While I was visiting Boston, one day when I was in need of a caffeine fix, I stopped by this little coffee shop and – darned if I can remember the name of it, but they had a large sign outside proclaiming they had “cold brewed coffee”. I was like… Cold Brewed Coffee? Really? Of course, I had to try it. And it was awesome. Particularly, in the humid Massachussetts summer heat. They served it sweetened and blended with ice and milk, and it was probably the best coffee drink I could remember having in a long while. Atleast, until I started brewing my own.

When I got home, I did a little research on it, and discovered I was a little late to the game – people have been talking about cold brewed coffee for a while now, in fact there are even places where you can buy a whole system just for brewing cold coffee. When I dug a little deeper though, I found out that you don’t really need any special equipment, and I already had all the basic tools neccessary to make – the biggest difference was getting a different grind of coffee. From what I found out, the best grind for cold brewed coffee is a very coarse ground. In the picture above, you can see on the right hand side is the grind we normally have around the house, which we use to make Espresso. It’s very fine, almost powdery. On the left is the grind I used to make the cold coffee.

Cold Brewed coffee is similar in preparation to French Press Coffee, in that you want a coarse grind, and it’s lightly filtered through a metal sieve. The biggest difference is that in cold brewed, the steeping process is much longer. About 12 hours is what you want to shoot for, and obviously – you use cold water.

There are some pretty different opinions on things like stirring, filtering, etc – and having only made it twice now, I can’t say that I’m an expert, but the method that I’ve used has worked pretty well for me. The resulting coffee was less acidic than regular coffee, with lots hints of chocolate and caramel. It’s great all by itself, but I got to say, I love it sweet. During the summer months, I will probably be keeping a batch in the fridge for quick and easy coffee – it’s perfect for those days when it’s way too hot for a traditional coffee.

Miss Thing has also become very fond of the cold brewed coffee – of course, that might have something to do with the fact that she mixes it with copious amounts of cocoa, sugar and milk – resulting in something that probably has more in common with Chocolate Milk than coffee. She’s starting to develop quite a coffee habit herself – although I’ve been trying to keep her limited to every other day or so. She’s never been a big caffeine drinker, and I’m trying to keep it that way.

The first time I made cold coffee, I used a flour sack towel lined sieve to filter out the sludge – but this time I decided not to, and just filtered it twice with a fine mesh sieve. I think in the future I’m going to try and find a good coffee filter that will fit inside the mouth on a canning jar, because the coffee this time – where I didn’t run it through a towel, came out much better than the last batch. If you prefer to filter all the sludge out, you can of course, use a coffee filter, towel, or whatever, although my feeling on that is that I think it also absorbs some of the yummy oils and stuff, leaving the coffee tasting a little more bitter. (Not as bitter as traditional coffee, but still…) The sludge does, however, settle to the bottom of the jar/container in the fridge, and if you are careful when pouring, can just be left in the bottom of the jar. Along the same vein, I haven’t really found any sites that can corroborate this theory, so please be advised that this is my personal theory – I do not recommend using plastic for any stage of the cold coffee making process, for pretty much the same reason why I don’t recommend the paper/cloth filter, I believe it will absorb the oils and flavors, leaving your brew bitter. YMMV.

I’ve taken to making up a big batch and keeping it in the fridge – it will keep for about two weeks, although obviously, it’s better the first week. When the weather cools down later in the year, I might try and see how the cold brewed coffee does in recipes or other things, but right now I have my hands full staying on top of all the fruit we get in the weekly box from FFTY. Oh – one other thing. Several people have said that the cold brewed coffee is stronger than regular coffee, although I haven’t found that to be the case from my perspective – although to be fair, I usually drink espresso. Anyways, you may want to dilute it when drinking, depending on your tastes.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of Coarse Ground Coffee (Dark Roast Recommended)
• 9 cups of Water

Method:

• Place the coffee in to a large stainless steel or glass bowl (I don’t recommend plastic)
• Slowly pour the water over the coffee
• Gently stir the coffee to mix
• Cover and set aside for 12 hours
• Strain coffee through a very fine mesh sieve
• If desired, filter a second time to remove and ‘sludge’ using a coffee filter or towel lined sieve (optional)
• Store covered in Fridge for up to 2 weeks (Recommend storing in Glass Jars or Vessels)
• Can be served Hot, Cold, Sweet, Unsweet, with Milk, without Milk, etc…

When I was about Miss Thing’s age, I lived in an apartment across the hallway from a fresh, shiny faced, newlywed mormon couple. I don’t remember very much about them, except that I would go over, probably more often than was polite (but given my age, forgivable), and chatter for a while about my life (I mean, let’s face it, at that age, it’s all about ME ME ME ME). Of course, as in most apartment situations, eventually either we or they moved, and I never really saw them again. However, there was one thing that I remember from my visits – the wife made the best lemonade I’d ever had (up to that point – which was admittedly a very small sampling, mostly that stuff made from powder).

After the first time she offered me some, I was always on the look out for an opportunity to get invited back for more. Eventually, I begged her to give me the recipe – and I’ll never forget how I felt when she told me that there were *gasp* REAL LEMONS in her lemonade. I think it must have been an eye opening experience for me – you can make Lemonade… with Lemons!? I mean,  seriously -  Does the Kool-aid guy know about this? Because I don’t think he’ll like it. Actually, her recipe did include some of that powdered stuff with the lemons, but it was definitely the first time I had ever considered that you could add lemons to lemonade.

This recipe, however, uses none. I had a friend coming over yesterday evening, and I thought some homemade lemonade would be very refreshing to talk over during all this lovely weather we’ve been having. Considering it’s been almost too warm for coffee, lately. So anyways, in preparation for her visit, Miss Thing and I made this together after school yesterday.

Miss Thing really enjoys squeezing lemons, so I let her start on that part, while I gathered the other ingredients. If you only have a hand juicer, (like me) it does make a big difference to have another pair of hands to help. Of course, I think her motives might not have been completely altruistic, since while I was putting the finishing touches, she hovered like a hummingbird, waiting for a chance to sample the goods.

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Fresh Lemon Juice
• 2 Cups Sugar
• 4 cups Water
• 6 oz Strawberries, stems removed
• 1 tsp Vanilla (optional)
• 10 or so Fresh Mint Leaves (plus more for garnish, if desired)

Method:

• In a blender, puree strawberries until smooth, scraping the sides if neccessary.
• Add the lemon juice and sugar to the strawberries and blend until sugar is completely dissolved
• Pour out most of the lemon mixture in to a pitcher, reserving about 1/4-1/2 a cup liquid in the blender
• Add the mint leaves to the blender jar
• Pulse mint leaves until very finely chopped, but not liquified
• Add the mint leaves, vanilla and water to the lemon mixture. Stir to combine.
• Chill until ready to serve