Cold Brewed Iced Coffee
Refreshingly Delicious Iced Coffee... Hello!
Truth be known, I'm not much of a coffee drinker (unless I'm staying up all night baking a wedding cake), but every now and then I crave a tall glass of delicious iced coffee. Mmmmm.
There are so many recipes out there - most of which call for leftover hot brewed coffee, but I'll let you in on a little secret - cold brewed coffee is considerably less acidic, resulting in a heavenly smooth brew!
The coffee concentrate used to make this iced coffee is very easy to prepare and can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks (or frozen for longer storage, although I seriously doubt you'll need to worry about that).
Before we begin, there's one little problem I have to share with you guys - I can't decide which flavor I like better, plain or mocha, so I'll share both. Here we go.
To make the cold brewed coffee concentrate, you'll need coarsely ground fresh coffee, cold water, and a covered container. Please note - I'm only demonstrating 1/2 of the recipe listed at the end of this post. Scale it up or down to suit your needs.
Start by pouring a little water in the bottom of a suitable container.
Then add half of the ground coffee.
Don't shake or stir the mixture - tap the container to evenly distribute the coffee grounds.
Add more water - tap, tap, tap.
Add the remaining coffee and last little bit of water and tap again if needed. This is what it should look like.
The next step is the easiest... and the hardest.
It's the easiest because all you have to do is cover it and let it sit for 12 hours.
And it's the hardest because, well, we're talking twelve hours!!!
Time's up. Not a significant change, but the grounds appear to be darker in color.
We're almost done.
Time to strain. I like to do this in two steps, once using a mesh sieve to quickly remove the large coffee grounds.
And then again using a coffee filter to remove the smaller grounds. Be patient - this part will take 10-15 minutes.
Ta-da! Cold brewed coffee concentrate. Now go and make yourself one of these...
Enjoy!
Cold Brewed Coffee Concentrate
makes 3 cups of concentrate (enough to make 12 individual servings - recipe below)
Ingredients
1/2 pound high quality coffee beans, coarsely ground
4 1/2 cups cold filtered water
Directions
In a large container, without stirring, add the following ingredients in the order listed: 1/4 cup water, 1/4 pound coffee, 2 cups water, 1/4 pound coffee, and 2 cups water.
Wait 5 minutes and add remaining 1/4 cup water.
Gently tap outside of the container to evenly distribute coffee grounds.
Cover and set aside at room temperature, undisturbed, for 12 hours,
Strain and refrigerate concentrate for up to 2 weeks, or freeze in ice cube portions for longer storage. Recipe for iced coffee below.
Iced Coffee (two ways)
Ingredients
4 tablespoons cold brewed coffee concentrate
2 tablespoons cold water
2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
tall glass of ice
Garnish - whipped cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, and/or chocolate syrup
Directions
Combine coffee concentrate, water, and sweetened condensed milk together and pour over a full glass of ice.
Now dump it all into a blender and buzz the heck out of it.
Garnish if desired. Kick back and enjoy!
Note
To make a mocha version, add 1 tablespoon of Hershey's chocolate syrup.
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