Sunday, September 12, 2010

Coffee, Coffee, Buzz, Buzz



Let me tell you about my favorite way to make coffee at home. You see, while in college, I worked at a coffee shop, and it was there I learned techniques and tips for making really good coffee. I also learned to drink coffee, and even iced teas without any sweeteners. I'm still not a fan of a regular cup of joe though, and despite my many years at the coffee shop, which by the way, was probably the funnest job I've ever had (no joke), I never learned to properly brew drip coffee at home. So what's a girl to do when she wants some coffee at home and has not shelled out a decent amount of money for a commercially viable espresso machine for her own kitchen?
She brews her coffee cold and gets a lot of options.
Toddy Coffee is a method of cold brewing coffee to create a coffee concentrate. You grind your coffee on a coarse setting and soak the coffee grinds in water, overnight, until you strain out some seriously brewed coffee concentrate, which is actually real smooth and less acidic than other coffee drinking methods. The concentrate is refrigerated and from here you can make a ton of different types of coffee drinks.  Think, iced mochas, lattes, cup of joe's, coffee shakes, ice blended drinks... yes, its that easy!
Now, don't let the process of making this coffee throw you off. It's really easy! You can even buy a toddy maker, which makes these potentially messy part, not messy at all. I owned a toddy maker, until one faithful day when I shattered the glass part, rendering it useless. Now, I make do with a DYI method, which I will show you here. You will be amazed at how easy it is and all the fun coffee drinks you can make.

What you will need:
Toddy Maker OR cheesecloth or tea towel (that you don't care too much about), twine and a bucket, preferably with a lid
Toddy Maker

DYI version-yes, that is the bucket I use... larger might be better


Ingredients:
1 pound of coffee, coarsely ground
9 cups of filtered water, cold or at room temperature





Steps:
If you're using a toddy maker, follow the instructions in the guidebook. If you're DYIng it yourself, follow these steps:
1. Layout your cheesecloth and dump the coffee grinds out onto it
2. Gather the cheesecloth and tie the twine around it. Make sure it's snug enough that the grinds won't get out
3. Toss this into the bucket.
4. Fill with water
5. Let brew for 8-10 hours
6. When done, remove the cheesecloth full of grinds
7. Pour coffee concentrate into a pitcher and store in the fridge
8. Read below for some awesome ideas of what type of coffee drinks you can make with your toddy!


Iced Latte
- 3-4 oz of coffee concentrate
-5-6 oz milk
-3-4 ice cubes
* add vanilla syrup, sugar, honey to sweeten it up and get fancy by shaking it in a martini shaker. Yum!

Iced Mocha
-Add chocolate syrup to the above. Enjoy!

Cup of regular coffee- hot
-Add equal amounts coffee concentrate and water. Warm up in the microwave.

Ice Coffee
-Add equal amounts of coffee concentrate and water to a cup of ice.

Ice Blended Coffee
-For this, I recommend going all out and buying Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf's vanilla powder and following instructions. It will taste exactly the same!

* 10 points to you if you know where I stole my title from!

3 comments:

  1. The Ben and Jerry Ice Cream. I would like to donate my 10 points to charity please ;o)

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  2. I love cold brewed coffee! I bought a Toddy system last summer and it works great. Maybe a little less messy than the towel method looks; I'm sure I'd get coffee grounds everywhere if I did that. I'm cursed with a lack of grace.

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  3. This is awesome! Having a pitcher of cold coffee ready most of the time would be awesome for me, the queen of lazy.

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