Cold-Bewed Coffee

 A few weeks ago I bought this at my local farmers' market. Cold-brewed coffee concentrate:

With this, it was easy to whomp up an iced coffee as quick as a flick. Equal parts concentrate, water, and milk. Pour over ice and enjoy. It's delicious. Except it's kind of expensive.

"You know it's really easy to make that at home, right?," somebody asked me. "You just pour some coarsely ground coffee into a pitcher and add cold water":

"Stir it up and cover it with plastic wrap":

"Then pour the liquid through a coffee filter to catch the dregs, and Voila! Cold brewed coffee!"

Yeah, well, I tried it. It's messy, and the result had a faintly nasty smell. Like old, leftover coffee that sat too long in a pot.

So, no. I'm not making it from scratch any more, and I'm probably not buying the expensive concentrate. I'm going back to this baby:

A heaping teaspoon of this, stirred up with a dab of hot water to help it dissolve. Then water and milk and ice, and you've got yourself a fine glass of iced coffee.

Just my speed.

(P.S. Try adding a teaspoon of instant espresso powder to the batter in your next batch of brownies or from-scratch chocolate cake. Soooo delicious!)