My first taste of ColsBrew was at Gulf Food when I unexpectedly found the team at the coffee bar handing out samples. I raised the glass to my nose, inhaled deeply and got an amazing aroma of bourbon with some fruity undertones, but my mind was slightly confused, this was cold brew coffee and not anything stronger. I took a sip of the cold coffee and enjoyed what came next, a smooth and delicate coffee extremely pleasant to drink on it’s own. Second tasting was just as exciting and there’s a bottle in my fridge just waiting to be poured over ice and savoured sometime soon! ~ Debbie
Cold Brew Coffee is not to be confused with Iced Coffee. Iced Coffee is essentially hot coffee which has been chilled and usually comes with the addition of syrups, creams etc in the larger cafe chains. Cold Brew Coffee is much more a labour of love and an artisanal product. Cold Brew is actually a brewing method and extraction process using cold or room temperature water and ground coffee often brewed using a toddy method. During the brewing process, heat is replaced by time with a typical brew taking about ten to twelve hours.
Cold Brew Coffee has been around for a while, but has only really hitting the shores of Dubai in the last year or so, and it’s been a bit hard to find, although you can if you know where to look. I met with Colin Phillips, the founder of ColsBrew, over a ColsBrew of course, to find out more.
How did ColsBrew ‘brew’?
ColsBrew came about almost by accident, a chance coffee cupping session resonated with Colin, who was fascinated by the taste profiles and complexity of different coffees. Three different courses later, and a ton of time spent experimenting in his kitchen-cum-temporary science lab, chatting to various experts and playing around with different coffee, grinds, water, brewing time etc and ColsBrew was born, or should I say brewed!
From it’s humble beginnings, Colsbrew has evolved through Colin’s passion, and support from family and friends and collaborations really play to Colin’s strengths. He also has a background which is quite scientific, and only recently found out that he is a super taster in terms of his ability to taste and experience flavors.
Moving onto ColsBrew, the coffee is single origin Specialty Coffee, which means it scores 80+ on the Coffee grading scale. It’s locally roasted in Dubai and then handcrafted into something quite special. Talking to Colin, it’s difficult not to get into his passion, he’s enthusiastic about the whole process of how the coffee bean gets to the bottle, and he feels a weight of responsibility/obligation (and of course feels a deep passion) to treat the roasted coffee bean with great care in order to extract the best cold brew coffee from each and every bean.
There are two different brews at the moment – Gold Label and Black Label, and both are of different strengths and have different taste profiles. I believe you can not only taste the passion that’s gone into ColsBrew but see it too – each bottle is hand labelled and a lot of care and attention goes into every step of the process, from the individual date stamps on the label down to the simple and elegant logo influenced by Norsk mythology, representing the essence of Colsbrew – Noble, Strong and Respectful.
Want to get your ColsBrew fix?
You can currently find ColsBrew stocked at Crossfit Metalize – Ras Al Khor, Deus Ex-Machina Cafe – Al Quoz, Surf Cafe – Beach Road, La Ola – Kite Beach, H.E.A.T Cafe, Arabian Tea House, Crossfit Gold Box, The Warehouse Gym with more exciting news coming everyday including a new Bean to Bottle experience!
More info: www.colsbrew.ae
Do check out a Festive Coffee recipe – aptly called ColsNog which the ColsBrew team have developed.
Learn more about the passion behind the ColsBrew business in our #FoodPreneur feature here .
[This story has been written exclusively for FoodeMag dxb. All images provided by ColsBrew]
