Friday 24 June 2011

What keeps my brain going at the moment


I've been hiding away from the world trying to bore myself into some writing for the last couple of days (more or less successful on that front) and have been working on my caffeine addiction. But you don't have to worry, none of the red bull excess of MUNBW times (don't ever let me work on a project that is sponsored by them like ever again) or the 2 cups of coffee before breakfast I have sometimes been seen with either.
Molly who writes Orangette tweeted about this article in the NYTimes last week which reminded me of the sheer amazingness that is cold-brew coffee.
I know, how could I forget?!? but in my defence it rarely(no, scratch that, never) gets warm enough around here that you're really craving an iced coffee. Well, at least I don't.
But I was in the mood for some procrastination and decided to make some and I think so should you.
Especially if you live somewhere warm.
Anyhow, I didn't go for the Japanese iced method because believe it or not I do actually have a life (ok, all I do at the moment is write and eat but still...) and I had everything for a steep and strain approach in the house.
So what can I tell you - my productiveness has gone up like crazy and I blame the coffee and not the fact that I am finally getting my act together :)
The recipe below is based on the one in Oliver Schwaner-Albright's article but since chicory coffee makes my throat itch (Linde's tastes really nice though) I went for plain old coffee - well, actually I went for some coffee my mum gave me (thank you!!!!) which is one of the nicest roasts I've had in ages.



Feinschmecker magazine listed them as one of the top German artisan coffee roasters and if you ever visit Heidenheim you should definitely go and get some coffee at Schwarz Coffee Shop (just saying...and no, I don't get free coffee there...).

Cold-Brew Coffee Concentrate
90g Coffee, ground
500ml Water, cold

Put the coffee into a container that is big enough to hold all the water as well (I use a 1 litre glass milk bottle). Next pour some of the water over the coffee, stir things together, then add the remaining water but don't stir again.
Cover and leave it alone for 12 hours (no shaking or whatever else you might want to do with it when you get bored) so overnight is a really good time to do this. After 12 hours strain the coffee. You could use a fine sieve but I'm lazy so I used my french press and it worked just fine (and took like only 5 seconds).
You can make iced coffee with this concentrate (1/4 concentrate, 3/4 milk) or you could heat the milk and turn the whole thing into a latte...or...you could replace the ice cubes with vanilla ice cream :)

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