Bottled coffee drinks are better if the coffee is from home. Wash out any single-serving size plastic bottle and allow to dry upside down in a dish rack. I personally prefer 1-liter bottles but any size will do.
Meanwhile, brew a pot of coffee as strong or as weak as you generally make it. Once brewed, remove from heat and allow to cool completely. When cool, use a funnel to pour coffee from coffee pot into the plastic bottle, being sure to fill the bottle only 1/3 full. Repeat with as many bottles as you have or as much coffee as you have. Once the bottles are one third full of coffee, place in the freezer for 4-8 hours. I like to put the bottles in the freezer partially on their side, so the coffee is lining one side of the bottle but not all the way to the bottle neck.
Make another pot of coffee. To this pot of coffee, add a stick of cinnamon or a bit of cocoa powder or teaspoon of vanilla extract. When the pot is full, remove from heat and add the condiments you normally add to your coffee to include cream or sugar or peppermint. Allow to cool thoroughly, then pour into a (previously washed out) water jug or 2-liter bottle and store in the fridge.
Just before you are ready to go to work or elsewhere, remove the frozen coffee from the freezer and using the funnel, pour the coffee from the fridge into the bottle with the frozen coffee. Replace the lid and you're set to go. Iced coffee exactly the way you like it and it won't water down before you drink it all because the "ice" in your iced coffee is coffee.
This easily converts to hot coffee if you have access to a mug and microwave and it's already the way you like it.
Add your voice! Click below to comment. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
There has been a warning out for years about freezing plastic bottles. The plastic bottles when exposed to heat or freezing leech chemicals into what ever you put in them including water.
The warnings against putting plastic bottles in the freezer are not valid. There are no harmful chemicals in the plastic the bottles are made of. I personally spoke with representatives from both the pepsi and coca cola bottling companies.
Another option would be to freeze trays of coffee (once frozen, transfer to freezer-safe zip lock bags, which can be used over and over) to add to refrigerated coffee and put in travel mugs when you're ready to go.
Generally speaking, a nice idea!
I like to just put left over brewed coffee in a cool-aid pitcher and just pour it into a glass when ever I feel the urge for cold coffee.
I continue to be amazed at the scare tactis about the dangers of plastic bottles. With all the stuff in the air, the food we eat, the dishes we eat out of and the stuff we use on our bodies this is minor compared to all this stuff.
Mix cold coffee and low-fat chocolate milk in a ratio that tastes good to you (I use equal amounts of each) and freeze in the drink container of your choice (I use 20-oz rubbermaid bottles - they are easy to clean.). Move a bottle from the freezer to the refrigerator at night, by morning it is on its way to being slush - a lower-cost, lower-fat alternative to the frozen Mocha drinks found at coffee shops now. I buy a gallon of low-fat chocolate milk and find it makes 14 drinks, so I only have to do this chore every other week. The caffeine makes me alert, the chocolate makes me cheerful, and I'm being 'green' because the bottles are reusable and saving $ too.
Susan WV - Sounds like a wonderful ideal. Especially since I love ice coffee, love the vanilla. Only change I would make is to use glass bottles.
Thank you, but I will take my coffee within 10 minutes of being brewed, or not at all.
I'm surprised you didn't fry, boil, stew, saute, puree, dehydrate, reconstitute and reduce it to a roux while you were at it.
Add your voice! Click below to comment. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
