Cold-Brewed Iced Coffee

Lest you think I only eat dessert, worry not: sometimes I drink coffee too. And in the summer, that caffeine habit becomes EXPENSIVE. Daily $4 iced coffees are not a sustainable practice, and so I bring you homemade cold-brewed iced coffee. Don’t say I never did anything nice for you.

All coffee-making follows the same process: water extracts flavors and chemical compounds from beans. Hot water not only speeds up that process, it also cooks the beans a bit, changing some of the flavor profiles of the coffee (h/t NYT).

A lot of iced coffee is made by brewing hot coffee and then letting it cool to room temperature. You could do this, but I find the resulting coffee to be pretty acidic (hot water extracts more acid than cold would) and pretty weak — since you’re using hot-coffee standard amounts of water to brew the coffee and then adding more water (in the form of ice) to cool it, the coffee ends up extra-diluted.

But cold-brewing extracts flavor from the coffee bean at a slower rate and leaves the original flavors relatively intact. And since I’m already not a fan of light, acidic roasts (I like my coffee dark and bold and chocolate-y — surprise, surprise), cold brew’s purported “mild, smooth and just a tad sweet” flavors seemed right up my alley.

And now that I’ve made my own cold brew, I’m kicking myself for the thousands of dollars I’ve spent on often mediocre iced coffees in the past. This recipe is so easy a child could handle it, and the end result is a smooth, balanced brew that I want to drink all day every day. And since all it requires is standard ground coffee and water, I can actually afford that. #WIN

Cold-Brewed Iced Coffee
Recipe from Chow
Makes 6-8 16-ounce servings

– 1-1/2 cups coarsely ground coffee

– 3-1/2 cups cold water

– ice and milk, to serve

– special equipment: 2 1-quart pitchers or jars, a fine-mesh strainer, coffee filters (optional)

1) In a 1-quart pitcher, combine the ground coffee and cold water. Stir to combine, then cover and refrigerate for 12-24 hours.

2) Line a fine-mesh strainer with a coffee filter, and place over the mouth of a 1-quart pitcher or jar. Carefully pour the coffee through the strainer, allowing the coffee to filter through slowly (don’t force it). Dump the grounds, then continue to pour the coffee through the strainer, stopping when you reach the solids at the bottom. Discard the remaining grounds. Refrigerate the filtered cold-brewed coffee for another 12 hours (and up to 5 days).

3) To serve: dilute the cold brew with an equal part of ice, milk or water. (So if you’re filling a 16-ounce cup, use 8 ounces of cold brew and 8 ounces of milk + ice.)