I love coffee. Love it, love it. Coffee makes the fog clear, the sky blue, the sun rise in the morning. Coffee transforms my brain from a sluggish clod of dirt into a sleek, high-speed performance machine. Or maybe it just helps me string a sentence together at 9 am.
So I have a dedicated mid-morning cuppa, just as insurance towards a happy life. But this heat...it's so intolerable that I'm nearly off my food. And the thought of drinking anything hot makes me sweat a little.
So, this weekend I started drinking iced coffee. I was so desperate for a fix, I actually bought this at a Corporate House O'Doom.
The obivous conclusions can be made here: the coffee was delicious, more $$ than what I want to pay on a daily basis, and so I've been doing a little homework to crack the code.
Here's what I found, pass it on!
Cold-brewing iced coffee:
* Start with a coarse-ground dark roast. You can get this in bulk at a grocery store.
* Put a quantity of coffee in a clean container, and add double the volume of water as you did coffee (so, say 2 cups of water for 1 cup of grounds.) Not boiling water, just plain water.
* Let this concoction steep for about 10 hours.
* Filter the coffee water mix. The resulting liquid (coffee concentrate) is called "toddy". You'll want to dilute it with some water, and because it's already so strong, it should keep a nice flavor even when you add icecubes.
From what I've read about cold brewing, it's got a smoother flavor and less acid than the regular hot brewing method.
And how to sugar it now that it's cold? Martha Stewart has a
Of course, you can always make hot coffee, add sugar, put in fridge, go to bed and drink it later. But try the different way and see what you think!
June 21st, 2007 at 03:10 pm 1182438614
It boggles my mind the number of people who pay $3.85 for a coffee in the monring at Starbucks.
June 21st, 2007 at 03:20 pm 1182439240
I too, am not a big fan of a "cut out the coffee" suggestions. In fact, I'll be taking a small coffee tour on my honemoon
June 21st, 2007 at 03:35 pm 1182440140
The iced coffee I got last summer did taste very strong, but mmmm, mmmmm, good!
My daughter was a barrista? (worked in a coffee shop) for awhile and learned to make all those wonderful coffees.
I won't pay the prices either for a cup of Starbucks very often. My Folgers is fine with me.
June 21st, 2007 at 03:37 pm 1182440253
June 21st, 2007 at 03:45 pm 1182440714
Make a pot of regular hot coffee. Drink a cup
YUM!
June 21st, 2007 at 04:11 pm 1182442294
mmmmmmmmmmm...tasty...can't wait to try!
June 22nd, 2007 at 03:35 am 1182483326
And yep, I will not pay $3.85 for a cup of coffee, because in fact at that price you're buying milk, syrup, whip cream, chocolate and frappogenized crud. I actually love the taste of drip coffee. Even at corporate coffee house o'doom the drip runs about $1.75.
For a very similar but even clearer cafeine buzz, yerba mate. The only downside is that it tastes like a cigarette butt if you don't put any sugar in it.