Iced Coffee

Iced Coffee: Bean Chilled Yet?

If you are a human being reading this article then you have tasted and know what iced coffee is. But iced coffee is not what you are thinking it is. You are perhaps thinking that after making a hot cup of coffee, bringing the decoction down to room temperature, and then chilling it in the refrigerator constitutes a simple iced coffee. You could not be more wrong! No doubt iced coffee is a variant of a hot brewed coffee, but there is a method to make it, a method that is different from the way a hot coffee is brewed.

Making Iced Coffee The Original Way

Iced coffee actually refers to an old method of making cold coffee. Hot coffees are hot-brewed, but if you want to make iced coffee the way it was made when it was started, then you have to cold-brew the coffee. Yes, you read that right – You do not need to heat coffee if you want to make an iced coffee. There are cold process coffee systems available in the market that need no technology and no electricity. All you need is a special pot, cold water, and coarsely grounded coffee beans!

Just pour the cold water in the special pot and dump in the coarsely grounded coffee beans. What will happen is that the cold water will extract the coffee flavors but will not extract the bitter compounds and the fatty oils that are present in the beans. This means that the iced coffee, which is made, will have less acid content than what it would have had if it were hot-brewed. Coffee made using this method was originally called iced coffee. This method was invented in 1962 by a chemical engineer, Todd Simpson, and his company is still around today (It’s called Toddy Products).

Iced Coffee: Tips And Tricks

Here are a few tips and tricks you can use to enhance your iced coffee experience: (i) Put some of the coffee you’ve made in the freezer and make ice cubes out of it. Want to experiment further? Maybe you can add a wee bit of sugar syrup and a little chocolate flavoring. Result: Great ice cubes that you can suck on! (ii) If you choose to make iced coffee using the hot-brew method, then you must get the coffee into the refrigerator once it reaches room temperature. If you allow it to get colder than that, then it may lose its flavor. (iii) Add whipped cream to your iced coffee and shake it up nicely in a cocktail shaker. This will make the drink look frothy and attractive and, who knows, your friends and neighbors might regard you as an iced coffee expert!