Iced coffee base

When I was a girl, I remember my mother drinking iced coffee in the afternoons.  Mostly on the weekends.  She would make a mason jar of iced coffee before heading off to do errands, and if I was with her, of course I did the same.   She used the leftover coffee from breakfast and added evaporated milk. I was a coffee lover, too, developing a taste for it that has stayed with me.

I usually add creamer to mine now, since that's how I drink my hot coffee, too.  I learned recently that you can cold brew coffee much like you make iced tea.  I purchased some ground espresso beans  and added about 1/3 pound of it to 2 quarts cold water.  Stirred it a bit to get all the grounds water-logged, then covered with plastic wrap and set in the window sill for most of a day.

It smelled pretty good, even for cold, un-brewed coffee.  I stirred it a few times to make the grounds sink.

 

 I let it sit all day, then strained it through cheesecloth and stored it in a glass container in the fridge.

The concentrated coffee makes a pretty decent glass of iced coffee with some Caramel Macchiato creamer. And provided the fuel for some serious sewing...
It's like having Starbucks in my kitchen!

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