Iced Coffee

My new favorite thing for the summer is iced coffee from Starbucks.  I order a tall, sweetened, iced coffee with 2% milk.  It is only $2.11, but such a treat and, in my opinion, heavenly on a summer day.  If you've been looking at the weather, you'll see that Houston has been having "record highs" for about a month now right around the 100 degree mark...so I NEED cold coffee when running errands at 3:00pm :-)

Anyway, I've tried numerous times to make my own iced coffee at home (because I take great pleasure in recreating my "favorite things" in the comfort of my own kitchen for a quarter of the cost), but the results have been less-than favorable.  The end product turns out watery, flavorless, and weak.  I'm not sure about you, but I'd rather not drink coffee if it is weak.

So I got online to check out my usual favorite blogs today and found a wonderful surprise...the Pioneer Woman has dedicated an entire post to "The Perfect Iced Coffee."  And seeing as how Starbucks usually doesn't franchise anywhere near ranch-land, she had to come up with her own adaptation in order to survive her hot summer days at home on the ranch.  I haven't tried it yet, but am intending to when we get back from traveling this weekend.  I'll let you know how it goes, but I have such high hopes for this method...it looks fool-proof to me!

If y'all get to it before I do, let me know how it goes!  The only thing I might do differently is make a batch of my own simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar brought to a boil until the sugar melts, then set aside to cool) and keep it in the fridge to serve alongside the iced coffee instead of using table sugar (because I have found it doesn't usually melt well in cold drinks). :-)

Here's the link - Pioneer Woman's Perfect Iced Coffee

Enjoy!!