The Best Iced Coffee: No Boiling Required
After a chilly March, a few days of bright spring weather finally graced the East Coast last week. As buds burst from their fuzzy casings and young women flaunted pretty dresses and bare legs, we suddenly started thinking "mmm, iced coffee." Around the office, our afternoon lattes and macchiatos were just too darned hot.
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Most iced coffee is made from old hot coffee and tends to taste bitter and stale (pass the sugar and half and half, please). Moreover, at a couple of dollars a pop, it's annoying to purchase when, in the back or your mind, you know it would just be chucked at the end of the day anyway.
The best option: make your own sublime cold coffee concentrate. The recipe calls for a minimum of 12 hours to brew so set it up on the weekend. This iced coffee will smoothly take you through the week and costs a fraction of what you would pay at your local Starbucks.
Cold Brewed Coffee
Ingredients
1 cup freshly ground coffee beans (medium-coarse)
4 cups cold water
Equipment
Glass pitcher, carafe, or large jar
Large basket paper filter or cheesecloth
Fine mesh sieve
Mixing bowl
Place coffee grounds in pitcher, stir in water. Cover with lid or plastic wrap and let sit in refrigerator for 12-24 hours. Place sieve over mixing bowl and line with filter or cheesecloth. Slowly, pour the coffee mixture through the sieve (from personal experience: if you pour too fast, you risk having a coffee ground explosion all over your countertop). Rinse pitcher and use to store coffee concentrate for up to a week in the refrigerator. Add one-part water per half cup of concentrate for black coffee or one part milk if you like a creamy, strong brew. For a decadent variation on classic Vietnamese iced coffee, use sweetened condensed milk.
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