Riot and Frolic

Since my coffee routine has changed up a bit in the last 2.5 years (wait, that's how long we've been hanging out?!) and sometimes people ask me how to do it, I'll share my iced coffee routine with you.

How to Make Iced Coffee (Coffee Concentrate)

You will need

• a large French press (34 oz. is my weapon of choice)
  
• good dark roast coffee, coarse ground (Starbuck French roast is good, but whatever you like)
  
• water
• time
• patience
• a pitcher

Directions:

• Put 4-5 tablespoons of coffee in the bottom of the French press.  No need to be exact.
• Pour tap water over your coffee.  (Some people will cry "Filtered!  Filtered water, you heathen!"  But I live in the city and our water is pretty great, so there.)
• Stir up the beautiful black sludge you've created, so all the grounds are saturated.
• Put the top on your French press, BUT DON'T PRESS THE PLUNGER.
• REPEAT: DO NOT DEPRESS THE HANDLE.
• Set your unfiltered, swimming, coffee grounds in a dark place to marinate for 24 hours.  (You can wait less, but it's not as good.)
  
• After 24 hours or so have passed, you may filter the grounds by depressing the plunger.
• I like to strain the sludge out of my coffee by pouring it over a folded-many-times cheesecloth, into a funnel, into my pitcher.  Otherwise, you will have a bit of sediment on the bottom.
  

Iced coffee tends to be more concentrated than heat-brewed, so if you drink it black and undiluted, get ready for a kick in the pants.

Most iced coffeers mix it with milk, sweetened condensed milk (for Thai coffee), half and half, or the like.  You can still drink it hot (cold brewing cuts down on the acidity, making it easier on your stomach and teeth) by adding hot water and "coffee concentrate" in equal amounts.

But here's mine; ready to go in an instant:  

Word.