Best Coffee for Cold Brew (To Try This Summer)

Cold brew is here to stay. It’s not a fad. It’s not even just a seasonal drink. Starbucks keeps a rotating seasonal flavored cold brew year round. I love making cold brew at home. It’s essential to know the best coffee for cold brew.

If you’re new to cold brewing your own at home, here are some pointers to get you started:

I’m sharing my top 5 picks for best coffee for cold brew and where to buy them.

1 – Stone Street Cold Brew Coffee

Stone Street cold brew is the only one on this list that I will encourage you to buy in the ground format. Stone Street Cold Brew Coffee is roasted and packaged specifically for cold brew applications.

The Columbian single origin beans are roasted to a smoky dark level to impart their natural nutty and chocolate notes. The beans are Columbian supremo, the largest and highest quality arabica beans from Columbia. The coffee has a deep rich flavor that is strong but smooth with a low acid finish.

I don’t usually suggest buying any coffee in a preground if you can avoid it. Preground coffee doesn’t have a long shelf life. Also, it limits the ways you can use the beans. Usually, preground coffee is too fine for cold brew.

Stone Street knows their coffee. They also know that you need an extra coarse ground coffee for cold brewing. The coarse ground coffee is ideal for cold brewing and takes the headache out of figuring out how coarse is coarse enough.

I’m a big proponent of also storing your coffee (especially ground coffee) in airtight containers, but Stone Street has tackled that problem too. The packaging of the coffee is a 3-layer natural kraft bag with foil lining and a one way valve that ensures ideal freshness.

They went one step further and made the top resealable opening wide enough to scoop out what you need and easily reseal for storage. This is beyond brilliant.

This coffee is ideal for people who are new to cold brewing. The roaster has removed 2 of the biggest pitfalls of brewing this unique coffee process.

You can buy a 1 pound bag of Stone Street Cold Brew Coffee on Amazon with free shipping for Prime members. If you like flavored cold brew coffee, check out their full line of flavors too.

2 – Stumptown Hair Bender

Hair Bender is my all-around favorite roast. I can’t get enough of Stumptown’s Hair Bender medium roast coffee. It’s so versatile. It’s one of the best coffees for cold brew that is easy to find. Stumptown takes care in the roasting of their beans. They can bring nuanced flavors out of their beans and make them available to almost everyone.

This coffee sing as cold brew. It’s also excellent as pour over and espresso brews. When I say it’s my favorite, I’m not kidding. This coffee is always on my shopping list, and I suggest new coffee drinkers buy it.

The Hair Bender blend is a medium roast coffee with citrusy chocolate notes that play well with cold brewing coffee. The beans’ low acid profile and low oil content do well with the cool water brewing process. Also, it scores well because of the roast level and is versatile enough to use in various brewing applications.

This is one of the few cold brew roasts that I don’t add a lot of flavoring to when making a glass. The flavors are really there, and adding too much almond or oat milk and sweetener squashes those natural flavors of Hair Bender.

You can buy a bag of whole bean Stumptown Hair Bender medium roast coffee on Amazon. Make sure to get the whole bean so you can grind it to the right consistency and use it for other brewing styles.

3 – Kicking Horse Smart Ass

Kicking Horse is an excellent brand. Their Smart Ass blend makes a killer cold brew coffee. The medium roast, whole bean coffee imparts a bright, crisp brew destined for cold brew coffee. It stands up so well to the extended brewing process.

The beans are ethically and environmentally sourced from Africa and Central and South America. Not only that, they have direct trade relationships with their coffee growers and are certified organic and fair trade.

This medium roast is big and more pronounced than most medium roast coffee. The flavor notes are tart red currant, sugar cane, milk chocolate with a honeyed berry body. This profile is a cold brew’s dream roast.

It goes well with a hint of agave and oat milk over ice. This summer, I can’t wait to brew some and enjoy a tall glass of Smart Ass cold brew. I would be interested to see how it does in a Japanese style iced coffee.

You can buy a bag of Kicking Horse Smart Ass medium roast whole bean coffee on Amazon with free shipping for all shoppers.

4 – Intelligentsia Frequency Blend

I just discovered Intelligentsia’s Frequency Blend. It’s a great beginner coffee that performs exceptionally well as a cold brew coffee. This world class roaster is also on my list as one of the best roasters in the US.

This easy drinking roast is a blend of beans from El Salvador that impart a pleasing flavor. The flavor profile is almonds, molasses, and milk chocolate with golden raisins and raw sugar notes. That is an ideal flavor characteristic for an excellent cold brew.

What’s unique about this blend is the flavors change slightly as the seasons change. You can taste nature’s impressions of this blend.

I would store these beans in their whole bean format in an airtight container and grind them on an as need basis to preserve this rich, complex flavor. I would also stick to the shorter brewing time of 18 hours (tops) for these beans, so you don’t lose any notes that make this coffee special.

You can buy a bag of Intelligentsia Frequency Blend on Amazon.

5 – Death Wish Orginal Dark Roast

If this is your first tie hearing about Death WIsh coffee, you need to start here.

All caught up? Good

If you’re looking for a high octane cold brew that will wake the dead, then Death Wish Coffee’s Original Dark Roast is the coffee for you. This coffee is said to be the strongest coffee in the world.

Is it the strongest in the world? Debatable, in my opinion.

But it is an excellent roast for cold brew coffee. The dark smokey beans are a blend of organic arabica and robusta varietals. This powerful coffee blend is relatively smooth and has a lower acid finish than most darker roasts. This lends itself well to a cold brewing process.

I would still follow the cold brew ratios like you would for any other time you’re making cold brew at home. Once you brew your first batch of Death Wish cold brew, you can start to play around with the ratios to first your palate.

I like Death Wish as a cold brew when I know I have a long day ahead of me. It’s easy to drink and keeps me focused on the task at hand. Be careful with this potent coffee. If you drink too much, you might vibrate out of your skin. That’s no fun for anyone. I’m kind of kidding.

You can buy a bag of whole bean Death Wish Orgincal Dark Roast Coffee on Amazon. While you’re there, check out the rest of their roasts. They also have some fantastic merch.

Conclusion

I hope you’re as pumped about making your next homemade cold brew as I am. There’s no reason to not change up your beans for cold brew just like you would for any other brewing process.

These5 roasts are the best coffee for cold brew in my opinion. Did I miss one that you love? Please drop a comment below.