Coffee Sensitivity

So "iced coffee" is the same as "cold brew?" Gosh you are really educating me! Thanks. I see on Amazon lots of choices. Some of them have sugar and flavors -- no thank you. I'll have to do some looking. There're also cold brew gadgets to make it easier to brew. Fun. First I've got to try it and see if I can tolerate it better. Hope it works.
 
exercise-lover said:
So "iced coffee" is the same as "cold brew?" Gosh you are really educating me! Thanks. I see on Amazon lots of choices. Some of them have sugar and flavors -- no thank you. I'll have to do some looking. There're also cold brew gadgets to make it easier to brew. Fun. First I've got to try it and see if I can tolerate it better. Hope it works.
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@exercise-lover , coffee terminology can be confusing, lol. No, iced coffee and cold Brew are 2 different things. Both are typically served over ice, but iced coffee is regular brewed coffee (using heat) and then it is cooled. Cold brew, on the other hand, is brewed entirely WITHOUT heat. I love cold Brew. It's easy to find in bottles at the grocery store in the US (at least in my area), or you can buy it ready to drink at Starbucks. The Starbucks nitro cold Brew is creamy and delicious. A personal favorite
 
Lisa_la_machina, You said it -- coffee terminology IS confusing! I'm learning little by little. Do you ever heat cold brew up to make it hot brew with less acid? Wonder if that would work in the winter? Thanks for the recommendation of nitro cold brew. Does it have sugar or flavors? Thanks for your help!
 
@exercise-lover, of course. Happy to enable a coffee addiction! I myself have never heated up cold Brew to drink it warm. I guess you could try it but the heat might raise or change the acidic profile, and I'd be worried that it would destroy the unique, amazing flavor of cold brew.

In terms of Starbucks Nitro cold brew, it starts out as your basic coffee bean, so if you add nothing it's like 5 calories. It's actually delicious plain and is frothy. But just as with any coffee drink, you can add milk or cream, sugar, or syrups. I like mine with almond milk and Stevia. But you can drink it however you like. You can ask a barista for a sample so you can familiarize yourself with the pure Nitro cold brew flavor. That might help you figure out what you personally would like to add, if anything.
 
Thanks for clarifying that Lisa, being in New Zealand I am in a different time zone and have only just seen the new posts. I enjoy coffee and I find the whole process of producing coffee fascinating. There is a lot more to coffee than most people think, especially when you take it right back to where the coffee plants are grown, the country, climate, altitude and soil conditions, then how the beans are extracted from the coffee pods and dried, through to roasting, then brewing and finally serving as a cup of coffee. Every step of the process has an impact on the flavour of the final drink. There is a lot of work that has gone into producing the cup of coffee you purchase for a few dollars.

Standard brewing methods using nearly boiling water exposes the ground up coffee beans to heat which increases the amount of acid extracted from the beans. Cold water brewing doesn't expose the coffee beans to heat so less acid is extracted. Once the coffee is brewed the liquid is filtered from the beans and then used to make the coffee drink of choice. Just like hot brewed coffee, cold brewed coffee can be served iced or heated, with or without milk or sweeteners etc. Heating cold brewed coffee shouldn't impact on the acidity as the liquid is no longer in contact with the ground coffee beans. The level of acidity in the liquid has already been determined by the type of coffee beans used, the darkness of the roast and the brewing method.

However, first you need to establish whether you can drink cold brewed coffee without getting a sore mouth. Fingers crossed that you can.
 
Hazlady and Lisa, I think I need a PhD in Chemistry to get all I need to know to just enjoy one cup of coffee a day! Gee, it's amazing all that goes into it and all the varieties. It is really complex! Thanks for clarifying that you can heat cold brew without raising the acid level. I agree that I need to try cold brew and see if that will solve my problem. However, I live out in the country a good distance from any Starbucks. Sunday, I plan to be in town and want to try the Nitro Cold Brew. Also, I would like to pick up some "ready-made" cold brew to bring home, like in bottles or cans. Any recommendations for this? I'm trying to avoid sugar and flavors. Does the Nitro Cold Brew come in cans or bottles, for example? If I can tolerate it, I'll be glad to experiment and find what I like. When you get to the store, however, the choices can be overwhelming! I'm continuing my experiment with Tums in the meantime. Now I'm sucking on 1/4 of a Tums about every 2 hours. It seems to relieve the rawness I feel in my mouth, but then it comes back but maybe not so intense. That's good news, I guess. Thanks for the suggestions and information!
 
Another cold brew lover here. I make my own cold brew, and it is delicious. I put very coarse ground coffee in a "nut milk bag" (yes, you can giggle here) that I bought on Amazon. I use them to make almond milk, but they also work with cold brew. I put 75 Gms of coffee in the bag, put the bag in a large jar, (I use a large pickle jar) with the opening of the bag over the jar mouth. Pour in 1100 ML of cold water, then put in the fridge overnight (12-16 hours) In the morning, remove the bag from the jar, throw the coffee grounds in your garden, and enjoy your cold brew. Great Summer coffee.
 
I've been skimming through this thread, and as others have mentioned, the acid was the first thing I thought of as well. My mouth can be very sensitive to acidic foods. The first couple of summers that we had a tomato garden, I developed sores in my mouth from eating too many tomatoes! It was my dentist who helped me figure it out. And she recommended swishing maalox around in my mouth, which sounds worse than popping a Tums, yuck!

I've never had mouth sores from coffee, BUT I do have problems with acid reflux and heartburn. I have tried many different kinds of coffee with different levels of acidity, with varying results. I am not a big fan of Starbucks cold brew, mainly because I don't like the taste. It almost tastes "fruity" to me in a way I don't like.

One thing I did have some success with was chicory-blended coffee, New Orleans style. Brands include Cafe Du Monde and French Market (https://www.reilyproducts.com/produ...edium-dark-roast-coffee-chicory-12oz-red-can/ ) Do a search for chicory at that website and you'll see lots of different options.

They also make a cold brew concentrate that you can mix with cold or hot water (or warm milk to make Cafe Au Lait, yum!) https://www.reilyproducts.com/products/french-market-coffee-cold-brew-concentrate-classic-chicory/

Or you can buy just the chicory and mix it with other ground coffee of your choice (https://www.reilyproducts.com/products/luzianne-chicory-coffee-partner-6-1-2-oz/ )

It does change the flavor of the coffee somewhat, so you'll have to see if you like that.

Having said all of that, I've had to give up coffee altogether as my GERD has gotten worse over the years. I have a cup once in a while, but I can't make a habit of it or my stomach gives me trouble. :(
 
Desertambrosia, I love your method of making cold brew. That's so less messy than all the ways I saw on Youtube that required multiple straining and, I can just picture it, coffee grounds everywhere!!! I'm going to put "nut milk bags" in my wish list on Amazon! Thanks for this. Excited to try cold brew on Sunday when I'll be in town. I'm going to have to look up converting metrics tho! Never learned that system. Ha ha.

Jodi, Thanks for sharing your info on acid sensitivity. I might get some Maalox because at least I could swish and then spit it out! I really don't need an anti-acid, yet with Tums, I have to swallow them. They do seem to help at least temporarily. I don't have any acid-related digestion problems like you do (poor girl). My sympathies. My husband takes Prilosec each day, so I have seen how those problems can sure make you miserable. You really found some interesting alternatives. Does chicory coffee have caffeine? That's why I'm drinking my one cup per day -- just want a pick-me-up in the afternoon. Don't you miss the caffeine? Thanks for the links.
 
Yea, sorry about the metrics. The recipe I found was in metrics, and I have a scale that measures in metrics as well as ounces and pounds. But, you probably know that google has a converter. It is a good recipe, and it definitely depends on the coffee you use. Use a very coarse grind, think "french press." Enjoy!
 
I got to try cold brew coffee! I went to Starbucks at Target after church. They didn't have the Nitro Cold Brew, so I just got it with a bit of skim milk (like I usually drink regular coffee). I LOVED the flavor and the iced cold drink!!! I can't say if my mouth is less sore, however, because I had a half cup of hot coffee before church, so it wasn't a good test. I did find in Target this box of Starbucks Cold Brew coffee packs that you make your own with! You drop two packs in 3 cups of water and leave in the fridge for 24 hours, then add three cups more of water. This will be a better test. The caffeine is strong in cold brew -- I'm definitely not falling asleep this afternoon! I think this will be my summer drink. Glad you all suggested it. I hope the package cold brew is as good as the one I had this afternoon -- YUM!
 
exercise-lover said:
They didn't have the Nitro Cold Brew, so I just got it with a bit of skim milk (like I usually drink regular coffee). I LOVED the flavor
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So glad you enjoyed it! If you liked the regular cold brew, I really think you'll go bananas over the Nitro Cold brew! Hope you can find it at a Starbucks near you soon. Let us know how your home experiment goes.
 
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