Coffee Perfection... Almost

... Well at least in my opinion.  I know there are about 14 gazillion "Perfect Iced Coffee" recipes out there, and I've tried several... Today I decided to throw it all out the window and try something completely from scratch, no "recipes" in mind... Because all of the recipes I've tried just haven't cut it.  They're good.  But not great.  And I'm so over paying $4 for iced coffee at the local Yuckbucks.  Side note: my church now has a coffee shop - Jitters, and they get their beans from a member whose hobby is roasting his own beans. Oh. My. Goodness.  Seriously.  After having Jitters for a couple of months, I ran through the drive-thru at the above mentioned chain coffee shop and literally wondered if they had run out of coffee and gone outside and dug up some dirt to replace it.  I love strong coffee.  But I don't love strong bitter coffee.

Well let's get back to this morning.  What I made this morning was really good, but I would still probably tweak it a bit, so here's what I did and what I would do next time.

I used my french press (it's a small, single serve - I think 12oz) and added 3 level scoops.  Next time I'm thinking more along the lines of 4 or 5 heaping scoops of ground coffee (especially if you're going to ice it).  I also added 1/4 tsp. of dark chocolate cocoa (I get this at the local Spice Merchant) before I added my boiling water.  While it was brewing, I added 2 tsp. of good, rich vanilla from Mexico (the only way to go when it comes to vanilla!) and 2 packets of Splenda to 1 cup of skim milk.  Next time I think I'll start with 1 tsp. vanilla and 1 packet Splenda.

After 3 minutes of brewing, I mixed the coffee and milk, added a bit of ice and voila!  I was pretty excited that it turned out, not having any idea how the cocoa and vanilla would taste together (although very rare, sometimes too many good things together don't turn out good).  One of the best parts is that this comes in around 90 calories - and those are just from the milk, so they're "good" calories :) - especially if you're like me and don't like to "drink" away your daily calories (unless of course they're in the form of melted chocolate ;)
 

{this is only a portion of how much it made... I made it to last the whole day}

Like my straw? It's a sneak peak at one of the things that will be at Emmalyn's First Birthday party - which I'm having a blast planning and crafting for!  Can't wait for you to see it all!  But you'll have to wait until after October 13th :)