Saturday, April 7, 2018

Making Iced Lattes

I really love coffee.

You could probably say that I have a slight addiction problem. In winter I drink a lot of hot coffee, but when it comes to hot Texas summer days, I love iced coffee. The only problem is that the iced coffee habit can get expensive.

Last summer, I learned how to make my own iced coffees.

First, I bought a simple, cheap cold brew pot. A cold brew pot is designed to brew coffee in the refrigerator. The pot I bought was a simple clear, heavy-duty plastic pitcher with a lid that fits tightly on it. The center of the lid has a  place to insert the filter basket that came with it. All you do is fill the filter basket with your favorite ground coffee and then fill the pitcher with water (I use the filtered water from the refrigerator) and put the pot into the refrigerator to cold-brew for about 24 hours.

The next day I pour some of the cold-brewed coffee into a large cup (about 8 ounces or 1 cup). I add a little sweetener. It's up to you what kind of sweetener you want to use and how much--basically who sweet do you want your drink or how many calories.

Now you are to the point where you decide what flavorings you want to add. I'm currently on a mocha kick. So at this point I add a little chocolate syrup and mix. I then add about 8 ounces or 1 cup of milk, stir, add some ice, and enjoy.

And in my case, I have an iced mocha latte.

The cool thing is you can add any flavor you want to the cold coffee. Sometimes I add vanilla flavoring (vanilla extract is what I use) or a salted caramel flavoring instead of chocolate syrup.
The kinds of flavors you can try is endless or you can make the iced coffee without added flavors. The grocery stores now carry a lot of bottles of different flavorings on the coffee aisle.

For me, the best part of this is that I can control the sweetness of the drink and it costs a lot less in the long run.

What kind of coffee drinks or other drinks do you like to indulge in?