PSA: I called cold brew a lazy hack for 3 summers, then a barista in Dallas poured me a glass and I shut up
She steeped it 18 hours with a coarse grind and it tasted like chocolate syrup with zero bitterness, so now I want to know who else got converted and what ratio you actually use at home.
My proudest moment was explaining to my wife why our fridge was full of mason jars and coffee filters, and she just stared at me like I had lost my mind. Three years of paying six bucks a cup and now I am that guy weighing beans on a kitchen scale at 10pm. The coarse grind part matters more than people admit, since fine grounds turn the whole thing into mud you have to strain twice. I do a 1 to 8 ratio by weight and let it sit about 16 hours, which lands close to what that Dallas barista pulled off. The chocolate thing is real too, it comes out almost sweet without any sugar, which still messes with my head.