Cake without Coffee ...

... ist wie backen ohne butter!

with this said, i have to confess i'm somewhat of coffee junkie. not as bad as the viking (he drinks coffee like it's liquid air) but i need coffee to live. i love the smell of coffee and i love the deep black color. i hate weak watery coffee – seriously people, if you drink weak watery coffee, stop drinking it altogether and have some water.
the best coffee for a hot summer day is still an iced coffee! the worst about iced coffee is: there are 103 ways to thorougly screw it up. and a screwed up iced coffee will make y'all tear up and cry like a little girl for hours. the second best (next to drinking it of course) about an iced coffee is: it's so easy to make it'll make y'all jump around the house with joy – for hours ;)
how not to do it: brew coffee, dump a few ice cubes in it, pour in milk! BAD! don't do it. all you get is a semi warmish watery coffee with milk. yuck. evil. not even the devil could be so mean to serve something like that. or, just as bad: brew coffee and let it cool down. somehow that really doesn't that right – that was my first attempt at homemade iced coffee though and it always bugged me that it tasted kinda stale. until i learned how to do it: buy a pound of ground coffee. any coffee you like. go for the blue mountain – if that's the coffee you always have – or just go with any mixed blend.
"dump" the coffee into a big enough container that may be covered with a lid.

add cold water, give it a good stir, cover it up and let it sit and soak for 10–12 hours (even longer if you let it stand over night and don't get out of the bed the next morning. don't worry about it. it cannot go bad. there is no way to screw this up.).

all you have to do now is wait. you can take care of your life while the coffee is doing it's work. you can also sit and stare. do what you want. the coffee doesn't need you at this point.

the minute you're ready to finish the job, cover a strainer with a linen cloth (you really don't want to give the coffee grounds a chance to end up in your iced coffee) and pour the "brew" into a clean big bowl.

it'll only need a few minutes to "drain" and you're almost good to go. it really is this easy!

fill the iced coffee concentrate into bottles or any other kind of storage container. you could even freeze some of it. if you store it in the fridge, it won't go bad for quiet some time though. i've never had it go bad but than, i drink too much of it to really give it a chance (this is only half the recipe. i decided a few days ago to (accidentally!!!) break my giant pitcher :( and haven't gotten a new one yet)

isn't the color awesome? i love the deep dark black color. this is what space must look like when you're in it. i just finished my astronaut training and am currently waiting for a call from NASA ;o)

one thing – very important – you always have to have enough ice cubes ready. i'm ready to kill for a ice cube making fridge-freezer-combination thingy. i like my little freezer compartment though. it containes all things needed for any occasion ;)

ready? now comes the good part. the reason we worked so hard for the last 12 hours: preparing the perfect homemade iced coffee!
fill a glas with ice cubes, pour in the required amount of iced coffee concentrate and if you're me, add a straw – pink straw to be precise.

add as much milk as you like. add cream if you dare. a dash of vanilla? some caramel? sugar? sweetener? any kind of sirup? nutmeg? chocolate? do what you want. add what you like. leave out the milk if you like it tough and rough. 

isn't it beautiful? that's what you want an iced coffee to look like.

give it a good stir and enjoy!

it's divine. it's smooth as velvet. it's a little liquid heaven. i'm gonna grab another one and go outside now. sun and iced coffee on a sunday morning. there aren't a lot of things better than this. in 8 days the viking will be home. then sunday mornings will be perfect.

the recipe:
500g ground coffee
4–5 liters cold water

dump, add, stir, let it do the work in 10–12 hours and done!
this is how i like it. i like it strong. you might have to experiment with the ground coffee water proportion a bit. don't worry, about screwing it up. you can't. it's as simple as it looks like. and it's as divine as it should be.

sweet summer sundays!

xoxo J.