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Newcastle Herald

National

Jade Lazarevic

Newcastle coffee retailers wake up to roasting their own cold brew

'TIS THE SEASON: Graeme Thrift, of Corner Lane in New Lambton. Picture: Simone De Peak

With the weather warming up, it's that time of year when it's tempting to switch from espresso to cold brew.

Cold brew is made by combining either whole beans or ground beans with water and then allowing it to brew - overnight, or a whole day - to slowly infuse and create a brew that changes the nature of the extracted flavours and reduces the bitterness of the coffee.

When it's ready to go, drink it as is, or add your choice of milk or sweetener, served over ice.

Corner Lane

At Corner Lane in New Lambton, order a house-blend cold brew at the shop or take home a bottle to stick in the fridge.

Using beans roasted by SMAK Coffee, the roasting company co-owned by Corner Lane's Graeme Thrift, their cold brew is available in 750ml bottles, but keep an eye out for their newly branded bottles set to be released under the label SMAK in the coming weeks which will be available in larger size glass growlers.

"We brew ours for a day, so it develops a beautiful, rich flavour and, because of the process of cold brew, it doesn't have that bitterness of regular coffee," Thrift says. "You can have it as is, with milk - I like it with soy - or mineral water, which is leaning more toward that nitro style. It's definitely the drink of summer."

Thrift points out that cold brew makes an excellent cocktail mixer too.

"In an espresso martini, it's bloody beautiful," Thrift says.

Here are five other places to get cold brew:

FRESH BEANS: Black Monty is roasted in Belmont.

Black Monty Roasters

Dylan Goodwin-Sharp began roasting coffee beans in 2016 as a hobby but, as word spread, it grew into a part-time business and Black Monty was born. He roasts his beans in Belmont, including the ones for his brand of bottled concentrate cold brew. "Some people just reuse their old roast to make cold brew, but I make sure I roast specially for it. So I'm using fresh beans - you get more flavour and sweetness that way," Goodwin-Sharp says. He recommends mixing one part cold brew to three parts water or milk (or drink it straight). Black Monty's cold brew is available by the bottle at Raw Energy at Honeysuckle, Sherwood Coffee Bar in Newcastle, and The Post Office Cafe in Marks Point. You can also find his cold brew at Newy Burger Co where it's sold by the bottle and used in their thick shakes.

Crema Coffee Garage

62 Broadmeadow Road, Broadmeadow Fancy equipment isn't a necessity when making cold brew at home (a jam jar or plunger will do the trick) but if you're serious about it, Crema Garage stock a big range of specialty equipment to set you up at home. "The most straight-forward piece of equipment for making it at home is the Toddy domestic brewer. You just pop your coffee and water in - we use a one part coffee to four parts water ratio - let it sit for eight to 10 hours, and then you've got your cold brew," Crema Coffee Garage's Shonavee Simpson says. If you want to leave the work to someone else, Crema's cafe has cold brew on tap or available in 500ml or one litre bottles. "We have at least one type of cold brew on tap with one of our own blends, usually Kingdom Road or Zanzibar, but occasionally we do also have a single origin cold brew on tap as well," Simpson says. "Kingdom Road is quite fruity and a little bit more sweet, while Zanzibar tends to be a little bit more robust and cocoa-y." You can also get Crema's cold brew on tap at The Barn in Adamstown.

Darks Coffee Roasters

Hunter Stadium, Turton Road, Broadmeadow The award-winning coffee roasters sell cold brew at their converted shipping container in Broadmeadow, but you can also get your hands on their own bottled version. "We brew ours as a concentrate, so that way you can drink it however you want it. If you want it sweetened, you can add syrup or sweetener. If you want to have it as a concentrate that you can either mix milk or water with to drink it as a white coffee or a black coffee, you can dilute it down or, for a real kick of coffee, you can drink it as a concentrate as well," Darks co-founder Trent Alder says. Available in 500ml and one litre bottles, Darks use their Colombian U47, which Alder says tastes great both black or mixed with milk. You can also pick up Darks cold brew at Mama P in Charlestown, East End Hub in Newcastle East and Barista Miss in New Lambton.

Josie Coffee

Newcastle City Farmers Market Gateshead-based roaster Josie Coffee also sell their bottled cold brew in concentrate form. Using their Uptown Funk or Smooth Criminal for the brew, Josie founder Chris Edden says the cold brew concentrate makes "between eight and 10 drinks" from a 500ml bottle. The bottles are available from their coffee van at the Newcastle City Farmers Market every Sunday, or they also serve it ready-to-drink. Cold brew will also be available when Edden opens the doors to Josie's first cafe at their site at Gateshead in early 2020.

Suspension: They use the immersion method of cold brewing.

Suspension Espresso

3-5 Beaumont Street, Hamilton Suspension use the immersion method of cold brewing, with the whole beans steeped in cold water for at least 12 hours, which creates a more delicate result than espresso coffee. "We use single origin coffees as the flavour profiles are favoured by processes such as these. Lately we have been using Colombian Organic and Indian Tiger Mountain," Suspension Espresso's social media manager Wednesday Sutherland says. Suspension offer cold brew during the warmer months, which can be enjoyed at the cafe or taken home in one of their mason jars (two sizes available) which cost $5 and can be reused in the cafe's exchange program.

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