With the warmer spring weather, I tried something different when making my coffee one day: I decided to brew it using the sun’s heat. I was hoping for a different, milder taste and I was right!
The basic coffee-making equation doesn’t change: use your favorite coffee, use as much or as little of it as you prefer — but instead of putting it in the coffee machine, put it in a glass pitcher and add cold, filtered water. Then, cover the pitcher to stop insects or dust from getting into it and set it on the window sill or somewhere outside, in direct sunlight.
Monitor it periodically. Once it gets hot to the touch, the coffee’s done. You can leave it out a little longer if you want a stronger coffee, or leave it less if you don’t. I live in a temperate climate and in moderately warm spring weather (18-25° Celsius), my coffee was ready in 1½ – 2 hours. If you live in a warm climate, it should be ready even faster, maybe even in 30 minutes or so.
The taste of sun-brewed coffee is unique: it’s mild with no bitter aftertaste and there’s a distinct caramel flavor to it.
A few pieces of advice:
- Use alkaline water, it will make it taste even better
- Use a French Press, it’ll make it much easier to pour the coffee out of the pitcher once it’s ready
- Use regular filter-ground coffee even though you’re using a French Press… it doesn’t make sense at first, but know that the water temperature in the sun will only be about 40-50° Celsius as compared to 90-100° Celsius with boiling water. This means you’ll need a finer grind in order to get more flavor out of the coffee.
Enjoy!
Raoul Pop 
thanks for explaining how to make sun coffee . . . so glad to find a video series that delivers good info in a calm and sensible and engaging manner that respects the sensibilities of the viewer. looking forward to more. and, yes, i am a lady.
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This sounds great, definitely going to try it. We do this with Tea all the time in the summer and it comes out excellent. I have never thought about trying it with coffee.
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This was interesting. Our nights are still dipping below freezing here in Hokkaido. The winter tires don’t go off until May 1st (and then I’ve still been caught in an early May snowfall). I remember the Prod winters were ferociously cold, but spring appears to come early there. I guess I won’t be able to make any “sun coffee” for a while. This may not be the right place, but a true gentleman should use a fountain pen and have impeccable handwriting, shouldn’t he? I realize one should only comment on things one has some expertise in, but what are your thoughts on the almost lost art of handwritten letters? My dad recently gave me both my mother’s fountain pen (with which she had written me many letters) and his own, a Mont Blanc #149 “Meisterstück,” which he received as a retirement gift. I find them inspiring to write with, although they are also quite “temperamental.” My mother died in January and it is somehow a comforting thought that the pen I am writing with once rested in her hand and conveyed so much motherly love over great distances. Cursive handwriting is also an art. I have pen pals in Germany and the USA. It would be great to have a pen pal in Romania, hint, hint…
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I love fountain pens and dip pens and I love writing in cursive and typing on old typewriters. As you’re aware, the videos from my Elegant Gentleman series all begin with me writing the title in cursive, with my fountain pen. I’ve been planning to make a video about that very topic since I started my project, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
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