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
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!!
Holly Neifert
Monday 29th of June 2020
Have you ever tried making it mocha flavored? Any idea how I would do that?
Amy D
Tuesday 30th of June 2020
Holly, I haven't tried that yet, but I can tell you what I would do. If I was making it mocha flavored I would use 1/4 cup chocolate syrup and 1/4 cup sugar in Step 2. That way you would get the chocolate flavor without over-sweetening your coffee or getting any weird textures!
Amy
Cindy Marie
Wednesday 29th of April 2020
Finally a iced coffee recipe that's easy for me to do it's yumz tysm you are the bomb
shawn
Saturday 5th of January 2019
After reading this article you reminded me of something I use to do and for whatever reason stopped. I'm going back to it now! Thanks!
Have you ever tried cold brew ice coffee rather than iced coffee? There is a difference in taste. I lean more towards the cold brew as it give a richer taste. Because the coffee is never heated, the acids and oils that can give hot coffee its bitter taste are never released, resulting in a smoother sip.
It's very easy and basically 1 oz coffee to 1 cup of water (more than hot brewing but worth it).
Combine the coffee grounds and water in an air tight container then leave overnight in the fridge. 20 to 24hrs for best results. Next morning strain grounds out. Add ice cubes then your cream, half & half and sugar to your desired taste.
Also if your a coffee freak as bad as I am you can freeze some your coffee into ice cub trays instead of using regular ice cubes so when it melts it's never watered down.
Amy D
Monday 7th of January 2019
I have tried doing it this way also, but I never could get into it. One thing I like about making it hot and then cooling it down is all the sugar completely dissolves which is a problem I ran into with the cold brew. Ah, to each his own. I think there are about as many ways to enjoy coffee as there are people on earth!
jUDY aNTONELLI
Friday 4th of August 2017
Is there a reason for fat free half and half? this sounds easy and good. I use sugar and light cream in my coffee. Thanks for your time
Amy D
Tuesday 22nd of August 2017
Fat free half and half is just my personal preference. Feel free to substitute with what you usually use!