Tuesday, July 10, 2012

PW's perfect iced coffee

Last summer, I had a strict morning routine. Get up, get ready for work, get the kids ready for their day, leave the house, stop at a coffee shop drive-thru for an iced coffee, and proceed to work.  I did this every day. Without fail. 

I am like the tides.  And I like my iced coffee, okay? Scratch that, I need my iced coffee. Daily.

However, that daily iced coffee routine was cutting into my summer fun (read: yard sales) budget in a big way, and I'm sure it wasn't helping my waistline either.  This summer, in order to have both my daily iced coffee and money for yard sale purchases, I decided to make my own iced coffee rather than dropping $5.00 at Dunkin' Donuts each morning.  Enter The Pioneer Woman's perfect iced coffee recipe. 

 I gave it a try, and I love love love it! It has saved my mornings and my budget.  All you need to make it is coffee grounds and water, and then whatever accompaniments you demand of your caffeine serving. I like half-and-half along with a splash of caramel flavor in my iced coffee. 

See?

After I took the above picture, I realized that some of the ingredients are hard to see.  So I rearranged everything on another countertop and took another picture:


You can see the ingredients and final product, but everything is blurry. When it comes to photography, I am certainly not The Pioneer Woman. Though it might help if I drank the iced coffee before I started snapping pictures in the morning.

Note to self: caffeine intake first, taking pictures second.

I am really happy with this iced coffee recipe. Not only does it taste exactly like what I used to buy at the drive-thru each morning, but it costs a LOT less.  Seriously, the savings is amazing! Last summer, I spent $20-25 each week just on iced coffee. This year, I spent just $20 on ingredients to make iced coffee all summer long. You do the math!

Really, math isn't my thing. You do it.

And give PW's perfect iced coffee recipe a try. You'll be glad you did!

4 comments:

Teryn J. said...

I am ALL about the cold-brew coffee in the summertime. I just can't drink a hot cup of coffee when it's 90 degrees out. Unlike the PW, I make them one serving at a time, and now that i have a French press, I use that. I put in enough grounds (I buy whole bean and grind as I need to) and cold water as I would grounds and hot water if I were brewing a hot cup, and then i pop it in the fridge. I usually do this before bed. When I'm ready for the coffee in the morning, I press it and add my sugar and cream. YUM!

P-town Tom said...

I get to do the math? I'm a self-proclaimed math nerd and I accept your challenge. Besides, school's out for summer and what am I going to do until I can teach Calculus again?

A calendar year is 52 weeks long.
There are 4 seasons in a year and we're focusing on summer.

52/4 = 13; thus, summer is about 13 weeks... Cool beans.

Spending $20-$25 a week on coffee? Well, let's just take the average for simplicities sake, $22.50, and say you spent that amount times 13 weeks last summer.

13 x $22.50 = $292.50 You spent $292.50 on iced coffee last year! Um yeah, let's not dwell on the past. And no, no one is judging.

You only spent $20 on ingredients this summer? Yeah, nice savings of $272.50. Very nice!

Oh, don't get too excited though. Did I mention my summertime math fees? Yeah, $272.50 should just about cover it. Thanks!

Mary said...

Funny! I found PW's iced coffee post a month or so ago. Love it! Use good coffee to start - you will taste the flavor and Walmart coffee will taste like Walmart iced coffee. I used a bag of Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf decaf and it was delish...Walmart decaf, passible but why waste my splurge and not get a full coffee taste? I used a glass decanter I got at Walmart (LOL...I really do dislike shopping at Walmart but I don't have a lot of choice where I live) that has a rubber stopper and a wide mouth. I pour in a couple inches of dry coffee, fill it up with filtered water and let it sit overnight. I actually leave the grounds in and filter out a cup of cold-brew as I need it - I put a coffee filter over a cup and pour right from the decanter. Since I'm following Weight Watchers right now I add a splash of fat free half-n-half and a packet of Splenda, stir it up and then add ice. Seriously as good as McDonald's iced coffee (again, no Dunkin Donuts in this podunk town!)

I like making it in decaf, because no caffeine issues when I drink the whole decanter in a day or two!

Amanda Grant said...

Teryn and Mary, I like your styles! They both seem a bit simpler than my version of PW's method.

Tom, I was wondering more about my cost-per-cup by making my own, but I suppose you need more info like how many ounces in a cup, how much I drink, etc. Which is purple, because aliens don't need hats! Also, your payment is on the way, in the form of 4 y/o and 2 y/o adorableness. :)