The perfect pick-me-up in hot, sticky weatherI was sitting in the park last weekend, eating picnic brunch in the sunshine with my mate Ros and his small daughter Alice, and another friend with whom I'd just been for a run when I suddenly had an adult moment: I wished I owned a Thermos flask.I was put off vacuum flasks (and scratchy-sounding waterproof trousers in Belisha beacon colours that always smell a bit fusty) at an earlyage because my parents were always dragging me off to walk up hills - Idid the three peaks, all 24 miles of them in one day, aged seven, for goodness' sake.Our picnic drinks weren't bad - a bottle of apple juice into which we'd shoved some ice cubes, and some fizzy water (carried separately) to dilute it with. No alcohol, it was way too early for that. But the muggy heat had given me an iced coffee craving, and iced coffee keeps brilliantly in a flask.I like to make iced coffee one of two ways. There's the instant coffee jam-jar method - teaspoonful of your favourite coffee granules, the same of sugar, and a cupful of chilled semi-skimmed milk, all sloshed into a jam-jar and shaken until the coffee blends and the milk froths, then poured into a glass over ice and drunk with a straw. I like this drink not just because of the taste but also because it breaks all my usual drinking rules in that I wouldn't normally sweeten milky coffee, or entertain the idea of instant.Then there's the gourmet method - predictably enough, perhaps, my favourite, because it has more kick. This needs a bit of forward planning because it uses strong, fresh coffee that's been frozen in ice-cube trays.It's also economical though because if you remember to freeze leftover dribs and drabs of cafetiere or moka coffee rather than chucking it down the sink, you effectively get a drink for the price of just the milk. Just take four or so cubes of frozen black coffee, pop them in the jam-jar(or cocktail shaker), smash them up a bit with a pestle, add semi-skimmed milk, shake hard until the ice begins to mingle with the milk and pour into a glass or cup. Or into a vacuum flask so you can take it to the park.Food & drinkguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
How to drink: iced coffee
Posted by edwina 144 days ago (http://www.guardian.co.uk)Who Voted for this Story
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