Friday, October 21, 2011

My morning fix

This summer I got into the iced coffee thing.  I'm not a starbucks kind of person.  Not even a coffee shop kind.  The coffee that I make at home is reliable.  It tastes the same every single day.  I can't get that anywhere else.  And I don't want to pay for it. 

Around day 27 of 100+ degree weather this summer, I said screw you to my hot cup of coffee every morning and decided to try iced coffee.  At first, it was a disaster.  Who knew that you just couldn't brew a pot of coffee and pour it over ice!  It tasted like dog crap. 

So I turned to google.  The logical thing to do, right?  I found a few different ways to make iced coffee at home, all of which were pretty similar.  The key is making a coffee concentrate.  I came up with my own version and I'm hooked.  I can't get enough of it.  It's my morning crack, and when it's too cold to drink it this winter, I will probably need to go to rehab and enter a detox program.

The best part about this?  You make a batch on Sunday and keep it in the fridge all week long.  Genious.

Coffee Concentrate: 
- Pour 3 cups of coffee grinds into a large bowl
- Fill the bowl with 12 cups of water
- Stir, cover, and let it sit all day or overnight (This is weird to me.  I guess you could put it in the fridge, but I just let mine sit on the counter.)
- Uncover, stir again, and strain into a pitcher (I use a thin strainer and a paper towel.  I tried coffee filters but it took forever.  And I'm not cool enough to use cheese cloth.)

When you are ready to drink, pour over ice and add your creamer/sugar/milk/whatever.  I personally like my sugar free vanilla creamer, with a shot of half and half. 


Will thinks the whole process is strange, and every time he walks into the kitchen while I'm straining my coffee mixture, he makes a weird gagging noise. 

And yes, I use a 1979 pitcher from Dixie Linoleum and Carpet in Memphis, TN.  

**Here's my disclaimer:  This stuff is so good that you can't stop drinking it.  It's a shitload of caffeine.  It's probably eating away at my insides and staining my teeth.  But oh well.  It wakes me up and keeps me going all day.  Therefore, I LOVE IT.

***One recipe that I found was for an entire month's worth of coffee.  Where do you find a bowl that big?  I didn't want to make my morning crack in the bathtub, so I'm sticking with my weekly routine.  It works for me.

2 comments:

Julie said...

Since I'm ruining my teeth with my daily Dr. Pepper (not the diet one, the with a shitload of sugar in it), I find comfort knowing that we'll both be wearing dentures together in the nursing home! :)

NOel said...

Serioulsy way too much work. You know Starbucks makes individual packages that you simply put into a cup with ice and water. They're great and less time consuming. :) Just saying!