The summer season is upon us. I’m enjoying gardening, swimming, longer daylight hours and now it’s time for the all important switch from hot to cold coffee. Everyone who knows me, knows I drink an obscene amount of coffee. I love flavored coffee in particular, and sugar free flavored syrups as well. Torani sugar free s’mores and sugar free salted caramel are on the top of my syrup lists. My K-Cups of choice are the Friendly’s ice cream inspired coffee flavors. I’m also an almond milk and Splenda-aholic. When that warm weather hits, I want my coffee cold, but I can’t stand how watered down ice coffee gets. I’ve tried freezing coffee cubes with fair results, but it would only cool down hot coffee so much.
I turned to Pinterest, which offered me solutions involving making coffee sludge in mason jars and draining it out with mesh strainers. It was a huge mess and way too much work. I pondered why I couldn’t just steep coffee the same way I steep ice tea. That’s when my cold brew coffee hack was born.
Here’s what you’ll need.
- A bag or canister of coffee of your choice.
- A pack of coffee filters (Dollar Tree brand is fine)
- A pack of mini rubber bands (Again, you can get 500 of them from the hair section at Dollar Tree)
- A two-quart pitcher (Holy hell, they sell these at Dollar Tree, too!)
In the photo above I’m using Target brand mocha coffee, but you can use whatever brand and flavor you like. In fact, if you’re budget-wise like me, you know that Giant often has coupons for Folgers at $1.99 and Wal-Mart has their own brand of coffee for not much more than that.
Take the coffee and scoop a few tablespoons into the coffee filter. Leave enough room to bundle and tie it on top with the rubber band and make a little bundle just like the one pictured on the right. Use at least two rubber bands, just to make sure it’s secure. Make two of the coffee bundles and put them in the pitcher and fill to the two-quart line. Put it in the fridge and allow to steep for 8-12 hours. Then take the bundles out and throw them away. Or compost them. Or make coffee grind body scrub.
That’s it. Take the cold brew and add additions to your liking.
I recently got my hands on a free sample of the new Dunkin’ Donuts cold brew packs, which are essentially the same principle.
As much as I love my Dunkin’, they are a little on the expensive side, costing nearly $10 retail to make 4 quarts. With my coffee hack we have:
$1 – Filters
$1 – Bands
$1 – Pitcher
$2 – Coffee canister
So for $5 you can make several more pitchers of cold brew coffee. Since after the initial investment of filters, bands, and a pitcher the only additional expense is the coffee itself, you can save tons on your cup of cold brew with subsequent pitchers.
Another tip – it goes great with a little Bailey’s Irish Cream! I’d save that mix for the weekend, though.
Bariatric Berks 