Taste the difference when you cold brew your iced coffee - mellow, smooth, and frostily delicious on a sweltering hot summer day. (Skip to recipe.)
We're in the dog days of summer.
What does that really mean? 'Cause our dog is living the good life - moving from shady spot to shady spot, sleeping the hot afternoons away, only coming to life briefly to occasionally snap at a droning fly.
I wish I was a dog.
Then I could totally wallow in these hot summer days, getting every last lazy bit of enjoyment out of them . . .
. . . . . instead of constantly rushing around one step behind myself to keep up with the garden and all the busy activities we try to pack into these few glorious months of heat.
Every now and then I take a dog-day moment, though, and stop the mad rush to sit in the shade and swat at flies and contemplate life as I look deep into the ice cubes tinkling in the condensation-wrapped mug of delicious cold-brewed iced coffee in my paw.
Man, is that good coffee.
I'm not even a regular coffee drinker - too much of it and you'd have to peel me off the ceiling after I ricocheted up there like a Mexican jumping bean on steroids.
But sometimes I throw caution to the wind and indulge in a soul-satisfying cup of jo. In the winter it might be a mug of Power Coffee, but in the summer it's a glass of mellow cold-brew. This coffee's as smooth as a canoe ride on a glass-calm lake - slides down your throat really easy and has none of the harshness that a cup of chilled regular coffee can have. Apparently, cold-brew has less caffeine than hot-brewed coffee, so that suits my summer coffee needs just fine. I get enough of a lift to keep me awake, but not enough to have me vibrating crazily out of sync with these mellow days.
All you do is grind up your favourite coffee beans (we like half 'n' half of a west coast full bodied roast and Starbucks True North mellow blonde roast). Mix the ground coffee with filtered cold water in a 1:8 ratio of coffee to water. Let sit in the fridge or at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours. Then stir, strain, and strain again through a filter (or skip the second straining and just discard the fine coffee sediment left at the bottom of the jug when you get to it).
Add a bit of sugar or milk if desired, or if it's after dinner and you're sitting around with friends on the deck, a bit of coffee liqueur or Bailey's stirs quite easily into the mug 🙂
And find a shady spot to go catch some flies.
* * * * *
Kitchen Frau Notes: I've even left this coffee to brew for 48 hours in my fridge, and it was still fine.
Use a 2 quart juice jug to brew your coffee, or I use the 1.9 litre sized canning jars I can buy at Canadian Tire. They store perfectly in the door of my fridge.
How to Cold Brew Iced Coffee
- 8 cups (1.92litres) filtered water
- 1 cup (240mls) freshly ground coffee beans
Stir together the water and the ground coffee in a container, jug, or jar which is large enough to hold everything.
*If your container is 2 litres/quarts in size, use only 7 cups of water and add the remaining cup after the coffee has brewed and been strained.
Seal the container. Refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours.
Stir the coffee to loosen the grounds that have settled to the bottom. Pour through a fine-meshed strainer into another container or a large pot to strain out the coarse grounds. Then line the strainer with a coffee filter and strain again to remove the fine sediment. The second straining will have to be done in stages, as it goes through the coffee filter at a slower rate. If it drips too slowly, I sometimes discard the first filter halfway through and use a fresh filter to strain the second half of the batch. (Or skip the second straining and just discard the fine coffee sediment left at the bottom of the jug when you get to it.)
Add the remaining cup of water if you only used 7 cups to cold brew the coffee.
Serve cold with plenty of ice cubes, and sugar and milk on the side for adding if desired.
Will keep refrigerated for up to 1 week.
Makes 2 quarts/litres of iced coffee.
Guten Appetit!
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