Life can be hard for mint-lovers. We don’t know about you, but as die-hard fans of mint-flavored everything, we’re often disappointed by the lack of mint versions of many of our favorite foods and drinks. Caramel is everywhere, don’t get us started on chocolate, and even fruits like strawberries and bananas get more attention than mint.
Nowhere is the dearth of mint options more apparent than in coffee. Chocolate and coffee go together, mint and chocolate go together, so why aren’t there many mint-flavored coffees? We’ve decided to take matters into our own hands and make some mint chocolate chip cold brew. If you are a mint lover, today is your lucky day. Here’s our favorite recipe for mint chocolate chip cold brew.
Cold Brew Recipe Basics
The core of our mint chocolate chip cold brew is our favorite tried and true cold brew recipe. Cold brew is sweeter and smoother than regular coffee, making it the perfect base for a mint chocolate chip coffee.
Making cold brew is surprisingly easy and only requires a few pieces of equipment and about 20 minutes of active work, although it does take 16 hours to steep, so be sure to leave yourself enough time.
Mint Chocolate Chip Cold Brew
Equipment
- A French press
- A Chemex filter (or similar)
- A medium-sized jar
- A spoon
Ingredients
- 100 g your favorite coffee ground coarsely
- 700 g room-temperature water
- 6 fresh mint leaves
- 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
- Chocolate chips optional
- Whipped cream optional
- Milk optional
Instructions
- Grind your coffee beans on a coarse setting; use a coarser setting than the setting you normally use to make French press coffee. If you don't have a grinder, check your local grocery store. Often, they'll have a public grinder you can use.
- Put the 100 g of ground coffee in a French press and fill it with 700 g of water.
- Stir the slurry until the grounds are thoroughly wet.
- Add 6 fresh mint leaves and 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder. You can adjust the amount of each ingredient to taste. Make sure the mint leaves aren't clumped together and are spread evenly throughout the French press.
- Put the lid on the French press and let the mixture sit for 16 hours.
- After 16 hours, use the French press' plunger to filter the coffee.
- This step is technically optional, but we like to include it to give our cold brew a clean, crisp finish and to prevent it from extracting more if you don't use it all in one sitting. Pour the already filtered cold brew through a Chemex filter. This removes fine particles and sediment from the cold brew.
- Decant the cold brew into a glass. If you take milk, add milk to taste.
- If you want to pull out all the stops, add whipped cream, chocolate chips, and a mint leaf.
- Sip your mint chocolate chip cold brew and bask in all its minty glory!
Notes
Nutrition
Adjusting the Mint Chocolate Chip Cold Brew Recipe
This is our favorite mint chocolate chip cold brew recipe, but tastes vary, and you might find you prefer more or less mint and chocolate. We recommend changing the number of mint leaves by one until you reach your desired mint level. Mint leaves are potent, and the flavor can quickly become too much, even for the most die-hard mint lover.
The cocoa powder is more forgiving and understated in the recipe we gave you above. If you want more chocolate kick to your cold brew, we recommend doubling the amount of cocoa powder to 2 teaspoons right off the back. It is unlikely that you’ll find 2 teaspoons overpowering, and we expect chocolate fans to use even more.
Choosing a Coffee for Mint Chocolate Chip Cold Brew
You can use any coffee, but we recommend sticking with medium roasts or darker roasts. Light roasts have more subtle flavors that can easily get lost in a recipe like this. You can’t go wrong with a medium roast, but if you find your mint chocolate chip cold brew lacking in coffee flavor, try a dark roast in your next batch.
Conclusion
Mint flavored coffee is our sleeper pick for favorite specialty coffee flavor, and this recipe is one of our favorites. Cold brew is perfect for providing the foundation of a sweet treat like a mint chocolate chip coffee since it’s naturally sweet with a smooth, velvety texture.
Our mint chocolate chip cold brew recipe is a good starting point but feel free to make changes as you see fit. Whether you prefer chocolate or mint, you probably want to adjust the relative amounts of cocoa powder and mint leaves. Tinkering with the recipe is part of the fun!
Featured Image Credit: SrideeStudio, Shutterstock
