots of fines. Grind a touch coarser and slow the drip rate. |
| Done in under 3 hours | The drip rate was too fast. Aim for about one drop per second and check it more often. |
Words you'll hear
- Steep
- Letting the coffee sit in water to extract. For cold brew that's many hours, not minutes.
- Immersion
- All the coffee sits in all the water at once, then you filter it out.
- Concentrate
- Extra-strong cold brew that you dilute with water, milk or ice before drinking.
- Ratio
- Water weight divided by coffee weight. 1:8 means 100 g of coffee to 800 g of water.
- Drip rate
- How fast drops fall in a slow-drip tower, usually counted in drops per second or per minute.
- Extraction
- How much flavor the water pulls from the grounds. Under-extracted tastes sour and thin; over-extracted tastes bitter, woody or dry.
- Bloom
- Pre-wetting the grounds with a little water first, so the rest of the water soaks in evenly instead of channeling.