I’ve never been much of a hot beverage drinker, but when it comes to a cold drink, especially coffee, I can’t get enough. With the weather starting to get warmer, I’ve been craving Starbucks Iced Mocha Coffee. When we lived in California it was easy to satisfy my iced coffee craving because we had 4 Starbucks within 2 miles of our home. Now that we’re in West Virginia it’s not as easy to satisfy that craving because the nearest Starbucks is about 10 miles away.
The other day I was flipping through some old cookbooks and came across a recipe for a cold brewed coffee and it made my creative juices start to flow. Maybe I could cut out Starbucks and make my own Iced Mocha Coffee.
For the first batch that I tried I used Starbucks Mocha Coffee trying to keep it as close to the original Starbucks flavor as possible. It was good, but the coffee itself was pretty expensive.
For my next batch I used Kroger’s Private Selection Mocha coffee, it tasted just as good and it was considerably cheaper.
I like cheaper, I’m always looking for ways to bust frustration and the price of the Starbucks brand was a little frustrating.
But it was a lot cheaper to make them than buying them already made from Starbucks (everyday).
It’s surprising at how easy this was to make, I don’t know why I didn’t try it years earlier, it would have saved me a ton of money.
To make your own, pour a 12 ounce package of your favorite mocha coffee grounds into a large container, I used my stock pot.
Then add 2 gallons of cold water, stir and let it sit for 24 hours. Easy-Peasy!
Oh yea, put a cover on the pot so that it won’t be invaded by any foreign objects.
Give it a good stir every once in awhile too, so that you get the most flavor out of every grain of coffee.
Once the water has infused with the coffee grounds pull out a LARGE bowl, a strainer and some cheesecloth.
Line the strainer with a couple of layers of cheesecloth.
If you don’t have any cheesecloth, you could use paper towels or coffee filters, but be warned the straining process will take a little longer.
Now, slowly pour the coffee into the cheesecloth lined strainer.
There is nothing worse than taking a drink of coffee and getting coffee grounds in your mouth so be patient, this step is going to take a little time.
If you do accidentally get grounds in the coffee just strain it again.
Now that dark, luscious liquid is ready to be transferred to a dispenser.
*It will keep for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator. Mine never lasts long enough to worry about it going bad.
I picked up this dispenser from Kmart for around $6.00 and it works great for this.
When you’re ready for a large glass of Iced Mocha Coffee, just grab a pitcher and fill it about half way with with the strained mocha coffee.
*You can add more if you like your coffee stronger.
Then add a can of sweetened condensed milk.
Again you can adjust to your taste, but I like mine sweet so I used a whole can.
Now fill the rest of the pitcher with milk. I used 2% so that I’m cutting the calories a little, that way I can drink more and not feel as guilty.
Give it a good stir.
For a special treat, you could use half n’ half instead of milk.
Pour the sweetened mocha mixture over a tall glass of ice
and enjoy!
*Be warned, you won’t be able to stop with just one glass.
Beverages
Ingredients
12 ounces mocha coffee grounds
2 gallons cold water
Sweetened condensed milk
Milk or half n’ half
In a large container (ex. stockpot, covered bucket), Stir
together coffee grounds and cold water. Let it sit, covered, for 24 hours,
stirring occasionally.
Strain the coffee, using a strainer and cheesecloth. Pour coffee
into a dispenser and refrigerate. Use as needed.
Fill a pitcher half full of the cold coffee.
Stir in a can of sweetened condensed milk and then top off the
pitcher with milk or half and half.
Serve over ice.
This looks yummy, I will give it a try. We do drink a lot of iced coffee but had not seen a recipe that is prepared from cold water. Thanks for sharing!
Have a great weekend
Karren