Last summer we started making iced coffee at home to save money, as it is addictively good but getting one or two a day each from Timmies adds up quickly. With each drink costing around $4.00, the average day out we could be spending $16.00 on coffee. When we switched to making our own, the cost went down considerably and we weren’t using the single use cups anymore. Not only did we save money, we stopped using single use plastic cups and straws on them.
We were brewing our coffee hot then cooling it and while it tasted good, this year I switched to doing a cold brew. I find the acidity is lower with the cold brew and it’s convenient that I don’t have to either wait a long while for the coffee to cool down or water it down with a lot of ice that melts to cool the mixture.
I make all my coffee in a french press, so this is no different. In order to make this yummy coffee I use 1/4 cup of the Isagenix coffee grounds (use your favourite kind of coffee) then as much water as needed to fill the French press. I let it sit for anywhere from 4 to 12 hours. 4 hours will produce a caramel, light coffee flavour, 12 hours will be very dark and very rich. I tried making the cold brew with a finely ground Italian coffee, but the grounds were just too small for the mesh in my press, so I recommend using larger grounds rather than very fine. Press down on the French press then move to a pitcher to cool further in the fridge.
Once the coffee is cold, the world is filled with options. Try adding any flavours you want! Vanilla, caramel, maple, honey and citrus flavours are all good additives to coffee. As for cream options, milk, heavy cream, half and half, almond milk and flavoured coffee creamers are all great options to try.
My favourite flavour is to mix 1 part cream to 2 parts coffee and two tablespoons of sugar and a few drops of caramel flavouring. Mixed well and topped with 3-4 ice cubes.
Ryans favourite flavour is to mix 1 part Irish cream to 3 parts coffee with two tablespoons of sugar. mixed well and topped with a couple ice cubes.
If you want to make sure your coffee wont be watered down by the ice cubes on hot days, you can always make coffee and cream ice cubes! They add flavour while keeping your iced coffee perfect. If you want to make sure you keep a consistent flavour, freeze your mixed coffee flavour with the cream and sugar into cubes.
I believe that it’s worth making things at home and trying to limit the use of plastics when we can. (Granted this would be a lot easier if companies sourced their packaging with something other than plastics so that consumers can chose products based on flavour or preference rather than which one is the least damaging to the environment).
Generally speaking, you can save a lot of money making foods and drinks at home and as a bonus, you can customize flavours to your liking. The nice thing about making this coffee at home is that you can mix the grounds and water and go to work. Ryan has commented how much time he’s saving in the morning because he doesn’t have to brew the coffee. Now I realize that you can make a coffee quickly with the use of Keurig or Tassimo, but they are expensive and use a lot of plastic products, whereas using a French press, there is no plastic waste created by brewing a coffee, not to mention a French press yields richer and tastier coffee.
Eva Blakeman 