A Caffeine-fueled debate

Coffee. Something so familiar that even non-drinkers have formed their own opinions. It’s hot, cold, bitter, sweet, a godsend and a trend setter.

For most of us, it isn’t a question of how much coffee is involved in our daily regimen. Whether it’s part of our morning routine, a cool drink in the middle of the day or a first date ice breaker, coffee is everything and anything anyone could ever want.

Coffee is something all of us enjoy, and the variation of coffee is endless with factors of additional flavor, type of brew and the straining process.

We all love it. We also each have a favorite to fuel our caffeine addiction.

Cold brew vs. iced coffee — a debate most caffeine addicts are strong willed about and a topic that stands very close to me as well.

It is one of the ultimate questions, one that gives us coffee breath even thinking about it. The two are popular favorites, but are surprisingly very different apart from each other.

Cold brew, a variation of course-ground coffee that sits in cold water for 12 to 24 hours.

Because of how long the drink takes to make, it will automatically be less acidic and less bitter. Cold brew is very smooth, in part due to how long it takes to make. Its caffeine content is much higher than most drinks, including French presses, so it does its job.

Iced coffee, a variation of fine-ground coffee pressed with boiling hot water.

A little goes a long way with iced coffee, since the coffee used to make it is espresso, of which one to two shots have about as much caffeine as drip coffee.

There is also much more variation with iced coffee, as you can have a mocha, a latte, or even an americano if you classify americanos as iced coffee. It is the safe, go-to drink everyone knows about and is the most familiar.

Now, I don’t want to exclude tea drinkers and those who choose to avoid it all together, as there are downsides to these drinks which make them both unpalatable.

Cold brew takes forever to make and is a pain to strain. From a former barista, making cold brew was a nightmare. I distinctly remember putting the beans in a wrong filter the day my boss was working with me. The filter I used— paper — ripped and spilled pungent cold brew all over our workspace.

A catastrophe, but 100 times worse because my boss was there to watch it all happen.

I avoided it for the following three months.

Iced coffee, depending on how you make it, can be very bitter and acidic. Espresso is used to make iced coffee and if the shot sits too long, is burnt or under-poured, it can affect the drink entirely.

Whether you choose to drink iced, cold brewed or none at all, there are both pros and cons to each. Personally, I love iced coffee because of my bad experiences. If it were up to flavor, I would pick cold brew. The smoothness of the drink is well worth any mess that may embarrass me in front of my boss. The flavor and caffeine content is also something that gets me through my day, becoming my better pick.

There’s no doubt about it. Coffee will forever be in our lives and even if the name eventually changes, covfefe is a godsend.

Emily Pearce can be reached at [email protected]