Iced Coffee – The Quest For the Cold
Summer in some parts of the country can be a bummer for coffee lovers. A hot drink just does not entice so invitingly as Iced Lemonade, smoothies, and, the best of show, if you aren’t counting calories: Italian sodas!!
/files/u3/iced-coffee.jpg" title="Iced Coffee" align="right" height="282" width="425" vspace="10" hspace="10" alt="Iced Coffee" />Though Italian sodas are wonderful, even sharing some of the flavorings used in flavored coffee drinks, something is missing. For hardcore coffee lovers, an Italian Soda, with its good looks, cream, sweetness, and refreshing coolness, still lacks the foundational bean.
Some caffeine lovers swallow their pride and make do with substituting iced teas for their caffeine fix. Now, with the sugar and the lemon, an iced tea, in all its many varieties and temptations can be downright satisfying on a hot summer morning or afternoon. But, it’s still not coffee!
You need not fret. The answer exists, from the desert canyon walls of Arizona to the hot urban canyon of New York City. For cool refreshment, sweet allure, coffee flavors, buzz – all can be had in one drink: Iced Coffee!
Many people think Iced Coffee is only the carnival drink that is sold in machines from McDonald’s to the Wal-Mart cafés. Probably the most common, this machined coffee is alright if you like coffee snow cones, with more sugar than coffee flavor, but it’s not real coffee. Besides, a look at the ingredients will scare any health-aware consumer from coming within a McCafe mile of the stuff.
Recently there has been awareness by cafés that one can take a normal black coffee, cappuccino, latte, or espresso and put a few ice cubes in it to make a passing Iced Coffee. It’s easy to do at home, after you make your morning pot, to just put the carafe in the fridge and serve it “on the rocks”. For many, that is what Iced Coffee is all about.
But now there is a more genuine Iced Coffee for the very serious coffee drinker. No watered down brew for these fans will suffice - real brew is the ticket. So retailers like www.roaste.com now offer cold brewers like the wonderful “Glass Cold Drip Coffee Maker”. Ice and water are placed in the top jar; coffee grounds – medium coarse grind - are placed in the brewer; by regulating the dripping water through the valve in the center, coffee is steeped and moves into the carafe at the bottom. The process takes about three hours.
Many discerning coffee drinkers notice a real taste difference between hot brewed coffee and cold brewed. The ratios change: about 90% of the flavor elements and the caffeine content are drawn out in the slow steeping process. The result is a stronger, super-flavor cup, with the normal balance tipping to less bite and acidity. One more thing - different coffee varieties will react differently, so lots of experimentation might be in order before we find our cold reward. Thankfully, with www.roaste.com’s huge inventory of coffees, it could take a lifetime to find the perfect Iced Coffee. But the enjoyment is in the quest itself anyway.
So this summer, keep cool, keep caffeined, keep brewing, with Cold Brew!
/files/u3/iced-coffee.jpg" title="Iced Coffee" align="right" height="282" width="425" vspace="10" hspace="10" alt="Iced Coffee" />Though Italian sodas are wonderful, even sharing some of the flavorings used in flavored coffee drinks, something is missing. For hardcore coffee lovers, an Italian Soda, with its good looks, cream, sweetness, and refreshing coolness, still lacks the foundational bean.
Some caffeine lovers swallow their pride and make do with substituting iced teas for their caffeine fix. Now, with the sugar and the lemon, an iced tea, in all its many varieties and temptations can be downright satisfying on a hot summer morning or afternoon. But, it’s still not coffee!
You need not fret. The answer exists, from the desert canyon walls of Arizona to the hot urban canyon of New York City. For cool refreshment, sweet allure, coffee flavors, buzz – all can be had in one drink: Iced Coffee!
Many people think Iced Coffee is only the carnival drink that is sold in machines from McDonald’s to the Wal-Mart cafés. Probably the most common, this machined coffee is alright if you like coffee snow cones, with more sugar than coffee flavor, but it’s not real coffee. Besides, a look at the ingredients will scare any health-aware consumer from coming within a McCafe mile of the stuff.
Recently there has been awareness by cafés that one can take a normal black coffee, cappuccino, latte, or espresso and put a few ice cubes in it to make a passing Iced Coffee. It’s easy to do at home, after you make your morning pot, to just put the carafe in the fridge and serve it “on the rocks”. For many, that is what Iced Coffee is all about.
But now there is a more genuine Iced Coffee for the very serious coffee drinker. No watered down brew for these fans will suffice - real brew is the ticket. So retailers like www.roaste.com now offer cold brewers like the wonderful “Glass Cold Drip Coffee Maker”. Ice and water are placed in the top jar; coffee grounds – medium coarse grind - are placed in the brewer; by regulating the dripping water through the valve in the center, coffee is steeped and moves into the carafe at the bottom. The process takes about three hours.
Many discerning coffee drinkers notice a real taste difference between hot brewed coffee and cold brewed. The ratios change: about 90% of the flavor elements and the caffeine content are drawn out in the slow steeping process. The result is a stronger, super-flavor cup, with the normal balance tipping to less bite and acidity. One more thing - different coffee varieties will react differently, so lots of experimentation might be in order before we find our cold reward. Thankfully, with www.roaste.com’s huge inventory of coffees, it could take a lifetime to find the perfect Iced Coffee. But the enjoyment is in the quest itself anyway.
So this summer, keep cool, keep caffeined, keep brewing, with Cold Brew!
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