Recreate Starbucks Cold Brew Coffee at home by making it the way they do, steeping small batches of ground coffee in water for at least 20 hours. See how easy it is to make this refreshing drink for way less!
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Recipe Highlights
- Cold Brew Coffee is a caffeinated drink made by steeping ground coffee in cold water in the refrigerator for hours. Starbucks cold brews their coffee for 20 hours, in small batches on a daily basis.
- Cold brew is smoother and slightly sweeter than coffee made with hot water. It’s also lower in acidity.
- Starbucks uses a cold brew blend that includes coffee beans from Nariño, Colombia. Only Starbucks knows exactly what the blend is, but you can get a very close version by making cold brew using Starbucks Cold Brew Pitcher Packs which contains coffee from Nariño.
- Buying a grande Starbucks Cold Brew costs about $4.00 but making it at home costs only $0.53 per cup using the pitcher packs! (On Amazon, a box of pitcher packs cost $6.30 and makes 12 servings.)
- Coffee from different regions have flavor profiles that are unique to that area. Colombian coffee is known for being nutty and for having medium body and medium acidity.
More cold brew recipes: Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew, Irish Cream Cold Brew, Salted Caramel Cold Brew, Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew, and Cold Brew Coffee Coke Float.
Ingredient Notes
- Starbucks Cold Brew Pitcher Packs: Sold in a box that contains 4 coffee packs that will make 12 cups of cold brew. Each coffee pack makes 3 cups of cold brew.
- Water: Always make coffee with the best tasting water, so use filtered water whenever possible. Starbucks makes theirs with triple-filtered water.
For full ingredients and detailed instructions, please see the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Combine water and pitcher pack in a pitcher.
Use room temperature or cool water. No need to heat water to make cold brew. Use 1 pitcher pack to make 3 cups of cold brew or 2 pitcher packs to make 6 cups.
Step 2: Cover pitcher and steep in refrigerator. Make sure the coffee pitcher pack is submerged in water.
Step 3: Remove pitcher pack and add cold water.
Step 4: Pour cold brew coffee into a cup with ice.
Expert Tips
- The recipe makes a coffee concentrate, then adds water to dilute it. If you have a big enough pitcher, you can add the entire amount of water needed at the beginning instead of adding it at the end.
- It’s tempting to want to squeeze out every last drop out of the pitcher pack when you remove it, but be careful not to squeeze too hard or the pack can rip, creating a huge mess of wet coffee grounds.
- With each pitcher pack, you lose about ½ cup of water. To make 3 cups, you need 3 ½ cup of water and to make 6 cups, you need 7 cups of water.
- This recipe makes 3 servings of grande sized cold brew (16 ounces) using 1 pitcher pack. You can easily double it to make 6 servings by using both pitcher packs in one pitcher.
- Make your cold brew even more delicious by topping it with Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Foam that can easily be made at home.
- Sweeten cold brew with simple syrup instead of stirring in sugar, which will just sink straight to the bottom of the cup. Try flavored simple syrups for an even tastier treat. Brown sugar simple syrup is perfect in cold brew.
- Starbucks Cold Brew can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.
Questions You May Have
It costs about $0.53 to make a grande sized cup at home. Starbucks charges around $4.00 for a grande Cold Brew so you’re saving $3.47 each time you make the drink at home. That’s a lot!
Yes, any ground coffee can be used to make cold brew but to make Starbucks Cold Brew, you have to use their blend to get the taste as close as possible.
Since the pitcher packs make a coffee concentrate, you can add less or more water to make it weaker or stronger.
Cold brew coffee is made by steeping ground coffee in cold water. Iced coffee is made by making hot coffee, then cooling it down. Iced lattes are made with espresso, from an espresso machine.
Yup, cold brew has more caffeine than iced coffee. At Starbucks, a grande Cold Brew has 205 mg of caffeine and a grande Iced Coffee has 165 mg of caffeine.
Related
- Best Starbucks Cold Brew Coffees
- How to Make Cold Brew Coffee at Home
- Easy Starbucks Copycat Recipes
- Best Starbucks Refreshers
- Every Starbucks Drink Ranked by Caffeine Content
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Starbucks Cold Brew Copycat Recipe
INGREDIENTS
- 1 Starbucks Cold Brew pitcher pack
- 3 ½ cups water
- 3 cups ice
INSTRUCTIONS
- Combine 2 cups of water and 1 pitcher pack in a pitcher.Use room temperature or cool water. No need to heat water to make cold brew. To make double the amount to make 6 servings, use 2 pitcher packs in a pitcher with 4 cups of water.
- Cover pitcher and steep in refrigerator for 20-24 hours.Make sure the coffee pitcher pack is submerged in water.
- Remove pitcher pack and add 1 ½ cup of cold water.Be careful not to squeeze the pitcher pack too hard when you remove it from the pitcher since the bag can easily rip.To make double the amount to make 6 servings, add in 3 cups of cold water.
- Pour cold brew coffee into a cup with ice.Use 1 cup of cold brew and 1 cup of ice to make a grande sized drink. That's the same amount Starbucks uses to make their grande Cold Brew Coffee.
NOTES
- The recipe makes a coffee concentrate, then adds water to dilute it. If you have a big enough pitcher, you can add the entire amount of water needed at the beginning instead of adding it at the end.
- With each pitcher pack, you lose about ½ cup of water. To make 3 cups, you need 3 ½ cup of water and to make 6 cups, you need 7 cups of water.
- It’s tempting to want to squeeze out every last drop out of the pitcher pack when you remove it, but be careful not to squeeze too hard or the pack can rip, creating a huge mess of wet coffee grounds.
- This recipe makes 3 servings of grande sized cold brew (16 ounces) using 1 pitcher pack. You can easily double it to make 6 servings by using both pitcher packs in one pitcher.
- Make your cold brew even more delicious by topping it with Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Foam that can easily be made at home.
- Sweeten cold brew with simple syrup instead of stirring in sugar, which will just sink straight to the bottom of the cup. Try flavored simple syrups for an even tastier treat. Brown sugar simple syrup is perfect in cold brew.
- Starbucks Cold Brew can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.
- Cold brew has more caffeine than iced coffee. At Starbucks, a grande Cold Brew has 205 mg of caffeine and a grande Iced Coffee has 165 mg of caffeine.
- It costs about $0.53 to make a grande sized cup at home, based on a box of pitcher packs that cost $6.30. Starbucks charges around $4.00 for a grande Cold Brew so you’re saving $3.47 each time you make the drink at home.