for better or worse i am now a coffee drinker. thank you ree. i recently found her recipe for iced coffee and decided i had to try it. big b is a big iced coffee fan and so i figured i'd save him some cash while secretly pretending i was a coffee person. i invested in this and this::
regrettably, coffee and i just don't get along. picture heart thumping near anxiety attacks followed by a day of stomach pains. not fun. for anyone. as i was waiting the 8 hours that this recipe requires, i started perusing some of the comments on the post. turns out, cold brewing is a thing. a somewhat popular thing. i guess its some kind of barista secret. or maybe i've just been living under a pile of dirty diapers for too long. here's the amazing part:: cold brewing produces coffee with a much lower acidity! it also lets the coffee's natural sweetness come through which means much less bitterness and, henceforth, much less sugar usage. we are now on batch two. i dump two of those cans in our lobster pot and mix them with 2 and 1/4 gallons of water ( i let it brew for at least 10 hours). i use the following set up for my filtering. it works better than cheese cloth and is way faster::
and the finished product::
not surprisingly, i'm with ree on the half and half! i started out slow to avoid any major jitters. no stomach upset. and lots of energy. here's where the "for better or worse" comes in. little lu is going on 2. i've been planning (for a little over 6 months now) on upping the energy level by getting back to my normal exercise routine. looks like i'll be pushing that off a little longer and grabbing my pick me up out of the fridge! the kids will inevitably remember this as my dancing and singing phase. as opposed to my usual feet dragging, yawning phase.
