Cold brew coffee is having a bit of a moment. Starbucks it鈥檚 adding the mellow brew to its summer lineup in 2,800 stores across the Northeast and Midwest. And Trader Joe鈥檚 could barely keep its bottled cold brew coffee on shelves last summer.
Apart from its tastiness, cold brew might be healthier than traditional hot coffee.聽Because you don鈥檛 apply heat to the beans during cold brewing (you simply steep coffee grounds in cool water), the chemical reactions that cause acidity in hot coffee don鈥檛 happen. Cold brew is therefore much lower in acid. As such, it鈥檚 the聽聽for anyone who has chronic heartburn or gastoesophegeal reflux disease. Neace also touts his product as being less likely to raise cholesterol levels than traditional brewing methods, like French press and espresso.
But here鈥檚 the thing: DIY cold brewing has traditionally been a giant pain.聽Nearly every food site on the Internet has run some sort of tutorial about how to make cold brew coffee at home, but most of these DIYs involve at least two containers, a sock or cheesecloth, and a bit of MacGyvering. And if you鈥檝e ever tried to MacGyver while un-caffeinated, you know it鈥檚 not fun.聽
Bob Neace, the founder of , remembers his grandfather鈥檚 ad hoc cold brew setup. 鈥淗e brewed it for like 40 years in this old bucket with cheesecloth, but I loved the taste,鈥 he says. When Neace went looking online for a good, fabricated, cold brew setup, he couldn鈥檛 find anything. Everything was either really complex or really expensive. (Williams Sonoma, for example, sells a laboratory looking setup for .)
So Neace left his job in the insurance industry to start BodyBrew, a cold brew maker that produces coffee that he claims is healthier. The device produces 24oz. of coffee extract, over the course of聽a 12-to-24-hour steeping period,聽that is good for聽ten-to-12 cups of coffee. (The most basic BodyBrew setup .)
He might be onto something. According to聽, MD, MPH, when beans are heated they release oils called terpenes, which can raise a person鈥檚 cholesterol levels鈥攅specially the LDL or bad cholesterol levels. Dr. Klag is the Dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and he鈥檚 studied the relationship between coffee and cholesterol for years. He says that, in theory, cold brew would be better for someone with high cholesterol than a method that requires heating the beans extensively.聽
鈥淚t鈥檚 the amount of heat and the duration of the heat which really matters,鈥 Klag says, adding that Scandinavian methods of boiling coffee would likely be most problematic. However, he鈥檚 quick to point out that there鈥檚 another easy solution to dealing with the terpenes in coffee that doesn鈥檛 involve buying a new coffeemaker: simply use a paper filter. 鈥淭he paper seems to remove these little molecules, the terpenes.鈥滲ottom line: Neace鈥檚 BodyBrew system is a safe bet for those who must have cold brew and want an easy way to make it. But if you simply want to avoid hiking your cholesterol levels, just use a paper filter.聽
BodyBrew鈥檚 machine is going through production now, with pre-orders shipping this fall.聽