Tuesday at the Table

Considering fall is yet five weeks away, I'm hoping it's not too late to tout the pleasures of iced coffee. I started seeing it in my google-reader earlier this summer from Katie {see here} and Ree {see here} and Shanna {see here}. Finally, I determined I would try it for myself.

Beings I'm a Northwest girl, I started with a blue bag of Starbucks Iced Coffee Blend, ground for a French press.

I put half in a big ice tea jug with four quarts of cold water and let it set on the counter overnight. Then I strained it through a paper towel-lined mesh strainer, considering I had no cheesecloth, eventually storing it back in the spigoted ice tea jug in the fridge.

Though curious at the onset {what's she trying now?}, hubby really liked the drink I handed him the next day - an iced coffee sweetened per Shanna's suggestion (a mixture of half sweetened condensed milk and half evaporated skim milk) and a bit of vanilla syrup. He said it reminded him of the drink we'd had at Dunn Bros Coffee the first time we visited Minneapolis. As Dunn advertises the Vanilla Iced Nirvana - "Infinite Black™ cold press coffee with vanilla and cream." Uh - pretty similar.

In fact, I emailed Dunn's and have had a nice exchange about the recipe for the Nirvana, and they do use vanilla syrup and half-and-half, so we've switched to using that with our current (3rd) batch of cold-brewed coffee. Of course, they insist the secret to the Nirvana's awesomeness is the cold-pressed Infinite Black. I may just ask son to bring us a pound when he comes to visit next - you know, for the sake of the cause.

Anyway, if you like coffee at all, I'd suggest you try it. There's still time.