Iced Coffee

I grew up in an itty bitty small town in Colorado.  I always knew I was destined for the "big city".  After all, out of the whopping 32 (?) people that were in my graduating class, 12 of us (the Dirty Dozen) started kindergarten together.  With barely a wave goodbye later, I went to college in the Seattle area and fell in love with it.  One thing Seattle is known for, aside from rain, is coffee.  I became addicted instantly, especially to iced coffee drinks.  On my first trip back home, depression set in when I saw there was not a coffee stand in sight.  I just sat on a hay bale and watched the tumble weeds blow....sigh.  Just kidding.  Well, kinda :)
Eventually, marriage and kids takes over and you find other things to do with your money than spend $5.00 a day on a coffee drink.  $5.00 a day....$35.00 a week....$151-ish a month....$1820 a year.  Yeah, it adds up.  So, I tried doing the "responsible" thing and make them at home.  I would take hot coffee and pour it over ice.  Bleck, it was just a watered down mess.  I would take leftover coffee and put it in the fridge, but it always turned bitter and acidic.  So, imagine the happy dance I jigged when I saw Mommy's Kitchen put a technique on her site that cold brewed coffee into a coffee concentrate, that you simply added milk and flavorings.  YES!  I tried it and immediately fell in LOVE!  Do yourself a favor and start a batch of this tonight and tomorrow you too can sip on a scrumptious, just the way you like it, stickin' it to the man Iced Coffee!


Ingredients:

• 1-Cup ground coffee - fresh ground is great but not necessary
• 32 ounces cold water
• Milk
• Flavoring - I like using the flavored coffee creamers. Especially the Sweet Cream flavor, but you can experiment and use any of your favorite flavored syrups that you can buy at the grocery store.

Equipment:

• 1 Glass container with lid to hold at least 32 ounces. You can use a canning jar, or like me, a washed large applesauce jar.
• 1 smaller glass jar with lid to store coffee concentrate in fridge. I used a washed out spaghetti sauce jar.
• French Press

        OR

• Strainer
• Coffee filters - largest you can find. Not the cone shape, but the bucket/basket shape. I changed filters after straining half of the mixture.

Place coffee grounds in container. Pour 32 ounces (4 cups) cold water over the coffee grounds. Put on the lid and gently swish to get all the grounds wet. Let it sit on the counter overnight, or 12-15 hours. Por coffe mixture into your french press and press this amazing concentrate OR place your strainer over a large bowl, and put a coffee filter inside the strainer. Slowly pour coffee into the filter and allow it to sit until it has drained through. As I said, I changed filters about half way through. Keep straining the coffee mixture through a filter until jar is empty. Pour coffee concentrate in another smaller jar to keep in fridge for further use.

To make the iced coffee, fill a glass with ice and mix equal amounts of coffee concentrate and choice of milk, or water depending how you like it. Add sweeteners or flavorings of choice. I have made it using 1/2 cup coffee concentrate and 1/2 cup chocolate milk making a yummy mocha-ish drink, I have also made it using 1/2 cup coffee concentrate and 1/2 cup rice milk, adding 2 TBSP Italian Sweet Cream creamer. You could even get fancy and blend the coffee concentrate with ice, add some chocolate chips and milk or chocolate milk...Viola! Mocha Frappacino! OR, blend the coffee concentrate with milk, ice, and a couple TBSP caramel sauce...CARAMEL Frappacino! What is great about this is you can totally adjust it to how you like it with flavors or control the amount of sugar and fat with the type of sweeteners and milk product you use.

You can also make 1-cup hot coffee by using the same method and heating it up.