Cold Brewed Iced Coffee

Intro: Cold Brewed Iced Coffee

Hate overpaying for something you can most likely make at home? Me too. I was browsing coffee making techniques and came across cold brewed coffee. After a day of toying around (and way too much coffee for one person to drink) I came up with a recipe I like. This may be a little strong for some people, but you can always add more milk or water. My mom actually thought it was too strong so blended it with ice. Apparently she liked it because I am supposed to bring her more. Enjoy!

NOTE: This takes about 12 hours minimum to brew.

Materials Needed:
Coffee
Water
Container to brew it in, preferably with a lid
Filters
Funnel
Ice
Milk
Syrup

STEP 1: Step One

Select your coffee. For mine, I chose Moxie Java (locally owned company) French Roast.  Grind up coffee to end up with 1 1/4 cups ground coffee. Pour into mason jar. It should fill close to 1/4 of the jar.

STEP 2: Step Two

Add water, preferably filtered.  Fill with about 4 1/2 cups water or to the top of a normal sized mason jar. Flip upside down or shake a little to agitate the grounds/water. Let sit for 12 hours, agitating it every once in a while. You can put it in the fridge but I filtered my last batch at room temp and it seemed to work better. Not sure if it really did or if I was imagining it.

STEP 3: Step Three

Once it is done brewing, 12 hours later, double filter it.  I used the filter my coffee maker came with for the first filter, then a cone shaped filter for the second. It actually takes me about two to three filters because I get impatient. 

STEP 4: Step Four

Add your ice, milk and syrup! I mix mine about 2/3 coffee, 1/3 milk, with a splash of syrup.  You can add more milk or even dilute it with some water if it is too strong.

STEP 5: Step Five

Enjoy! It took this long, it had better taste good right? Hopefully you guys like it! My cat was eyeballing it pretty hard.

Comments

[LisaR35]

Good coffee. The fine grind was much easier to filter. L

[cattyb]

I use about 1.5 cups good ol' Folgers french roast in a 2 quart Rubbermaid bottle for 12 - 24 hours and end up with a good strong cuppa. I pour it through a strainer lined with a regular paper filter and NEVER change that filter...just have patience 'cause the end result tastes better. Besides, you can always 'sneak' a cup while waiting for the dripping to stop! :-)

[moclips7924]

Great ideas, and what a cute and intent kitty! looks like kitty has already had a saucer or two of strong coffee, given those big eyes.

[suayres]

I just made my first batch of cold-brewed coffee, using a jar, water, and freshly ground coffee. The taste is good, but a bit weak. A couple of questions: first of all, how fine do you grind the coffee? The article I read said to grind it medium coarse, but I may have gotten it TOO coarse, which might explain the namby-pamby flavor. I mean, should the granules be about the size of grains of sugar, or the size of, say, mustard seeds, or somewhere in-between? Also, I thought about putting the whole business in the fridge to steep, instead of leaving it out on the counter (so I can make iced coffee with a head-start on the chill, so-to-speak). Would that mess up the steeping? Lastly, when you make your recipe (1-1/4 cups coffee to 1 mason-jar's worth of water--and is that a 1 quart jar?--do you have a coffee concentrate, or a drinkable-without-dilution product when done? Thank you so much!

[Civicalized]

I should have clarified some things better, and for that I am sorry. I have tweaked it slightly to my personal taste. I use a pretty fine grind when I make it. I have tried a mixture of medium coarseness and a fin grind but have found the best flavor from a fine grind. The obvious downside to this is when filtering you have to deal with clogged filters. It usually takes me about 4 cone filters for each jar. On that note, I use the quart jars. It makes about 4/5 of a jar and if the grind is fine enough, the flavor is so strong it can be diluted a little. You mentioned steeping the coffee in the fridge; I have done this but usually don't. I don't believe this would change the brewing process, but it may (and if it does, I didn't notice a difference). I have noticed, though it may be psychological, that when it is cold it filters better/faster. I tried a dash of salt too but couldn't tell a difference (some say it draws out flavor in hot-brew, so I figured I'd try) I also use a French Roast most of the time, actually the bag pictured is my preferred brand/roast. Let me know how your next batch turns out, if there are still problems, I will try to re-write the steps a little better.

[imaxb6]

how much coffee did you use???

[Civicalized]

I used about 1 1/2 cups of ground coffee. It was roughly 3 ounces of coffee beans. You end up with about 3/4 of a mason jar when finished, however I have found topping it off with filtered water doesn't dilute it much.

[icebird]

If you're lazy like me, just use the cold coffee left over in the pot from the day before :)

[Civicalized]

It has a different taste than hot brewed coffee. I can't remember exactly, but it does something chemically different and gives it a stronger more caffinated flavor. But we reuse our old hot brew too. Its just plain easy.

[scoochmaroo]

This is awesome. As is your caffeine-fiend feline. I am definitely going to try this!