3 simple steps and you’ve got a pitcher of delicious iced coffee to last you all week! Say goodbye to expensive, over-sweetened commercial iced coffee with this simple recipe and indulge all week long the frugal way.
I used to be a regular coffee person. A 3-4 cups of coffee in the morning kind of gal, but then a somewhat strange combination of events kept me from being able to enjoy my coffee any longer. You see, I started playing roller derby, which lead to lots of aches and pain, which lead to me taking lots of ibuprofen, which combined with my coffee caused lots of stomach pain. And that almost destroyed my love affair with coffee.
(Knee damage from derby also destroyed my love affair with running and I’ve been looking for a low impact exercise that I can get into ever since. Any suggestions? Do you have any program you love?)
Around this time I discovered iced coffee. For some reason iced coffee does not bother my stomach. I haven’t done any research on the matter, but I assume it’s probably less acidic.
For years I bought expensive packets of iced coffee mix, until the store stopped carrying them. I did buy the premade iced coffee in cartons for a few weeks, but I couldn’t justify the cost. It was so expensive for so little. My favorite was more than $5 for less than 2 quarts. I set out to make up my own iced coffee recipe.
It had to make a big enough batch to last all week. It had to have great coffee flavor. It needed to be inexpensive, but not made with any cheap or fake ingredients. And it had to be a little sweet, but not overwhelming so.
It took some trial and error, but I’ve finally come up with an iced coffee combination that I love and I hope you will too. Not only does this iced coffee taste great, but it’s so much cheaper.
Iced Coffee by the Pitcher
3 simple steps and you've got a pitcher of delicious iced coffee to last you all week!
Ingredients
- 1 full pot freshly brewed strong coffee
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 quart fat free half and half
Instructions
- Brew a full standard 12 serving pot of strong coffee and allow to cool completely.
- While the coffee is cooling, make a simple vanilla syrup by combining 1 cup of water and 1/2 cup sugar in a small saucepan. Over medium heat, stir the mixture until the sugar has completely dissolved, this will only take a few minutes. Remove from heat and stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Allow to cool. Pour cooled coffee and simple vanilla syrup into a 2 quart pitcher with a tight fitting lid. Store in the fridge.
- When ready to serve, pour 3/4 cup coffee over ice and top with 1/4 cup fat free half and half. (Or milk if you prefer.)
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 10 servingsAmount Per Serving: Calories: 168
Brittany F.
Friday 28th of April 2023
Have you tried this with caramel? How much caramel would you recommend for the pitcher? Also how many tablespoons of coffee do you use to make your pot of coffee?
Raina
Saturday 29th of October 2022
Hi Amy, do you think it would be ok to mix all of the coffee and half and half together and just keep it premixed in the frig?
Mary Tarr
Saturday 9th of July 2022
Thank you for your recipe!! I’m going to try it today! May I ask how much coffee you used for the 12 cup pot? Every time I do it the coffee it does not have much flavor, it tastes like it’s water downed when I do it, thank you in advance!!
Cherie Jubic
Sunday 25th of July 2021
How long does this last in the fridge?
jennifer
Saturday 5th of June 2021
How long can this be kept in the refrigerator once made?