Coffee Decoded: What Are Coffee Concentrates? Why Are They So Popular?
Welcome to Coffee, Decoded, the Specialty Coffee Association’s weekly column on science, research, and all things coffee knowledge. I’m PETER GIULIANO, and each week I answer coffee questions, interpret research, and dive deep into coffee science.
Believe it or not, there used to be something called “pocket soup.”
This was an actual food, also known as “portable soup.” The 17th century recipe was as follows: make a broth of beef or veal, then simmer it constantly until almost all the water was evaporated. The jelly-like substance would then be further dried on pieces of cloth until dry and hard. One chunk of pocket soup could be put in a bowl of hot water and—voila—the pocket soup rehydrated into a hot broth. It was the predecessor to our concentrated bouillon cubes and soup concentrates. It was valuable for sailors and travelers: a way to preserve broth and conveniently concentrate it.
The reason food concentrates like pocket soup are convenient is because water is A) heavy, B) bulky, and C) relatively abundant. Decreasing the amount of water in a food or beverage product makes it easier to store and transport. Then, you can just use your drinking water to rehydrate the food. For this reason, people have been making concentrates for a long time.
So, what does this have to do with coffee? Well, having a concentrated form of coffee is convenient for all the same reasons other food concentrates are. A coffee concentrate is easier to store, cheaper to transport, and convenient when coffee-making equipment is not available. And they are great for making things like ready-to-drink coffees and coffee flavored foods like ice cream. So we know why coffee concentrates are appealing, but what are they and how do they work? Let’s get into the technicalities a bit.
Cold brewing is one way to produce coffee concentrates.
Under normal circumstances, brewing coffee and water together will create a coffee concentrate with a theoretical maximum of about 12% coffee solubles in water.[1] Those “coffee solubles” are compounds in the roasted coffee powder that can be dissolved in water, and are usually expressed as “TDS.” But 12% is pretty extreme—even the strongest non-pressurized coffee beverages max out at about 5% coffee solubles. Beverage coffee typically runs from a maximum of 4% coffee solubles (in an ibrik or czeve-style coffee) down to 1-2% solubles (for filter-style coffee). So, anything higher than these percentages could be considered a coffee concentrate.
So why not just extract as many coffee solubles as possible in water, creating that 12% concentrate? Well, it’s not that easy. Extracting everything possible from coffee grounds results in some negative flavor characteristics, especially astringent and bitter flavors.[2] So simply maximizing extraction is risky.
You might just try making a regular, delicious coffee, then heating it so the water can evaporate, concentrating the coffee. There are two problems with this approach: for one, many of a coffee’s flavors are volatile and heating coffee for a long period means you lose lots of those delicious volatiles. Second, heating the coffee promotes chemical reactions in the coffee (all chemical reactions happen faster at high temperatures), which can be non-optimal: taste a coffee held on a hot plate for an hour and you’ll know exactly what I mean.
Sometimes coffee concentrates are used in the preparation of signature drinks. Photo: World Coffee Championships.
So how to make a good-quality concentrate? There are a few options. One of the most popular and accessible is cold-brewing. There are two advantages to cold brewing. One, it slows the brewing process down, making it possible to avoid over-extraction. Second, it happens at cold temperatures, so volatile loss is reduced. This means cold-brewing creates one of the best quality concentrates available.
Another way is to tightly control the brewing process at a large scale. Companies that specialize in making coffee concentrates extract coffee precisely, targeting the exact desired flavor. They then use advanced techniques like precision evaporation and membrane filtration to concentrate the coffee.
Of course, like all things coffee, concentrate-making can be extremely complex and artful. I’ve simplified the process here—but if you’re curious, I encourage you to reach out to your local coffee concentrate maker (large scale or small) to learn more!
References
[1] J. Liang, K.C. Chan, and William D. Ristenpart, “An equilibrium desorption model for the strength and extraction yield of full immersion brewed coffee.” Sci Rep 11, 6904 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85787-1.
[2] J-X Guinard, S. Frost, M. Batali, A. Cotter, A., L.X. Lim, and W. D. Ristenpart (2023). “A new Coffee Brewing Control Chart relating sensory properties and consumer liking to brew strength, extraction yield, and brew ratio.” Journal of Food Science, 88, 2168–2177.
Learn More
READ. The academic journal article “Sensory Analysis of Full Immersion Coffee: Cold Brew Is More Floral, and Less Bitter, Sour, and Rubbery Than Hot Brew” which resulted from Coffee Science Foundation research conducted by U.C. Davis.
READ. The 2026 National Coffee Data Trends Specialty Coffee Breakout Report for recent trends about cold brew, coffee concentrates, and other coffee preparation methods. The report is produced by the Specialty Coffee Association and the National Coffee Association.
WATCH. Dive in to World Coffee in Good Spirits 2026 finals, where you may see some competitors using concentrates in action.