Quick & Easy - My Favorite Iced Coffee Recipe

The first thing is to start off with a strong pot of coffee. I usually make enough coffee for 10 cups, going by the markers on the coffee pot, and when I make a pot for iced coffee, I'll add enough coffee for an extra two cups. You might need to adjust that, it's not based on any kind of math, just my personal tastes.

Coffee is always best if you can start with a whole bean coffee and grind the beans as close to brewing as possible.

If you aren't making great tasting coffee at home in the first place, you aren't really going to be able to make great tasting iced coffee either.

I prefer a coffeemaker that has an actual coffeepot that can be removed from the heating element. I feel this is ideal because I like to set it aside aside as soon as it finishes brewing so it can cool off faster.

You need something to store the coffee in while it sits in the refrigerator, I have a very nice glass bottle with a metal cover (actually, I'm lucky enough to have two bottles with matching metal covers). If you can't find any bottles like this, you can probably find something like the Bormioli Rocco Kufra Chiller Pitchers, the pitcher is glass, even if the lid and ice container aren't.

It's a shame that glass bottles aren't more common, especially with all the health risks we've been hearing about with using plastics.

You need plenty of room for the coffee and ice, so you should use tallest glass or tumbler you can.

I do realize that I'm in conflict here because I advocate using glass or metal instead of plastic, but I bought this set of restaurant quality plastic tumblers years ago, before I was concerned about the issue. I don't use them for cooking, or storage, so at this point it's better to use them than dispose of them.

If I had know then what I know now, I would have tried to get something made from glass like a set of Bormioli Rocco 16 1/4 oz Rock Bar Stackable Beverage Glasses, instead.

The researchers from Goethe University sampled 20 brands of bottled water packaged in plastic and glass bottles and found that 78 percent of the samples packaged in plastic bottles had high amounts of chemicals called "endocrine disrupters," compared with 33 percent of those bottled in glass.
- Plastic Water Bottles: Should You Avoid the Disposable Kind, Too?
from U.S.News & World Report

Yikes! Endocrine Disruptors!? What are those?

This is especially important if you use a granulated sweetener. I prefer sugar made from organic evaporated cane juice like Florida Crystals Demerara Cane Sugar.

You are free to use whatever you want, but I stay away from artificial sweeteners

Yes! I start my iced coffee with hot coffee --
just enough to dissolve the sugar.

That little bit of hot coffee will easily dissolve the sugar,
or whatever you prefer for a sweetener.

If you use a dry creamer, you should probably add it with the sugar.

Adding the cream now, helps to cool that hot-from-the-pot coffee. You don't need much at this point since it's easy enough to add more later.

I use Half & Half, but if you don't use dairy, there are some nice alternatives like almond and rice milks.

I won't use soy milk. (Note: In the US, it is called "Soy" and in the UK it is "Soya")

Since the cream (if you used a chilled, liquid creamer) has started cooling that hot coffee, the ice isn't going to melt too much. If you are worried about the ice melting, don't put it all in right now.

Just a couple of pieces, or cubes for now.

There's four pieces of ice in this picture, even though you only see two. I love my ice maker, making ice using double filtered water from my Under-Sink Drinking Water System and the refrigerator's water filter.

I never use ice "cubes" at home anymore.

Time to add that coffee that was made up before and has been chillin' in the fridge!

This is where you decide if you need more cream or ice. Oh, if you end up missing the gritty, undissolved sugar you usually get at the bottom of coffee shop Iced coffee, you can add more sugar now, too.

I give it one last stir at this point to make sure everything is mixed together and to make sure any left over hot coffee hits the ice.

There's still room for more cream if it looks too dark, more ice or even coffee if you want.

The rest of the coffee in the pot will still be warm enough to make another glass later.

What's left over after that will be added to the bottle - Waste not, want not!

Adding leftover coffee only works for a couple of days before it starts to taste old, after that I'll have to make another full bottle of fresh coffee. Of course, I'll always make a fresh batch if I'm expecting company.

• A 2:1 ratio of sugar
  
• Water
  

1. Simple Syrup is simple to make and is made using a ratio of 2 parts sugar to one part water.
   
2. Bring the water to a full boil.
   
3. Add the sugar and stir until it dissolves.
   
4. The syrup is done when if you dip your stirrer into the mix and pull it out, the mix drips off in a stream (like syrup should).
   
5. Let the mix cool, then store in a separate container.
   
6. Add to your favorite sweetened beverage or recipe.
   

• Make bigger batches so you do not need to make it so often.
  
• Don't use as much syrup as you would sugar. Remember it is sweeter than the original sugar.
  
• This works best for applications where sugar won't dissolve.
  
• for extra flavor, add brown sugar, which will naturally color the syrup.
  
• With this recipe, you should never ever buy pre-mixes such as daquiri or margarita mix, as they use preservative, corn syrup and other artificial ingredients. Any real mixologists can whip this up, and simply by adding other fresh ingredients have great drinks just as fast and convenient as a store bought mix. This is also great to have on hand to quickly sweeten iced tea, lemonade, etc. I always have this on hand, and with rum, tequila and lime juice you can have a daquiri or margarita. My wife just reminded me that rum is good for colds, so I'm making a daquiri with fresh strawberries and blackberries right now.
  

• Stoves can burn, as well as the close-to-molten sugar you're working with.
  
• Do not let the mix go unattended. Sugar, when it doesn't have any water to work with, will start burning. It will degrade into water vapor and solid carbon which will ruin your pot.
  

• How to Make Strawberry Sorbet
  
• How to Brew Coffee in a French Press Coffeemaker
  
• How to Make Iced Coffee
  
• How to Make Baklava
  
• How to Make Easy Coconut Ice
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Make Simple Syrup. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

I hear it often. People like to point out the many dangers of consuming coffee, yet I've personally know life-long coffee drinkers who lived over 80, or even more than 90 years.

Unless a doctor can point to a real health problem you have that is caused by, or being aggravated by drinking coffee, then I don't see any reason to stop drinking it, if you enjoy it.

The latest research has not only confirmed that moderate coffee consumption doesn't cause harm, it's also uncovered possible benefits. Studies show that the risk for type 2 diabetes is lower among regular coffee drinkers than among those who don't drink it. Also, coffee may reduce the risk of developing gallstones, discourage the development of colon cancer, improve cognitive function, reduce the risk of liver damage in people at high risk for liver disease, and reduce the risk of Parkinson's disease. Coffee has also been shown to improve endurance performance in long-duration physical activities.
- Coffee Health Risks:
For the moderate drinker,
coffee is safe says
Harvard Women's Health Watch

Panic swept this coffee-dependent nation in 1981 when a Harvard study tied the drink to a higher risk of pancreatic cancer. Coffee consumption temporarily plummeted, and the researchers later concluded that perhaps smoking, not coffee, was the culprit.

In an international review of 66 studies last year, scientists found coffee drinking had little if any effect on the risk of developing pancreatic or kidney cancer. In fact, another review suggested that compared with people who do not drink coffee, those who do have half the risk of developing liver cancer.
- Sorting Out Coffee's Contradictions
By Jane E. Brody
The New York Times

After analyzing data on 126,000 people for as long as 18 years, Harvard researchers calculate that compared with not partaking in America's favorite morning drink, downing one to three cups of caffeinated coffee daily can reduce diabetes risk by single digits. But having six cups or more each day slashed men's risk by 54% and women's by 30% over java avoiders.
- Coffee: The New Health Food?
By Sid Kirchheimer
WebMD Feature

My Favorite Iced Coffee Recipe
by CleanerLife
is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0
United States License.