The chemistry of cold-brew coffee is so hot right now | Ars Technica

Cold-brew is all about the acid levels, and specifically keeping them lower. This is the first I've seen though that suggests that the darkness of the roast also interacts with the cold brew in a specific way.

For the lighter roasts, Rao et al. found that caffeine content and antioxidant levels were roughly the same in both the hot- and cold-brew batches. But there were significant differences between the two methods when medium- and dark-roast coffee beans were used. Specifically, the hot-brew method extracts more antioxidants from the grind; the darker the bean, the greater the difference. Both hot- and cold-brew batches become less acidic the darker the roast. An academic paper on the results is forthcoming.

Now back to my coffee. ☕️