Gimme Coffee Dammit! » extract

Cold brewing

DelusionalAngel — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 23:57:10 +0000

I admit it. I liked the N.O. Brew iced coffee extract, but the thought of having to order coffee online every week or two or buying it in bulk online = not so appealing. The coffee extract I’ve found locally is expensive. So I searched online. Of course I could cold brew at home (DUH) instead of making one cup of hot coffee in my Senseo machine and putting it over ice or worse, making a lot of individual cups then and then refrigerating them. Now I could rig something up myself but I’m not so handy in the kitchen. There are two home cold brewing options on the market:

and

Honestly? I wanted the Filtron. It seems to be older — “the original”, they make a commercial cold brewer. Their carafe is plastic and having MS and sometimes being unsteady = less chance of breaking that. The Toddy seems more well known as it’s sold in Seattle’s Best stores, but has a glass carafe. It’s also cheaper and had shipping that was less than half of the Filtron. I just couldn’t justify the added expense right now so I went with Toddy for now. I’m hoping it will sit / fit over a plastic container I have already or I can find ones that will fit with it.

If you like iced coffee, as I do, either of these could be a nice way to make it at home. I’ve always just brewed up hot coffee at home and refrigerated it. It’s a pain in the butt. Not that cold brewing won’t be — you’ll have to brew it for about 12 hours and then refrigerate it. But it stays in the fridge for 3 weeks or so. It can also be frozen for a few months.

Serving suggestions for iced = also freeze up some in ice cube trays, limiting that watered down coffee taste if you drink it slow or if you live someplace hot where the ice melts fast.

Of course you can rig something up with a jar and a sieve, but I’m not that brave and I’d probably make a mess of it.

Ohh and if you have a sensitive tummy but love coffee? This gets rid of the acidic flavors. So, it might not be for the die hard coffee drinkers who like that part. But I’ve had regular iced coffees and ones made with extracts / cold brewed both.. And I love it made this way.

More on Extracts, yeah I’m obsessed…

DelusionalAngel — Sat, 17 May 2008 12:31:08 +0000

RIght, I do love Coffee Bean’s Coffee Extract, but it’s $12.95 a liter and it is so rare that I go to Coffee Bean, so blech. Yeah, I know how to use Google, thanks. But usually what I find is that it’s just as expensive online and there are so few options. But today I hit the jackpot, I hope. Today I fould N.O. Brew, and I ordered a 64 oz. bottle of their traditional iced coffee and a 64 oz bottle of their mocha iced coffee. That’s right, 128 oz of extract for $25.50 with shipping. 67.6 oz would have cost me $25.90 locally at Coffee Bean before taxes.

If this is good, I’ll have a new favorite online shop and will be sure to talk about it here and if it or their service sucks you’ll hear about it. But I’m hopeful.. Please be good. Please be good. Pleeeeeeeease!

Dear World

DelusionalAngel — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:58:45 +0000

Get a clue. Iced Coffee. Sell it. Everywhere. I don’t mean coffeehouses. I mean for home use *nods* Coffee Bean does sell Coffee Extract, for a lot… And I rarely go to Coffee Bean. So basically I get to make up tons of cups of coffee to refrigerate (because umm yeah I have an espresso maker and a pod coffee maker). What I wouldn’t give to be able to buy chilled coffee… just coffee. I like frappuccinos (yeah I probably mutilated that spelling, so?). But I don’t always want that oh so good sugary crap! ;) I just want something to add to my soy milk. Just coffee. If Coffee Bean can sell extract surely some grocery stores can. So VONS, get on that, before I go grocery shopping next weekend, k, thanks!

I want iced coffee! Err ok so I made some, but it’s not the same really, I can’t just make one cup because I know I’ll want some tomorrow and the next day and would rather not go through it every day. If I bitch about this enough will someone hear? Doesn’t anyone else drink coffee iced at home?

Shame on you Coffee Bean! But yummmy…

DelusionalAngel — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:11:52 +0000

Ok, don’t get me wrong, I have morals. I’m quite sad to discover (a bit late, I admit) that Coffee Bean was sued for not being handicap accessible. You can read all about that here. But will I do something silly like say boycott them? Hell no. And before anyone jumps on me about bad business practices, blah blah blah, keep in mind I live in California and occasionally go to Coffee Bean…. AND I have handicap parking which I have to use there as they have no parking to speak of. Like I said, I have morals, I feel for those people. But you know what I also shop at Wal Mart now and then and I go to Starbucks every week! Yeah… Sue me.

But you see Coffee Bean offers me a product I can never find anywhere else and it’s a MUST HAVE! 100% Pure Coffee Extract. They’re not paying me to tell you about this stuff but they should, because it’s expensive. But if you’re like me and have to have iced coffees at home, go order it, really you’ll thank me! Without it at home my iced coffee making goes something like this:

Step 1: Make a single cup of coffee because we only have a Senseo at home

Step 2: Pour that cup into a container to store it in the fridge

Step 3: Repeat steps 1 and 2 a lot so that I have enough chilled coffee to last all week

Step 4: Pour chocolate soy milk into a cup

Step 5: Pour coffee into cup

Step 6: Add ice because I’m impatient and wanted coffee NOW and couldn’t wait for said coffee to get chilled at all

With their extract my iced drinks go like this:

Step 1. Pour chocolate soy milk into a cup

Step 2. Pour coffee extract into cup and no ice needed as my drink is already cold thanks to the coffee extract being stored in the fridge (and it will be gone before if can get warm)!

Done.

So yeah, the way to my heart? Send me about a ~~case~~ truckload of that stuff.