Amongst diff’rin’ opin’ns held by me and my fiancée is the (my) moral imperative to patronize smaller coffee shops rather than the Ahab’s-first-mate’s-namesake-behemoth whose green siren has a whole nation entranced with her earthy elixir études. Another difference is my cotton for cold coffee and her hankering for hot. Luckily, I haven’t lived more than 3 blocks from an independent coffee shop in over five years now, so the icy delight has come with little moral baggage until recently. Usually what happens is that we’ll run early morning errands together and forget to make a pot before leaving the house. I like a hot cuppa every once in awhile, but she always prefers it. The issue is that now, we also live almost equally close to one of these chain locations. This means that rather than popping into the shop up the block, it’s into the idling queue lest one of us suffers the misery that is exiting the vehicle. I do really love her – so please continue to suspend your disbelief for the sake of this dramatization.
Anyhow. Because of all of this I started to get curious, as I am want to do, and discovered that most coffee shops don’t simply ice their hot coffee to make the cold stuff; instead, they do a cold brew process, which in most cases is simply an overnight refrigerated steeping of coffee grounds in water. It results in a much less acidic brew with a robust earthiness that gets masked by oils extracted through conventional hot water brewing. Cold brewing also works really nicely for tea – and in particular green teas, which tend to require lower temperatures and brew times for ideal results.
So, now the point of all this, a recipe. It’s really rather simple:
- ½ kg (~1 pound) whole coffee beans (edited, had the units backward)
- I use a dark roast for the base, at least ½-¾ of the total quantity
- The remainder can be a lighter roast if you wish; If you like a deeper/richer flavor, go straight French/dark roast
- Pulse to a medium/coarse grind; If making a double+ batch, a blender makes quicker work than a coffee grinder.
- ~2.75L (5/8 gallons, or 2.5+ quarts) of water
- A large pitcher or non-reactive vessel, at least 1 gallon (stainless, plastic, glass)
- A sieve, and large paper filters or a poly bag filter (cheese cloth will work in a pinch, anything to efficiently strain the liquid
Then, simply:
- combine the ingredients and stir
- steep overnight (for at least 8 hours, 12 is better, a full day is better yet)
- put the filter in the sieve and strain
- store in the fridge for 1 week max
To serve, dilute with water/ice/milk/etc. (optional, though recommended as this is quite concentrated). Add liquid sweetener if desired.
The cost for the largest iced coffee at BarStucks (31oz, I will not use their goofy names) is around $3.50. I have found two pound bags of high-quality coffee for $10 (surprisingly cheap, yes). When diluted similarly to most coffee shops (ice, water) a two pound bag of coffee will yield approximately 425oz. 425/31 = 13.7 servings, 13.7*$3.5 = $50. A whopping savings of $40 for about 5 minutes worth of work. Use your head and time wisely.