What Is Dutch Coffee? Cold Drip Coffee Explained

Dutch coffee is another name for cold drip coffee, also called Kyoto-style coffee. Ice-cold water drips slowly, drop by drop, through a bed of ground coffee in a tall glass tower, taking about 3 to 12 hours to make a smooth, concentrated coffee that is usually served over ice or diluted with water or milk. The name is used mainly in Japan and Korea, where the method is popular, and comes from a story that Dutch traders brewed coffee this way on long sea voyages. In the Netherlands itself, “Dutch coffee” just means everyday koffie, usually filter coffee or koffie verkeerd, a milky coffee.

Why Is It Called Dutch Coffee?

In Japan and Korea, cold drip coffee is often called Dutch coffee (dacchi kōhī in Japanese, deochi keopi in Korean). The usual story is that Dutch sailors and traders, who carried coffee from their colony in Java in the 1600s and 1700s, made coffee with cold water on long voyages because they could not easily boil water at sea, and that they passed the method on through their trading post in Japan. It is a good story, but there is little hard evidence for it. What is certain is that slow-drip cold coffee became a specialty in Kyoto’s cafés in the 20th century, which is why it is also called Kyoto-style coffee, and later became popular in Korea and around the world.

The Dutch link to coffee itself is real. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) began growing coffee on Java at the end of the 1600s, breaking Yemen’s control of the coffee trade, and Dutch traders helped spread coffee plants across the tropics. “Java” became slang for coffee as a result. Read more about Yemen’s coffee history and the history of coffee.

How to Make Dutch (Cold Drip) Coffee

A cold drip tower has three parts: a top chamber that holds ice water and a valve to control the drip, a middle chamber for the coffee, and a carafe at the bottom, often connected by a coiled glass tube. Here is a simple starting recipe that makes a concentrate:

1. Grind 50 g of coffee medium-fine, a little coarser than for espresso. Medium and light roasts with fruity flavors work especially well.
2. Load the coffee chamber. Put a paper or cloth filter at the bottom, add the coffee and level it, then place a paper filter on top so the drips spread evenly.
3. Wet the grounds with a little cold water so they start dripping evenly.
4. Fill the top chamber with about 500 g of ice and cold water, for a ratio of about 1:10.
5. Set the drip rate to about one drop per second, or 40 to 60 drops a minute. Faster gives a lighter brew; slower gives a stronger, heavier one. Check it now and then, since the rate slows as the water level drops.
6. Let it drip until the water is gone, usually 4 to 8 hours at this size.
7. Serve over ice, diluted with about the same amount of water or milk to taste. Keep the rest sealed in the fridge and drink it within about a week.

No tower? Cold brew gives a similar smooth, low-bitterness result with just a jar; see our cold brew guide.

What Does Dutch Coffee Taste Like?

Cold drip coffee is smooth and sweet with very little bitterness. Because the water passes through the coffee rather than sitting in it, it tends to taste cleaner and more aromatic than cold brew, often with wine-like or fruity notes, while cold brew is rounder and more chocolatey. Cold water extracts less of the compounds that make hot coffee taste sharp, so many people find it tastes less acidic, though its caffeine content can be high if you drink the concentrate undiluted. Learn more in cold brew vs iced coffee and acidity in coffee.

The drawbacks are time and equipment. Towers are made of glass and can be fragile, and a batch takes hours, which is why cold drip is a specialty in cafés rather than an everyday drink. For other chilled styles, try flash-chilled iced coffee or nitro cold brew.

Coffee in the Netherlands

If you are searching for coffee in Dutch, the word is koffie, and the Dutch are among the biggest coffee drinkers in the world per person. Coffee is part of daily life, from the mid-morning koffietijd break to coffee after dinner. Common orders include:

• Koffie: usually a filter coffee or a coffee from a bean-to-cup machine, often served with a small cookie.
• Koffie verkeerd: “wrong coffee,” about half coffee and half warm milk, similar to a latte or café au lait.
• Koffie met appeltaart: coffee with a slice of Dutch apple pie, a classic café pairing.

The Netherlands is home to Douwe Egberts, founded in 1753, and a lively specialty scene of independent roasters and cafés in cities such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht, many focused on traceable, ethically sourced beans; see coffee certifications.

Dutch Coffee Is Not Dutch Bros

Dutch coffee has nothing to do with Dutch Bros, the American drive-through coffee chain known for sweet, flavored drinks. And in Amsterdam, a “coffeeshop” sells cannabis, not coffee; for coffee, look for a café or koffiebar.