I don’t know about where you all are, but it’s really hot here. And despite having central A/C on 24/7, my beloved morning cup(s) of coffee are way too hot to handle right now. For the past few years I’ve been brewing coffee in our french press at night to have over ice in the morning. But life is hectic and I often forget. So imagine my delight when I spotted cold brew coffee concentrate at Trader Joe’s earlier this summer. A week or two worth of ice coffee sitting ready in the fridge! Then imagine my surprise when a girlfriend told me she’s been making her own cold brew concentrate with her favorite coffee for years. I could make my own and not have to brave traffic when I run out? Life changing.

So, let’s make some cold brew iced coffee concentrate together.


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Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate

what you’ll need:

12 oz bag of ground coffee (I’ve found that Starbucks’ House Blend is my favorite)
10 c. filtered water
cheesecloth
elastic bands
pitcher
large, glass mason jar with cover to store your concentrate – avoid storing in a plastic container

directions:

1. Pour entire bag of coffee grounds into a large pot or pitcher – I usually use a large stock pot

2. Add 10 cups of filtered water – I use a Pur filter on our faucet

3. Stir to combine well

4. Let sit for 24 hours, stirring occasionally. Wait at least one hour from last stirring before moving on to step 5

5. Fold cheesecloth into quarters or even more (the goal is to filter out as much of the sediment as possible) and secure to the top of a pitcher with elastic bands

6. With a ladle, slowly pour coffee mixture into the cheesecloth filter, trying your best to avoid scooping grounds that have settled to the bottom as this will just slow down the filtering process

7. When all of the concentrate has been filtered into the pitcher, remove the cheesecloth and squeeze out any remaining liquid. Discard grounds and rinse the cheesecloth very well

8. Re-fold the cheesecloth and secure it with elastic bands around the top of the large mason jar, which will serve as your storage container

9. Pour the filtered concentrate from the pitcher into the cheesecloth filter a second time, into the mason jar

10. Discard all grounds, rinse and wash cheesecloth and enjoy your cold brew coffee concentrate!

to make iced coffee

When you make your iced coffee you’ll use far less cold brew coffee concentrate that you would regular coffee – it’s very strong! For my morning coffee I use a 16oz insulated tumbler and add:
3 ice cubes
3T of coffee concentrate
3T skim milk
fill with filtered water from the tap

Experiment with the amount of concentrate, you may like a little more or a little less. Mr. Stroller likes to use powdered creamer in his coffee, which only dissolves in hot liquids. To make his coffee I warm up 1/4 cup of water for 30 seconds, dissolve the creamer powder and then add it to the coffee/ice/water mixture instead of skim milk.

Enjoy!