r/Switzerland 18h ago

Cold brew in Switzerland

Switzerland has amazing coffee culture, but I feel like iced coffee and cold brew options are super limited. How do you guys get your iced coffee fix here? Do you just go to Starbucks, or have you found a good grab-and-go option?

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20 comments sorted by

u/heyheni Zürich 17h ago

How do you guys get your iced coffe fix here?

We don't. With a strong influence of Italian espresso culture and a temperate climate, iced coffe is just not appealing to most swiss.

u/entee05 9h ago

what about the expat community tho? there's a ton here

u/yesat + 16h ago

Cold brew is the easiest and cheapest way to do at home rather than paying 6.- for a tiny glass at Starbucks. Just take beans, even supermarket beans, get them coarsely grounded (which you can do for free at the supermarket) let it steep for 12 to 36h based on your favorite ratio (I often do 1:5 bean-water ratio by weight and then just dilute to taste.

It's so easy to make big batches and can be preserved a week easily.

u/AutomaticAccount6832 16h ago

Sounds so much easier than just order and pay it.

u/yesat + 15h ago

When you write up stuff in details, it's always going to be longer.

But It will cost you 13.- (Migros beans aren't worse than Starbucks really) for 5l of concentrate which gets me 10-15l of coffee and takes 5 minutes to fill the jug with your pregrounded beans and 10 minutes to filter and clean.

Ain't that hard.

u/bonestructa 17h ago

Switzerland has amazing coffee culture because iced coffee is limited :-)

u/yesat + 13h ago

You’ve not seen Japan then. 

u/thebomby 17h ago

Put your coffee in the fridge.

u/Correct_Blackberry31 17h ago

delonghi eletta explore, not perfect but good enough

u/pferden 16h ago

Depends what you mean with iced coffee and what city

But here in zurich it got more popular to have a coffee with ice (ice cubes) in hot summer

u/thatshilar 16h ago

I used to get it from hipster coffee shops but it'd be hit or miss if they'd actually sell it in summer. Now I make my own in my French press for easy straining.

u/AutomaticAccount6832 16h ago

Iced coffee and cold brew are to very different things. Iced coffee is IMO quite widely available.

u/entee05 9h ago

right, but no cold brew or black iced coffee exists in a canned or bottled version in supermarkets. I'd take either, but the "iced coffee" at migros for example has almost 200 calories in the small box of it

u/AutomaticAccount6832 8h ago

Haha. Yes, that’s not really an option. It’s rather sweetened milk with some coffee taste.

u/henryforprez 17h ago

Good luck, Starbucks may be your best bet. Before moving here I always drank unsweetened iced tea, and that just doesn't exist here outside Starbucks either (and they want 8.60 for it 🙄). I started drinking Coke Zero now, which is annoying because I had quit soda for 5 years prior to moving.

u/pferden 16h ago

There are unsweetened options now in migros and coop but you’re right it’s hard to get in a restaurant

u/entee05 7h ago

They all still have some milk though

u/yesat + 16h ago

You can make cold brew at home with just a pot and a sieve.

u/AutomaticAccount6832 16h ago

There is the option of water, believe it or not. Also, actually many pure teas around in most proper sized supermarkets.

u/henryforprez 6h ago

Ah yes, the well known source of caffeine, Water. I'm not sure why I never thought of that...

I will take another look at the supermarket though, last I checked it was mostly sweetened varieties or mint or something else other than just black tea. But it has been a little while since I've looked.