One of the great things about iced Cold Brew coffee is how well it travels. Unlike hot coffee, which can be delightfully made from a Cold Brew base, iced coffee generally runs the risk of getting heavily watered down if it is consumed too slowly. Yet part of the pleasure of a good coffee is the gradual consumption that comes naturally while savoring the beverage. Coffee is not about chugging. It isn't designed for quick hydration. Coffee is a drink that should be the focal point of the moment. But that cold jolt you get from the chain down the street, whether or not they burned the beans this time, is usually just regular brewed coffee poured over rapidly melting ice and often, heaven forbid, topped with whipped cream.
While I won't belabor the point here of why topping iced coffee with whipped cream is just plain wrong (unless you are using ice cream instead of ice), the basic mechanics should be obvious. The resulting situation is rapid dilution of the coffee, rendering a thin, feeble beverage that is often overly sweet and then, to avoid having to actually linger in the moment and taste the darn thing, it is sucked unceremoniously down and quickly forgotten. Enter the Cold Brew option.
At home, you are not generally limited to the disposable plastic waste offered at the nearest assembly-line espresso joint. So pull out your stainless thermal carafe or ceramic mug and pour chilled Cold Brew into about a third of the available space. Mix in your sweetener if you like that sort of thing and drop in a few cubes of ice. Top it with milk or cream or whatever, but account for the fact that your ice will melt. Personally, I like my coffee drinks to feel rich, so I go "up" a fat; if I normally add 2% to my hot coffee, I'll consider whole milk to compensate for the ice. Or, more likely, I will just add heavy cream. NEVER whipped cream, though, because it does not travel well and ends up usually being more oily than rich when it finally gets mixed in. Be aware, though, that your ice may melt VERY slowly if all the ingredients have been properly chilled in advance and kept in a good thermos.
The best part now is that the coffee remains cold and drinkable for a nice, extended period. The picture here is only moments old as I write this (the cup resting on the recipe for my basic bread, being prepared for this blog on the very tablet on which I am now composing this post). It does not taste any different now than it did two hours ago when I sat down to begin savoring it at my mobile "desk." The drink remains just as rich and flavorful as the first sip and I feel no rush to finish it before it turns into a watery mess.
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| Iced Coffee and Work on the Go |
