Most of us claim to friends and family on social media and elsewhere that we can’t make it through the morning or day without our cup of coffee.
Since coffee has always been an integral part of our lifestyle, it has recently evolved significantly, especially with Dunkin Donuts and
Now, many are now turning from traditional hot or iced coffee to cold brew.
If you haven’t already tried it, you may wonder about cold brew coffee benefits and if you should be drinking this delicious beverage yourself.
COLD BREW COFFEE BENEFITS: A RUNDOWN
The cold brew process uses coarse ground coffee beans and steeps them in cold or room-temperature water for up to 48 hours, though some people prefer it to be steeped no more than 24 hours.
Once the steeping process is complete, the grounds are filtered out to leave you with a coffee concentrate that is powerful. Since it can taste a bit too bitter, you should dilute it with cream or water before drinking it.
The cold brew coffee trend continues to become more popular because many people claim it tastes better than traditional hot-brew coffee. However, it offers a lot of benefits over the hot-brewed version, including:
1. LESS ACIDIC
One of the best cold brew coffee benefits is that there is less acid produced with the cold brew method than with hot brewed coffee.
The heating process allows more of the coffee bean oil to be released, which doesn’t happen to such an extent with the cold brew steep method.
Therefore, if you experience heartburn, acid reflux, and other gastrointestinal issues when drinking coffee, you may have fewer problems with cold brew versions.
Plus, cold brew is much smoother than hot brewed coffee.
2. LOADED WITH ANTIOXIDANTS AND NUTRIENTS
Coffee beans have antioxidants and many other nutrients that the body needs to function correctly.
Since cold brew varieties don’t use heat to make the coffee, less chlorogenic acid is extracted, which is an antioxidant that the body uses to combat aging and disease.Cold brew, coffee has a variety of anti-aging effects because it is rich in antioxidants, which aid in fighting free radicals.
Antioxidants protect your skin from the sun’s UV rays, harmful chemicals in the air, and ensure that your skin is moisturized and supple, all of which help you look more youthful.
While all caffeine-rich products have these chemicals, coffee has more of them. The cold brew coffee concentrate has even more of the brew, coffee
3. HELPS PREVENT DISEASE
Experts say that drinking coffee regularly can reduce your risk of developing many chronic diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, Type II diabetes, heart disease, and other conditions that affect the nervous system.
Most scientists conclude that the minerals and antioxidants in coffee are primarily responsible for the positive effects. It is also claimed that drinking coffee can reduce your risk of depression and improve brain function.
4. NO EXTRAS
Cold brew coffee is sweeter nature than hot brewed coffee because it’s less acidic. Therefore, you may not need to use sugar or cream, which can reduce your caloric intake.
Likewise, you may not need to use artificial sweeteners, which can have chemicals that are harmful to the body, reducing the number of toxins you put into your body each day.
5. CHOLESTEROL LEVEL IMPROVEMENT
Unfiltered coffee (which is how cold brew coffee is made) can reduce the amount of LDL cholesterol that is produced. LDL cholesterol is the bad cholesterol that builds up in the vessels, which can decrease blood flow and narrow the blood vessels.
5. MORE CAFFEINE
In the longer steeping process, the cold brew coffee-to-water ratio ranges from 1:7 to 1:12 as compared with the drip coffee ratio ranging from 1:17 to 1:20. That signals there is more caffeine per cup in cold brew coffee extraction than a standard pour over.
Before you decide that you should never drink cold brew coffee, you should remember that it is a concentrate, which is diluted with cream, milk, or water, thereby reducing the caffeine concentration.
Along with such, the amount of caffeine you consume in a cup depends on the coffee beans you used, the steep time for the coffee, and how much other liquid you use to dilute your brew.
Did You Know? A typical 16-ounce cup of cold brew from Starbucks contains about 200 mg of caffeine.
However, the same 16 ounces of the hot brew gives you anywhere between 260 and 375mg of caffeine, depending on the other variables and type of bean used.
Therefore, the cold brew coffee is full of caffeine, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is too much. If you use coffee to sharpen your mental skills, one cup of cold brew is all you need to sharpen the brain and help you stay focused.
6. EASE OF PREPARATION
Cold brew coffee is easy to make, and it doesn’t require fancy equipment, though most people do use a French press, some go for a mason jar and coffee sock filters. However you choose, you just need plain, room-temperature water, coarse-ground coffee beans, and time.
Speaking of which, it does take time to prepare because it must steep for up to 48 hours in a refrigerator or no more than 24 hours at room temperature for you to get a large amount of coffee concentrate.
The concentrated coffee can last two weeks in the refrigerator, so you’re making a lot of product once to store and use throughout the next couple weeks.
7. AIDS IN WEIGHT LOSS
While you’ve already learned that you can cut calories (coffee is a calorie-free beverage by nature), you can also lose weight by drinking cold brew coffee.
It has a higher caffeine content, which means you can drink a cup of the cold brew coffee after your workout, which increases the after-burn effect.
The after-burn effect is a phase that describes your body’s ability to burn calories, even if you’re finished exercising for the day.
While regular coffee also helps with the after-burn effect, you can burn more fat by increasing your caffeine intake. Along with such, you can choose to drink the coffee before your workout, which can help increase your energy so that you can work out harder and longer.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The benefits of cold brew coffee are plentiful. If you’re on the fence about trying a new coffee style, it might be prudent to go ahead and give it a try.
It can take some getting used to, but you’re sure to enjoy all the health benefits.