Kyoto Slow Drip
京都式水出しコーヒーKYOH-toh shiki mizu-dashi koh-hee
A clear, dark, intensely aromatic cold coffee, almost like a liqueur, made by letting ice water fall onto a bed of grounds one drop at a time. It takes most of a day and it tastes nothing like cold brew.
At a glance
- Coffee : water
- 1:10
- Active time
- 15 min
- Total time
- 495 min
- Makes
- 4 small glasses
- Serve
- Cold, neat or on ice
- Kit
- Cold drip tower
Ingredients
Note: The coffee is a concentrate. Drink it neat in small glasses, over a single ice cube, or diluted one to one with cold water or milk.
Method
-
Wet the bed
Put the coffee in the chamber, level it, and wet the top with a few spoonfuls of cold water so the first drops spread across the bed instead of tunnelling through one spot. Put the paper or ceramic filter on top if your tower has one.
-
Fill the top with ice water
Fill the reservoir with the ice and water. Ice keeps the water near 0°C for the whole run and melts slowly, topping up as it goes.
-
Set the drip rate
Open the valve until you get one drop every one to two seconds. Count it. Check again after ten minutes, because the rate drifts as the bed saturates.
This is the whole technique. Too fast and the coffee is thin. Too slow and the bed dries out and stops.
1 drop per 1 to 2 seconds -
Leave it for eight hours
Leave the tower to run, checking the rate every hour or two. Most towers finish 500 ml in six to ten hours.
Drip 6 to 10 hours -
Bottle and rest
Bottle the coffee and refrigerate it. It changes over the first two or three days, losing some brightness and gaining a deeper, almost wine-like note. Many cafés prefer it after a day.
Why this works
Cold water extracts coffee very differently from hot. Solubility depends on temperature, and many of the compounds that taste bitter or harsh dissolve far more slowly in cold water, as do many acids. Aromatic oils and some sweet compounds still come through. That is why all cold coffee tastes smoother and less acidic than hot, and why it needs hours rather than minutes.
Slow drip is different again from cold brew. In cold brew, the grounds sit fully immersed in water for a day, and the result is round, heavy and chocolatey. In a drip tower, fresh cold water passes through the bed continuously, a drop at a time. Each drop meets coffee that has not yet given up everything, so extraction is more efficient, and the liquid filters through paper or ceramic on its way out. The coffee comes out clearer, lighter in body and more aromatic, closer to a cold, concentrated filter coffee.
The long run also exposes the coffee to air in the collection flask for hours, and some slow oxidation takes place. That is the usual explanation for the slightly fermented, wine or liqueur-like character good Kyoto drip develops, especially after a day of rest.
The method is sometimes called Dutch coffee in Japan, after a story that Dutch traders brewed coffee cold on long voyages. That story is impossible to verify. What is clear is that Japanese kissaten cafés developed and refined the tall glass towers through the twentieth century, and Kyoto became so associated with the style that the name stuck.
Variations
- Over one large ice cube: the classic way to serve it.
- With milk: one to one with cold milk, a very clean iced latte.
- With tonic: 50 ml over ice topped with tonic, close to an espresso tonic.
- With whisky: a small measure in an old fashioned glass with a dash of sugar syrup, a café trick in Kyoto bars.
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Questions
What is the difference between Kyoto drip and cold brew?
Cold brew steeps the grounds fully immersed for twelve to twenty-four hours, giving a heavy, chocolatey coffee. Kyoto drip lets ice water drip through the grounds slowly, giving a clearer, lighter and more aromatic coffee.
How fast should a cold drip tower drip?
One drop every one to two seconds is a good starting point. Check it after ten minutes and every hour or two, because it drifts.
How long does cold drip coffee keep?
About a week to ten days in a sealed bottle in the fridge. Many people think it tastes best after resting for a day.
Can I make Kyoto drip without a tower?
Improvised setups exist, such as a bottle with a pin-pricked cap dripping into a pour-over cone. They are hard to keep at a steady rate, which is the whole point of the method.