DIY: Iced Coffee

It is no secret that I love me some coffee. I mean, it even made its way into my profile, for pete's sake! Most of the time I prefer to hover over a mug of something steamy, but during the summer months I also enjoy an iced coffee from time to time. I shared my method of creating my homemade iced coffee perfection with you before, but decided to try a new method last month!

I borrowed the idea from Mandi over at Life...your way, who had posted her iced coffee method a while ago. Well, I half borrowed it. I kinda deviated from the plan a little. Here is how mine went down:

Per Mandi's instructions, I put 1/4 cup of grounds in 1 cup of water and let it sit overnight. At first I thought 1/4 cup seemed like a lot, but come to find out that isn't too much more than what I would use to make a normal cup of coffee, anyway!

A french press would have made this method a whole lot smoother, but I don't have one, so I improvised. Instead of straining through cheesecloth, I just held a regular coffee filter over my glass to strain the grounds out and pour the coffee over ice.

It looks cheesy, but it worked just fine!

The coffee was stronger than normal, since it had sat out all night "steeping" almost, but I am not sure it was as strong as I usually make it for iced coffee. It is hard to say, I could only go by how dark it was! It did use less grounds than I normally would for iced coffee, however, so that was a perk. Haha, a perk...get it?

Anyway (ahem!)...here is where I deviated from the plan a little bit. I didn't measure my milk, because I am not sure I had enough room in this glass for the amount Mandi called for. Plus I wasn't sure it was strong enough for too much milk. So I just filled up my glass with milk and a splash of creamer.

And added a straw...because I've found you have to drink iced coffee with a straw. Otherwise you are just sipping watered-down coffee from the top of the glass where the ice is melting. Gross!

In the end, it was a great glass of iced coffee, but I'm not sure it was worth all the extra steps. My method of iced coffee tastes the same and is just less work for me. If I had a french press, however, things may be different! So its all in what works for you.

It was a fun and tasty DIY project! I'm thinking I should try some more like this..maybe have a DIY coffee marathon with all you blog readers...what do you think? I'm marking it down to remember for the future! :)

Do you enjoy iced coffee in the summer? Any DIY-ers out there, or do you frequent a local coffee shop? Trust me, if I had Dunkin up here, things would be different! :)