Ice coffee to the residents of Revere, Mass., is like iced tea to Southerners, just a staple of life.
I grew up in the coastal town, and I remember in the 1970s my mother buying coffee syrup to add to milk. It wasn't a fresh-brewed iced coffee, but it was close enough more me as a kid.
About two decades ago, my sister got me hooked on Dunkin Donuts ice coffee. I have been a big fan of ice coffee, but I was living in Florida, and now Ohio, which was not a haven for ice coffee beverages.
When McDonald's came out with an ice coffee, the vanilla one, I was hooked. I would drink one to two large ice coffees a day. As big a fan as I am of Dunkin Donuts' ice coffee, especially the toasted almond variety, to me, McDonald's vanilla ice coffee is the best. It is sweet and creamy, the way I like it, with just enough coffee flavor poking through.
I am not a coffee connoisseur. I do not like a dark, bold coffee. I like it milky and sweet, and that is what McDonald's delivers.
However, at nearly $2 a pop, ice coffee was quickly eating into my discretionary cash. I had to do something.
So, I purchased a Mr. Coffee espresso machine. Keep in mind I do not drink hot coffee, and I do not drink coffee all day long. So, I was looking for something to deliver coffee in small doses. I spent about $25-$30 for the coffeemaker and got just that. I could not make a good cup of iced coffee with it. Coffee was way too strong and bitter. I scrapped it.
Next, I picked up some type of drip coffeemaker from a Goodwill. It was OK, but I eventually got rid of it. I tried using instant coffee to make my ice coffee drinks, and it was passable, but not great.
I don't know how I came up with the idea, perhaps it was my memory of a coffee episode on Good Eats, but I decided to come up with another method for making ice coffee, which is what I now do nearly every day.
My mother-in-law bought me an electric kettle as a gift. I got to thinking, I could put a coffee filter in a funnel, pour the hot water over it and make one cup of coffee at a time. This is what I do nearly every morning.
Here is the process: I heat the water in the electric kettle. I get out my reusable plastic coffee cup and set on it a wide-mouth funnel for stability and height and a regular funnel. Into the regular funnel I place a coffee filter. Into the coffee filter I place 1 1/2 heaping tablespoons of Eight O'Clock Coffee (I switched from Folger's). When the water comes to a boil, I pour enough water over the ground coffee beans to make eight ounces of coffee. I then add 3 1/2 ounces of vanilla caramel coffee creamer and 1 tablespoon of sugar. If I have time, I leave this in the fridge to cool down while I get ready for work. Else, when I am ready to drink it, I fill my reusable ice coffee cup with ice and pour over the coffee mixture. Sip and enjoy.
If you try this, be careful when pouring the water. It is easy to get scalded by the boiling water. Some friends say this is way too much work. Perhaps it is, but I only make one cup of coffee a day. Sometimes I might make two on a Saturday. You might be thinking why wouldn't I go out and purchase a single-cup coffeemaker like a Keurig. It comes down to cost. I cannot justify spending $90-$120 on a coffeemaker that will get used once a day and only by me.
It ain't pretty, but it works for me ... for now.
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