Erin Meister trains baristas for North Carolina-based Counter Culture Coffee and sporadically maintains the blog Meet the Press Pot from her home in New York City. This is the third in a series of tips for the caffeine-addicted. Since Isiticedcoffeeweather.com has finally (finally!) started answering in the affirmative, I think it's time you and I get chilly up in here. Of the numerous ways to make delicious iced coffee, my favorite is the popular Japanese style introduced to me by my colleagues and widely praised among its devotees: It's easy, adaptable and instantly gratifying -- like a beachside hot dog.
There are several different tools you can use to whip up a batch of summer's precious caffeinated lifeblood, depending on how much iced joe you require: a large Chemex will do the trick for the recipe below, but a cone coffee dripper positioned over a pitcher or cup (as at right) is perfect for smaller outputs.
Directions after the jump.
To make 8–10 servings of iced coffee, empty one regular-size ice cube tray into your large pitcher or Chemex. You'll also need 1 cup of fresh coffee at a medium-fine grind, and 1 liter (34 fluid ounces) of just-off-the-boil water for the extraction. (This recipe can also be adapted to make single servings: When I don't want to share, I use 8.5 fluid ounces of water to brew 5 tablespoons of ground coffee over a quarter-tray's worth of ice, as in the photo.) Of course, some like their brew weaker or stronger than others.
First, pour just enough hot water to saturate and "bloom" the grounds (you should actually see them rise a little, like bread dough). When they stop swelling, pour the rest of your water slowly into the grounds' center, pausing as needed so they don't overflow the filter. The hot coffee should melt the ice below (contributing to the final volume -- roughly 1.5 liters), instantly cooling the brew and locking in all the flavor goodness so it winds up in your cup.
Divvy the finished product into glasses, top off with more ice and hit the hammock. Leftovers can hang out in the fridge, covered, for a 24 delicious hours. So cool!
5-27-2009 @1:29PM Gobo said... Cool idea! I guess the obvious question is this: since this method dilutes the coffee quite a bit, isn't it better to just brew hot coffee and cool it in the fridge, pouring the cold coffee over ice cubes at full-strength? Or is the flavor really impacted by sitting in the fridge while cooling, moreso than it is when diluted by pouring hot coffee over ice?
Reply
5-27-2009 @1:54PM Meister said... Hi, Gobo, and thanks for your comment! Great question.
In the recipe above, the ice isn't so much "dilluting" the finished product as completing it--the melting ice essentially contributes to the rest of the resulting iced-coffee volume, so the brew isn't overly strong. An added benefit is when it's done, you can top it off with iced cubes that won't melt right away, since the coffee is already nicely chilled. That's often where the major dillution comes in to play.
And yes, brewing directly onto the ice preserves the coffee's dynamic and nuanced flavors and cools it much better than simply hot brewing and refrigerating (which can result in a bitter cup). It's really neat!
Happy (iced) caffeinating,
Meister
Reply
5-27-2009 @4:22PM ALB said... All well and good, but I just do cold brewed coffee. The night before, I scoop coffee into my french press, fill it with cold water, stir it then go to bed. When I wake in the morning, I press it and then pour in blender with a bit of ice, some milk and a scoop of protein powder.
Yummy coffee/breakfast - minus any heat.
Reply
5-27-2009 @7:26PM RobynT said... I've been meaning to try cold-brewing myself. I read in a magazine that it makes less acidic coffee, which my stomach would appreciate some days.
Reply