To be honest, I’m actually [...]]]> I started making my own ice coffee, both because it’s cheaper and less of a hassle than to buy it somewhere. And, I actually like my own better than what I buy in the coffee shops (if I may say so myself) so I thought I’d share my very easy recipe.

To be honest, I’m actually more of a tea drinker. I love my gigantic morning mug of steaming hot tea so much that I sometimes look forward to it already when I go to bed at night! But these past few weeks have been so painfully hot and humid around here (I love heat, but even I need a break at this point) that a hot cup of anything is the last thing you want.

So I decided to try to make my own ice coffee instead. Luckily, a very nice person my husband works with had given him a big bag of really fancy espresso coffee beans a little while back, and a friend gave me a coffee grinder so we were all set to start experimenting.

I didn’t have any regular sugar – I don’t like sweets and hardly ever make anything that uses it but I do need something sweet in coffee. Luckily, I had some turbinado sugar left over from my homemade ice cream experiments last summer (more on that in future posts) and decided that would have to do. Actually I like that a lot better than plain old white sugar anyway since it adds a slight caramelly flavor.

So we brewed, we chilled, and loved the result. Those espresso beans are so good and the smell in the kitchen when you grind them – yum! It will definitely be our caffeinated drink of choice this summer.

Here’s my ice coffee recipe:

Grind the coffee beans (or use ground ones if you prefer). I use the basic manual drip method, so I boiled some filtered water and made my coffee as usual. I used 12 ½ tbsp ground coffee for about 10 cups (as measured on the coffee pot).

Take out a large glass bottle, I used an old Maple Syrup bottle, it fits quite a lot of coffee so it’s perfect (I always save nice glass bottles and jars, I have way too many already but I just can’t stand throwing them out, or put them in the recycling bin, I know I’ll be able to use them for something again – if not food, a craft project).

Put the sugar, whichever kind you’re using, into the empty bottle and pour a little bit of the hot coffee in. I probably used around 5 teaspoons of sugar for my large bottle, which fits around 6-7 cups of coffee (again, as indicated on the Melitta coffee pot). Shake the bottle about until the sugar has dissolved and pour in the rest of the coffee.

I then let the bottle sit on the kitchen table and cool off (with a piece of paper towel over since I don’t want fruit flies in it). Once it’s cooled a bit, put the cap on and put in the fridge overnight. If you’re desperate and can’t wait, you could shake it with ice and drink it sooner, but, being European, I don’t like ice in things, and I hate when my beverages get watered down, so I never do.

Once the coffee is nice and cold, pour a glass, add some milk if you want and enjoy!

I’ve tried making it with the addition of some Swedish vanilla sugar as well, but I didn’t like how that turned out. Plain and simple is best in my opinion. Although I was wondering how a little bit of rum extract would be… maybe I’ll try that some day.