I have never been a coffee fan. Even in college, when I needed to stay up all night studying, I just couldn’t force myself to swallow more than a tiny mouthful before tossing the rest and switching back to Coke.
I have always liked the iced coffee sold at coffee houses though, so I did a little investigating and found out that the difference is that iced coffee is cold brewed, which means it’s much, much less acidic than regular brewed coffee.
Enter the Toddy System
Although I find the cold brewed coffee much less intense, I still cut mine with a whole lot of milk. Sort of cafe’ con leche but with more leche than cafe’. (When Carrie and I were in Paris a few months ago, I ordered my coffee by saying “Cafe au lait au lait au lait.” which got a lot of laughs from the French baristas.)
After a couple of years of making my coffee this way and playing around with the proportions, I have finally settled on my own perfect recipe. Here’s my method:
Make on carafe of cold brewed coffee following the manufactures instructors, but adding 1 /2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon each of ground cardamom and ground cloves to the ground coffee before adding the water.
When the coffee has finished brewing, pour the coffee concentrate into two ice cube trays and freeze overnight.
To make a glass of iced coffee, add 6 ounces of skim milk to a glass and top with a splash of cream. Stir in sugar to taste (I use around half a teaspoon per glass.) Add three or four coffee ice cubes. The lightly spiced coffee will melt into the milk, giving each sip a slightly different mx of flavors.
