Cold-brewed maple iced coffee

A smoother, more flavourful summertime drink!

Like many people, when it’s really hot, my tastes turn towards cold beverages to keep me hydrated and moderately caffeinated. I’ve long been making cold-steeped teas to sip on throughout the hot days. I’ve also tried to love iced coffee, which is typically made from hot-brewed coffee that’s chilled (and diluted) by pouring over ice, but found it bitter and in need of a lot of sugar to make it palatable. Discovering that cold-brewed coffee has a much smoother, richer flavour (and less acidity, so less harmful to tooth enamel) led to an iced coffee epiphany for me: just a little milk and maple syrup, and I’m good to go. I make a big batch of cold brewed coffee at the beginning of the week and I’m set to sip for days and days.

Ingredients

• 1 part coffee beans to 8 parts cold water (I used 1/2 cup  or 82 g whole beans +  4 cups or 1L water)
• Ice cubes, maple syrup and milk or cream, for serving

Method

• Coarsely grind coffee beans. I recommend using a burr grinder (I used my grandmother’s old meat grinder!) to ensure you have larger pieces rather than a finer grind. Alternatively, put the beans in a sturdy zippered sandwich bag and crush them with a rolling pin.
• Put the ground beans in the bottom of a large mason jar or other vessel that can hold the appropriate amount of water to accommodate the 1:8 ratio and pour cold water over the ground beans, filling right to the top of the jar.
• Cover tightly with a lid or plastic wrap and an elastic band and let brew on the counter for 12 hours or in the fridge for 24 hours.
• Strain the cold-brewed coffee through 4 layers of cheesecloth (or any clean cloth) into a clean jar. If there is still a fair bit of sediment in the strained coffee, strain a second time (this happens if your grind was not coarse enough).
• Serve the cold-brewed coffee over ice, adding maple syrup (or agave, or honey – any kind of liquid sweetener will dissolve better than granular ones in the cold beverage).

Yield depends upon how much iced coffee you make.