I started making my own iced coffee, 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 here.
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, one of my husband’s co-workers had given him a big bag of really fancy espresso coffee beans, 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.
Ingredients
- Coffee beans (or ground coffee)
- Water
- Sugar
- Milk / Non-Dairy creamer
Instructions
- Grind the coffee beans (or use ground ones if you prefer).
- If you, like me, use the basic manual drip method, boil some filtered water and make your coffee the way you normally do, but you do want to make it stronger than usual. I use 12 ½ tbsp ground coffee for about 10 cups (as measured on the coffee pot).
- Take out one or two large glass bottles, I use old Maple Syrup bottles, they look nice and fit quite a lot of coffee so they’re perfect.
- Put the sugar into the empty bottle and pour a little bit of the hot coffee in. I use around 5 teaspoons of sugar for my large bottle, which holds around 6-7 cups of coffee (again, as indicated on the Melitta coffee pot). Shake the bottle until the sugar has dissolved and then pour in the rest of the coffee.
- Let the bottle sit, uncovered, on the kitchen counter for the coffee to cool off (I usually put a piece of paper towel over the bottle since I don't want fruit flies in it). Once it has cooled a bit, put the cap on and place in the fridge overnight.
- If you're desperate and can't wait, you could shake it with ice and drink it sooner. I don't like ice in drinks, and I hate when my beverages get watered down, so I hardly ever use it.
- Once the coffee is nice and cold, give the bottle a shake, pour a glass, add some milk or coconut creamer 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.
I just stumbled upon your blog and I really enjoy it. I thought I might share my findings on iced coffee. I have learned if you use cold water and mix with the grounds, let sit 6-12 hours (I do overnight) and then strain the concemtrate it is heavenly! A bit more work but 1 cup grounds to 4cups water overnight is just pure awesome!
Thank you for your kind words about my blog! So this would be the cold brew method, right? I have heard a lot about it but haven’t tried it yet. Thanks so much for sharing how to do it, it’s on my list of things to try when the weather gets warmer.
I Love ice coffee espresso but don’t know how to make it .Then I came across this so I will definitely have to give it a try. Thank You so mush.!!!!!!
How much sugar?? For a 10 cup pot?? This is my first time doing this and I have no clue how much to put in. Please don’t say, “to taste.” I don’t drink my hot coffee with sugar so I really have no clue!
Dana
Well, it depends on how sweet you want it… 😄 I don’t put sugar in my hot coffee either, but I do like iced coffee a little bit sweet. I usually put in about 3-4 tablespoons of dark brown sugar for 10 cups. Since tastes vary, the only way to know for sure is to try it!