Lazy man's recipe for iced coffee
I've found a way to make okay iced coffee at home without my cold-brew coffee maker (which is back in New Orleans): Pour milk into a tall glass. Add 1 or 2 teaspoons of Folgers instant coffee crystals, more or less according to taste. Stir a lot—it takes a while for the Folgers to dissolve in cold liquid. Add ice. Mmmm. Not quite as good as my home-brewed cold brew, but not bad.
I usually have an allergic reaction of sorts from Folders instant crystals. Here my* recipe for iced coffee (a/k/a the Irregular Heartbeat).
1. Put in 2 or 3 oz. of water.
2. Put in 2 shots of espresso.
3. Fill glass with chopped ice.
4. Add 2 more shots of espresso.
5. Fill remainder of glass with ice.
*I order it from the coffee shop, so it's not really my recipe.
Posted by: Mike | October 05, 2005 at 12:06 PM
Mike's recipe isn't too far from my normal (at home) recipe, except where Mike is heavy on the ice, I'm heavy on the milk. At home, I make cold-brewed coffee. The recipe is simple: combine 9 cups cold water with 1 lb. coarse-ground coffee, and let it steep for anywhere from 10 to 24 hours. Filter out the grounds, and what's left is the equivalent of cold espresso. One batch of this stuff lasts me a little over a week. When I want a cup of iced coffee, I take one part of this concentrated goo and add two parts milk. Ice is optional.
As an exile from New Orleans, I'm making do without my cold-brew apparatus. Hence, the instant Folgers.
Posted by: Ray | October 05, 2005 at 12:55 PM
The horror! I only had to make do for a week or so before I was hired as a temporary barista at the PJ's in Hammond for three weeks before I had to move to Houston. All the free coffee I could drink while I was working, and the owner was so nice she gave my fiance and me an iced toddy maker during our last week of work. For the record, the Toddy instructions are 72 ounces water to 1 pound course ground coffee and let sit for 12 hours. In case anyone still can't get their hands on a toddy, the exact dimension help a lot for makeshift brewers. I also found that "caramel delight" from Target is delicious iced coffee - had to make do before I could get some more PJ's since they switched their roasting facilities to Atlanta for the time being.
Posted by: Aaron Weidenhaft | October 11, 2005 at 12:13 AM
Good news. My wife just got me a replacement Toddy Coffee Maker. So now I get to enjoy the real thing.
Mike, a suggestion: Get yourself one of these and make yourself some home brew—use your same recipe, substituting the cold-brewed stuff for your espresso shots.
Posted by: Ray | October 11, 2005 at 11:36 AM