Iced Coffee

Subtitle: Liquid Love

Jen and I have been refrigerating the leftover coffee each morning for later in the day, but just drinking it cold seemed inadequate. Pouring it over ice diluted it too much, so we tried making coffee ice cubes. This works, but it's kind of messy and needed a dedicated ice cube tray and (obviously) freezer space.

Enter Pioneer Woman. Her timely post offered another option that involves making a quantity of concentrate that's ready at our command. Nice.

Iced Coffee Concentrate

1 pound Ground Coffee (good, Rich Roast)

8 quarts Cold Water

Half-and-half (healthy Splash Per Serving)

Sweetened Condensed Milk (2-3 Tablespoons Per Serving)

Note: Can Use Skim Milk, 2% Milk, Whole Milk, Sugar, Artificial Sweeteners, Syrups...adapt To Your Liking!

In a large container, mix ground coffee with water. Cover and allow to sit at room temperature eight hours or overnight.

Line a fine mesh strainer with cheesecloth and set over a pitcher or other container. Pour coffee/water mixture through the strainer, allowing all liquid to run through. Discard grounds.

Place coffee liquid in the fridge and allow to cool. Use as needed.

To make iced coffee, pack a glass full of ice cubes. Fill glass 2/3 full with coffee liquid. Add healthy splash of half-and-half. Add 2-3 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk (can use plain sugar instead) and stir to combine. Taste and adjust half-and-half and/or sweetened condensed milk as needed.

NOTES: I made a batch using 1/2 lb coffee and 1 gallon of water. It seems less bitter than our other method using previously heated coffee. Jen gives it two thumbs-up! I let this batch steep overnight and I'd recommend stirring it one or two times during the process. Even though I made sure all the grounds were wet initially, after a few hours I saw there were definite layers forming in my container. When I opened it, I found there were a lot of grounds floating on top. After this stirring, they sank to the bottom and, I assume, gave up more of their coffee goodness.

Go to the original post for all the nice pictures.