Japanese Iced Coffee

Japanese iced coffee is pour-over coffee brewed hot, straight onto ice. You hold back part of the brewing water and put it in the carafe as ice instead. The hot coffee drips onto the ice and cools the moment it lands, and as the ice melts it brings the coffee to the right strength. It takes a few minutes, not the many hours cold brew needs, and it keeps the bright, aromatic side of the coffee. Here’s a proven recipe, why it works and where the name comes from.

The short version

• Pour-over brewed hot onto ice. Part of the water goes in the carafe as ice.
• A good recipe: 30 g coffee, 335 g water at about 93°C, 165 g ice, for one 16 oz glass (Counter Culture Coffee).
• Grind medium-fine and pour in stages, as for a hot pour-over.
• Ready in minutes, unlike cold brew.
• Also called flash brew.

How does Japanese iced coffee work?

For a hot pour-over, all the water goes through the coffee. For Japanese iced coffee, you swap part of that water for ice, and put the ice in the carafe under the brewer. You brew a stronger coffee with the hot water, and it drips straight onto the ice. Peter Giuliano, who popularised the method in the US, says the secret is brewing right onto the ice so the coffee is only hot for a second or less. The ice that melts makes up the water you held back.

What’s the recipe?

This is Counter Culture Coffee’s flash brew recipe, which makes one 16 oz iced coffee:

	Amount
Coffee	30 g, ground medium-fine
Hot water	335 g, at about 93°C (200°F)
Ice	165 g, in the carafe
Ratio	1:11 coffee to hot water, plus the ice

To scale it, keep the same proportions: about two parts hot water to one part ice by weight. AeroPress’s own Japanese-inspired iced coffee uses a similar split, 60% hot water to 40% ice.

What grind size should I use?

Medium-fine, as in Counter Culture’s recipe. Because you’re brewing with less hot water than usual, many recipes go a touch finer than for a hot pour-over. If it tastes sour and thin, grind finer; if it’s bitter or drains very slowly, go coarser.

How do you make Japanese iced coffee, step by step?

You’ll need a pour-over brewer such as a V60, a paper filter, a heatproof carafe, scales and a kettle.

1. Rinse the filter with hot water and pour that water away.
2. Put 165 g of ice in the carafe and stand the brewer on top.
3. Add 30 g of coffee, ground medium-fine.
4. Bloom: start a timer and pour 30 g of water at about 93°C to wet all the grounds.
5. At 30 seconds, pour in a slow circle to 100 g.
6. At 1 minute, once the level has dropped about a centimetre, pour to 200 g.
7. Keep going every 30 seconds, or each time it drops about a centimetre, until you reach 335 g. Let it drain.
8. Swirl the carafe, then pour over fresh ice.

If the ice has all melted before you serve, the fresh ice keeps it cold. If you’d rather it didn’t water down as it sits, you can use ice cubes made from coffee.

General guidance only. Take care pouring hot water, and use a carafe that can handle the change from hot to cold.

Japanese iced coffee vs cold brew

	Japanese iced coffee	Cold brew
Water	Hot, then cooled on ice	Cold or room temperature
Time	A few minutes	Many hours
Taste	Brighter, more aromatic	Smoother, mellower
Best for	A glass made fresh	A batch kept in the fridge

Giuliano, quoted in Imbibe, puts it this way: Japanese iced coffee has more pronounced citrus flavours and aromas, while cold brew is “all bass and no soprano”. Which you prefer is down to taste.

Where does Japanese iced coffee come from?

Iced coffee has been served in Japan’s coffeehouses since the Taishō period (1912–1926). The way this method reached the rest of the world is well documented:

• Peter Giuliano, later director of coffee at Counter Culture Coffee, writes that he went to Japan in the late 1990s and spent the next few years building a relationship with Hidetaka Hayashi of the Hayashi Coffee Institute in Tokyo, who taught him the method.
• In 2004 he adapted what he had learned to the equipment he had in North Carolina, and named it the Japanese iced coffee technique out of gratitude and respect for Mr Hayashi.
• He then championed it in the coffee press, including Imbibe and Fresh Cup, as a fresher alternative to cold brew, and the name spread from there.

Some retellings give earlier dates or say the method was invented in a particular Japanese café. I couldn’t find evidence for those, so treat them as legend.

Which brewer should I use?

• A V60 or another pour-over: the classic way, and what the recipe above is written for.
• An AeroPress: the immersion version, brewed hot onto ice.
• A larger pour-over brewer if you’re making several glasses; keep the same proportions.

More on the kit in the V60 dripper guide.

Japanese iced coffee vs other cold coffees

• Cold brew: steeped cold for hours; smoother and mellower.
• Iced AeroPress: the same brew-onto-ice idea with an AeroPress.
• Vietnamese iced coffee: strong phin coffee over ice, often with condensed milk.
• V60: the hot pour-over this method is built on.

Explore every cold coffee in the cold chapter.