Cheap, delicious iced coffee

[Artemisia]

I know it's winter, but I like my coffee iced year-round, and I've found the best, and easiest way to do it is to cold-brew it. It's much less pricey than the $3 I'd pay at Caribou or Seattle's Best for their cold-brewed iced coffee (they're the only big chains that cold-brew their iced coffee) The technique produces a low-acid (great for people who love coffee, but have sensitive stomachs), somewhat more caffeinated (good and bad - I like my jolt in the morning or before a workout!) brew...and is so smooth that all of the notes in the coffee that are sometimes overshadowed by bitterness come to the surface - caramel, toffee, vanilla, chocolate, smokiness, etc.

All you need to do is mix 1/3 c. ground coffee (I like coarse grind, but medium is good, too) with 1-1/2 c. water, and let it sit at room temperature for 12 hours, or overnight. In the morning, strain the grounds out (use a coffee filter), and mix the resulting liquid in a 50-50 (or less or more to taste) ratio with cold water or milk and some ice. Voila! You can also do 50-50 hot water for hot coffee, though I've never tried. I tend to do 60-40 coffee to water, with some heavy cream. I don't need sugar or added flavoring at all...it's delicious.

My fiance got me a french press pot for Christmas, so I dump the water and grounds in there at night, and press it in the morning so I don't have to mess with a filter. If I double the recipe, I can get 3-4 servings from it (I like a big glass, lol). The resulting coffee concentrate will keep for quite awhile without becoming stale-tasting. I just leave the press pot sitting on a cool, dark area of my kitchen counter during the winter; I've also kept it in the fridge on hotter days.

The recipe appeared in the NY Times in 2007, but cold-brewing was invented in the 1960s by Todd Simpson...sometimes cold-brewed coffee is referred to as a "Toddy," which is different than the alcoholic "hot toddy."

:-) This technique was a revelation to me a couple of years ago - I used to just brew coffee and dump it over ice - it tastes so much better cold-brewed!

[CarrieNyden]

Wow, I never knew this was an actual technique!! I always brew my coffee at night and then press (french press) it in the morning! Maybe this isn't the exact technique, but I agree, it makes iced coffee 100x better :-D

[Artemisia]

Awesome. :-) Yeah, I love not having to mess around with hot water to get iced coffee. I've been told you can also substitute hot water for the cold water in the 50:50 ratio to get a great cup of hot coffee, but I'll always pick iced over hot unless it's after dinner!