iced coffee - improved

Over the last two months, I've made 13 batches of iced coffee. Some ok, a few terrible, & a few great. Here are lessons I've learned and hope this improves your homemade iced coffee. From my calculations, my homemade iced coffee costs 3.3 cents/ounce. Out, it can be as much as 27 cents/ounce.

Tips for Iced Coffee

1. Use fresh beans, bought in bulk. Buy 1/3 pound for 2 cups of ground coffee.
   
2. Grind the beans as soon to use as possible. Have a shop grind them coarsely (3rd to most coarse setting)
3. Use tap water that sat out overnight (why?).
4. Use medium or light roasts - french and dark roasts produce a bitter iced coffee
   

Process for Brewing Iced Coffee

1. 2 cups ground beans to 4 cups water in glass or ceramic.
2. Stir for 30 seconds - you'll see a tan plume
3. Cover with plastic wrap
4. Leave on counter for 20 to 24 hours, stir 2 or 3 times during this time.
   
5. Strain into a pitcher
6. Using a pour-over brewing system (Chemex, Melitta, Clever, etc.), pour strained iced coffee through rinsed filter
7. Store filtered, strained iced coffee in glass jar for 2 weeks in Refrigerator
   

Process for Making an Iced Coffee

1. Fill 16 oz. pint glass with as much ice as you can fit
2. In measuring cup pour 1 part iced coffee (I use 3 oz.) and 1 part water
3. Add simple syrup to taste (into measuring cup
4. Pour into pint glass slowly
5. Add milk to taste

5 BEST New York City - ICED COFFEES

So, coffee isn't local. Or is it. the LOCALVORE uses the 80% by weight rule. And a coffee is nearly 97% water. So as long as the water isn't imported, then coffee is local.

So here's my list of the best iced coffees. No, I have not been to each and every coffee shop in New York City. No, I didn't hermetically seal 20 iced coffees, rush to my lab and taste them blindly.

What did I taste? Well, all drinks are ICED LATTES and the smallest size. Why a latte? Well, it ensures that an espresso is pulled fresh and thus the concerns over how long as the iced coffee been in the fridge, how often is the tupperware container washed, what detergent was used to wash the container - all are moot.

Here we go:

1. Cafe Grumpy - I believe that they are the only place that uses a specific coffee roast for iced beverage drinks. It takes a LONG time, but is worth the wait.
2. Gorilla Coffee @ GORILLA - Somehow, the iced coffee tastes better when at Gorilla.
3. Taralucci Y Vino - TyV uses a very mild coffee and noticeably fresh/clean equipment INSIDE (at 18th street - note the little kiosk is not very good).
4. Blue Sky Bakery - they simply do everything very well.
5. Ciao For Now - A newcomer and the MOST expensive iced latte at 4.50, but the use of Hudson Valley Fresh (also at Blue Sky) gives this coffee a nice mouthfeel. The morning barista does a slightly LONGER pull for the iced coffee.

Notables that were left off: Cafe Regular, Sit & Wonder, Mojo, 9th Street, Joe - the art of coffee (btw, the 23rd street location feels very dirty, no?)

Still to try : Cafe Pedlar, Clover, Simon Sips, Abracao