Iced Coffee by the Pitcher
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
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
I’ve been looking for a good homemade iced coffee and I can’t wait to try this recipe! Can you share what brand coffee you use?? Thanks!
I’ve been looking for a good homemade iced coffee and I can’t wait to try this recipe! Can you share what brand coffee you use?? Thanks!
I’ve been looking for a good homemade iced coffee and I can’t wait to try this recipe! Can you share what brand coffee you use?? Thanks!
I’ve been looking for a good homemade iced coffee and I can’t wait to try this recipe! Can you share what brand coffee you use?? Thanks!
I also play roller derby (and love baking)! Pleasant surprise to see you do/did too! I’m in my 9th season of playing so I kind of just deal with pain so I’m not taking a ton of pain killers. I have been struggling with creaks and cracks and swelling ankles lately and for a few months have been drinking venti-sized coffees so I want to save money/drink less coffee as I think the caffeine is contributing to my ankle swelling. I stumbled upon this looking for an at-home iced coffee solution to save money and get a good routine going to lose weight. Can’t wait to try it!
I don’t like and sugar or cream in my coffee. Straight up black. Can this work for that? Skip the extra stuff?
Hi eradiKate, aw bittersweet memories of derby. My timehop told me that today was the day I’d sold my Antik skates and my other gear. 🙁 This should work just fine straight up black. Let me know how it goes for you and best of luck on the track! Knock someone flat for me, will ya?
Thank you for this! I kept finding all these Iced Coffee recipes that had so many steps or made way too much. This is perfect and the sweetener is just the right amount (I didn’t use the vanilla because I don’t like flavored coffee). Thanks again!
Yay! Thanks for stopping by to let me know. I’m glad that this recipe could help make your mornings a little better!
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