Like most Moms I run on coffee, hot, cold or lukewarm it doesn’t matter the kind or the time, give it to me. A few months ago I started to notice how much money I was spending on this habit. It seemed like I was always having to reload money on my app. I sat down and calculated that I was spending close to $10 per day on coffee, which meant about $300 per month! Yikes! I decided that I would still treat myself to my afternoon coffee at my brewer of choice, however I was going to start bring my coffee to work in the morning. Baby steps, this is an addiction! 🙂 All was well until the weather started to get warmer and I wanted an iced coffee in the morning, thus began my quest for the perfect at home recipe!
I went through three different approaches before coming out with a clear winner. Learn from my mistakes!
Coffee Ice Cubes – Most people think all you need to make iced coffee is coffee and…ice. However coffee is hot and if you try to just add ice to cool it down you’ve noticed that it gets extremely watery. Enter coffee ice cubes. They are as easy as they sound, make coffee, pour into ice cube trays and freeze. Voila.
So cute, right? The entire tray on the left went into one cup of coffee and while it did not taste watered down, it was not cold. Lukewarm at best.
On to the next…
Cooling Hot Coffee – My next idea was to simply make my coffee the night before and put it in the fridge overnight to cool down. This was the easiest of the three I tried and also the worst. The next morning the coffee was stale and had no taste.
Next!
Brewing My Own – This was the most work intense of the three but honestly wasn’t too bad. I found a couple of different recipes but ultimately adapted this one from Pioneer Woman. The end result was delicious and well worth it!
The recipe is simple…
- Choose your favorite ground coffee! I chose Starbucks House Blend.
- Find a large container and combine the water and coffee. I didn’t want to make too much, so I started with a half pound of coffee mixed with one gallon of water.
- Cover it and forget it…for at least 12 hours! I put my container in the fridge, honestly I don’t think it matters either way.
- Strain it! Grab a strainer, paper towel, something to scoop up the coffee with (I used a measuring cup) and a pitcher or container you want to store the coffee in. Place the paper towel in the strainer over the pitcher and start scooping the coffee with the measuring cup and pouring it into the strainer. The liquid will drain and the strainer and paper towel will catch all the coffee grounds.
- Add a few ice cubes and enjoy!
I love coffee and I love being able to treat myself but at some point the cost really adds up. With this recipe I truly don’t feel like I’m missing out on taste either. I recently invested in a Yeti travel mug and I highly recommend it! Keeps my drinks hot or cold!
Hope you found this post useful! If you have any recipes of your own please share them with you! Make it a great week!