Wake up and smell the (iced) coffee
- Source: Global Times
- [10:02 July 22 2010]
- Comments
Coffee mate? Photo: IC
By Shen Sijia
When you know how, homemade iced coffee tastes better than any commercial variety available. You might imagine you cannot live without your daily Starbucks iced coffee, be it iced mocha or an iced soy latte. But, like most of the big chains, the formula is simply a small shot of very strong, hot expresso, with a sweetener dissolved in it, poured into a cup of ice-cold milk. And if only room-temperature milk is available, a bundle of ice cubes will be thrown in to sufficiently chill the coffee. All well and good, you may think, but the flavor and texture of such a drink is easily spoilt once the ice starts to melt. For the perfect iced coffee, the cold-brewed method is highly recommended.
Instead of making a traditional pot of hot coffee and then chilling it in the refrigerator, you should soak the coffee grounds overnight in cold water.
This way, there is less of an acidic and bitter taste from the hot brew and it makes the texture much smoother. There's no need for a coffee maker, or for extra sugar to hide the acidity.
Cold-brew iced coffee
Ingredients
►1/4 cup of coarse ground coffee
►2 cup of water
►2 tbsp milk
►1 tsp syrup
►2 tbsp of sweetened condensed milk (optional)
►1/2 tsp vanilla syrup, or 1/2 cinnamon syrup (optional)
Method
►In a French press (or you can use a glass jar), place 1/4 cup of coarse ground coffee
►Add 1 cup of filtered water at room temperature
►Stir and soak, and put into the refrigerator overnight to chill. Then filter before adding 2 tbsp of milk and 1 tbsp of syrup
►Add 1 more cup of chilled water the next morning (add only a half if you want a more generous amount of milk added later on)
►Pour into a chilled glass over ice
►Add sweetened condensed milk in place of sugar, as it works better. Sugar is hard to melt when not heated.
►You may add a little vanilla syrup, or cinnamon syrup to taste.
To save trouble, use Coffee Mate (flavored syrup with condensed milk all in one bottle). It costs around 70 yuan ($10) per bottle and can be bought from City Shop. Syrups come in a variety of flavors including vanilla, Irish cream, and hazelnut.
Coffee in the refrigerator made this way can be stored for three to five days. You can also make extra coffee and store it in an ice cube tray for use later.
