Make Your Own Iced Coffee
Save the price of a gallon of gas
Did you know a “tall” cup of iced coffee at that big coffee chain is the same as a gallon of gas?
A GALLON OF GAS!
Look, you know you don’t need to spend that kind of money on coffee. It is a vanity purchase. Let me share this knowledge; you can make iced coffee at home.
Cold brew iced coffee takes a little while, 12-24 hours depending on your tastes, but honestly - the price of a gallon of gas! I made mine in a French press I purchased for less than $5.00 at a thrift store. I have also made it in a quart jar. Both methods produced a nice, smooth iced coffee.
Start with room temperature water. It can be straight tap water, or filtered, any type works find. For the sake of consistency, let’s use the French press as our vessle.
I used two scoops of my favorite ground coffee in the press. I then filled with room temperature water from my tea kettle. (It is always on the stove.) I put the top on and let it set 12 hours.
After the 12 hours I poured the coffee over ice in my glass. For visual fun I slowly and gently poured half-and-half creamer to get that neat, fancy looking visual.
I didn’t top with whipped cream but you certainly can. You can also slowly drizzle chocolate syrup around the emptly glass before adding ice. You can even freeze pre-made coffee in ice cube trays to use in the glass. I found usiing hot-brewed coffee (cooled first of course) too strong to use. You may love it.
I think you will find your home crafted iced coffee to be just as good, or better. With a little planning you can have that fun, cool pick-me-up for less than the price of, well, a cup of coffee at that big expensive place.
Look, I know my math skills are shaky but my 42.5 ounce container of ground coffee is about $0.20 per ounce. I weighed one tablespoon of coffee and it is 0.2 ounces. Now, my traditional coffee scoop is 0.4 ounces, or two tablespoons. That means we are looking at $0.025 worth of coffee, water at less than $0.01, and a little time. But, let’s call it a dime, just for fun.
You have $0.10 of coffee and water, add a nickle’s worth of whipped cream, and another nickle’s worth of chocolate syrup. You are making your own iced coffee for less than fifty cents. That leaves you $3.50 for your gas tank. If you get 20 miles per gallon you can probably get to work and back another day.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Did you try it? What did you add?