While my sweetheart and I were on the road, every square inch of our car was packed with suitcases, pots, pans, bird cage, and all so I was limited to what I could bring along. I'm probably going to raise a few eyebrows but I have a gold status Starbucks card. Yes, that's like racking up frequent flyer miles but the currency here is caffeine. Practically all of the places we were traveling to were off the beaten path so there weren't any coffee houses nearby, much less a Starbucks. I had to get creative so I came up with a way to steer our homesickness away and get our iced coffee fix without the need for any special gadgets. Yes, that was all possible with a little help from a mason jar.
The first thing I do, is prepare a cold coffee concentrate. To make this, you will need some ground coffee of your choice. In this case since I'm making an iced New Orleans style café au lait, I'm going to use some French Market coffee, or some Cafe Du Monde coffee if you have it. You will also need some cone coffee filters, a tablespoon, and a large mason jar. This one is a 16 oz jar.
Place three generous tablespoons of coffee grounds into each coffee filter. You can add more if you'd like a stronger coffee, but limit 4 spoonfuls per filter because I found that if I put too much coffee in a single filter the grounds slip out into the liquid.
Once you have 3 or 4 spoonfuls in a filter, begin folding the top left corner and continue to make folds overlapping over the last. Repeat until you've created a sort of envelope.
Prepare two or three coffee envelopes. Place them in the jar. Fill it with clean filtered water to the top. Twist on the cap and let it sit on your kitchen counter overnight or for about 12 hours.
After that time has passed, it will look like this. Isn't it a dark beauty? Pull out the coffee filters and you will have a delicious coffee concentrate. Place it in the refrigerator to chill or use it right away.
Now comes the fun part.
Get a nice cup, some ice, and pour some of that delicious coffee elixir...or concentrate.
Then splash in some milk or half and half.
If you want to sweeten it, you can stir in some sugar, coffee sweetener, or simple syrup.
Stir. Sip. Enjoy.
Simple right? Now, go on and try this at home and let me know what you think.
Want to know how I prepare an iced macchiato? I'll show you how on my next post. In the meantime, leave a comment, like, and share.
Have a fantastic weekend!
