The best way to make iced coffee
August 12th, 2009 by Jihye Chang
I have been drinking only espresso macchiato and lattes for the last 3.5 years with my own espresso machine and grinder. (My husband drinks dripped coffee, and I sometimes drink a bit of what he brews.) However on a hot summer day like today, iced coffee seems to be so much more appealing, and I decided to follow the method that’s introduced at the Counter Culture Coffee’s website. (Counter Culture Coffee makes one of my favorite espresso beans, Espresso Toscano.) And the result? The BEST iced coffee I have ever tasted! It’s also much lighter tasting than iced Americano, which is made with espresso shots and ice/water. Also it gets the most aroma from the beans, and it tastes much more fresh than a lot of iced coffee that you get from the commercial places.
You can find the original instruction here:
http://www.counterculturecoffee.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=574&Itemid=
I used a coffee stand that my dear friend Robert Scott - a dentist, flutist, and a beautiful wood-worker - made for me last Christmas. It’s supposed to be a Costa Rican chorreador stand, but I think it works much better for this recipe. You can make your own following the direction here: http://www.runnerduck.com/coffee_maker.htm You can buy one at www.chorreador.com as well. (Of course the one that I bought in San Jose was much cheaper, but I am thrilled that you can finally order one in the states.)
Here is how I did:
1) Hang the coffee basket and filter on the chorreador stand (or find a similar way to suspend a basket above the glass that you’ll use for the finished coffee).
2) Boil enough water to fill a tall glass - you won’t use all of it, because the glass will have ice in it.
3) Put 3-4 tbs. of freshly ground coffee in the filter. Today I used Coffee Klatch’s Ipanema Dulce.
4) Fill a tall glass to the top with ice cubes, and put it under the coffee basket.
5) Slowly pour the hot water over the filter. Watch the coffee level in the glass so it doesn’t overflow. You’ll wind up using less water than you would if you were making hot coffee with the same amount of grounds, to compensate for the dilution that happens when the hot water hits the ice cubes.
Enjoy!
Tags: brewed coffee, Iced coffee, Klatch, Klatch roasting, Roastery, Single brewed coffee
Glad it worked out for you. Our Finca Nueva Armenia is very good iced, too, btw.
Wow. what an honor to have a comment from a Counterculturecoffee person! (I love your coffee beans. Oh, and I remember you - you emailed me about Idido Misty beans..:))
I will try the Finca Nueva Armenia as soon as I finish the Klatch beans. Thanks a lot~
My first Introduction to iced coffee was a the Korean Ambassy in my home town Yangon, Myanmar way back in in the fall of 1987. My mother and I went to apply for a visa for me to go to Seoul for my Masters’. Mr. Kim the first secretary to the ambassador offered us iced coffee. Mom did not like it I loved it. I thought it was really curious and interesting. I still love it now.
Wow. That’s neat! I am now curious what kind of iced coffee the secretary served..the “real coffee” (brewed from coffee beans, not from coffee granules) only became available and popular during the very late 80s-early 90s! If you still like iced coffee, you should try the method I wrote. It’s really the best way to make iced coffee!
(Our espresso machine broke a few weeks ago and it’s been in the repair shop for a while. My only caffeine source has been a cup of iced coffee every morning and OK espresso drinks at the student building..)