Iced Coffee

My favorite drink in the summer. I was telling my sister how to make it so I figured I'd do a quick post. The great thing is that it is so smooth because it is cold brewed.
Put water in a pitcher, I use about 9-10 cups. Doesn't have to be exact. Add two measuring cups of ground coffee of your choice. I like dark roast. Give it a quick stir to get all of the grounds wet. Let it sit for about 10 hours. If I make it in the morning, I strain it late that afternoon. If I made it in the evening, I strain when I get up. I put a filter in my coffee maker and pour the wet coffee mix into the filter. Not into the maker where it will heat up and run through. Big mistake. You just want to separate the coffee from the grinds and this lets gravity do it for you. My coffee maker has one of those doodads that lets you remove the pot while liquid is still goes through the filter. I probably change the filter twice, occasionally three times. I found a good trick is to NOT stir right before filtering. It seems to keep a lot of the grounds in the pitcher so you can dump all of those out at the end and it filters faster that way. I learned this the hard way.
I store it in a pitcher in the refrigerator. This skinny green one fits on the door so I use it.
In the morning, I get a to-go cup (I reuse these and also take them to the coffee shop if I want a different iced coffee for a change of pace, they give a discount if you bring your own cup, hot or cold) I keep lids from the coffee shop refills to top my cups. A dash of fat-free half and half(yes, I know it has TERRIBLE things in it and I probably go with regular half and half, oddly, half of the time!)and a couple of splenda packs. I learned to drink coffee with milk and sugar when I was about 10 so I've never changed. I always have a stash of bendable straws, the final, crucial step. It helps prevent stains on the FRONT of your teeth. You will appreciate that. The concentrated stains on the back of your teeth however, will not be appreciated by your dental hygienist who will have to work her fingers to the bone (and probably have multiple surgeries)to remove them!
Enjoy!