Pour the cream in the middle

We used to make a cold brew the long way. Fill the glass, pour the cream on top, then stand there looking for a spoon so the cream would not sit in a pale cloud on the surface. That spoon is never quite where you left it, and even when it is, you have added a thing to wash.

What we do now is shorter. Pour half the cold brew into the glass. Add the cream. Pour the rest of the cold brew on top, and the last pour makes a little swish in the glass that pulls the cream through the coffee without any help from a spoon.

The cream sits in the middle of the glass instead of on a full cup, so the second pour has something to move through. You get an even cup without stirring or shaking, no utensil needed.

We did not sit down and name this. We were trying not to open a drawer with a glass already in hand, and the pour did the work. After a few weeks it stuck, the same way the other small kitchen habits stick: because it works every time and it does not ask for extra steps.

The glass comes out the color you meant it to be, no cream floating on top, no extra spoon in the sink. Half, cream, the rest