cold brew iced coffee: Mocha Version

Here is the recipe.
Of course things can always be tweaked.
I use the cold brew coffee recipe that is pretty much everywhere via the internet and the recipes are all basically identical. I grabbed the recipe from NY Times. I figured the site is fairly reputable (sarcasm).

Now remember, the cold brew coffee is less acidic. So if you like coffee that puts hair on your chest and kicks you in the gut, I don't recommend the cold brew (did you just have an image of a cup of coffee grow legs, run over and high kick some unsuspected person in the gut? Yeah, me neither). This is for people who don't want the acidity, and wants to drink a more Isaac Hayes kind of iced coffee (mellow & smooth).

The caffeine amount on this has been mixed on the internet. Some say this is more concentrated so it has more caffeine. Others say this doesn't have as much as a hot brewed coffee. Either way it still has caffeine, so be careful how much you drink of this.

The cold coffee recipe:
Yields 2 drinks

1/3 cups or 5 tablespoons of ground coffee (medium-coarse grind is best)
1 1/2 cups water (preferable at room temperature and filtered)

In a jar (preferable a glass one since plastics can absorb tastes and smells) stir together the coffee and water, cover and have it sitting out (at room temperature) for either 3-4 hours (for the impatient person like myself) or 12 hours (if you want more caffeine and also a little more acidity). Really the brew/sitting time is personal preference. However I wouldn't go over 12 hours? I accidentally had it sit for almost 20 (I forgot about it! Don't judge me!) and it had an odd kick to it that I didn't enjoy. Also don't brew it for less than 3 hours. Obviously any less than 3 hours is not enough time.



Once it has sat for your desired time, you need to filter out the grinds.
I use the coffee strainer from my coffee maker with a coffee filter in it to filter out the grinds. You can use other methods, but make sure you filter out the grinds. You want it smooth, not chalky or crunchy. Because trust me, if you don't filter out the grinds completely, it becomes chalky.
So coffee strainer with filter and slowly pour in a little at a time and allow the filtered coffee to strain in a new clean container. Once again, I recommend using glass since plastics tend to absorb tastes and smells. So if you end up using the plastic container that was used for coffee, for some juice, it might smell funny.


Now the coffee is done, its now time to make the Mocha.
Just a note, I would wait to put the iced coffee in the fridge. Its easier to mix the mocha syrup that we will make, into room temperature coffee, rather than cold refrigerated coffee.

Mocha Syrup:
Why Mocha Syrup? Well puny mortal, when you just put the coco mix in with the coffee and stir or shake thinking it will all dissolve, it doesn't. It ends up being kind of chewy, chalky and clumpy. So instead, making a syrup maintains the smooth consistency that I enjoy out of a nice cold cup of iced coffee.

Yields for 2 drinks

4 Tablespoons hot coco mix
3 Tablespoons water (boiled or not boiled, that is the question)
4 tablespoon soy creamer

I use a fairly straight forward ingredients, kind of hot coco mix. I avoid partially hydrogenated oils like the plague so I found a decent hot coco mix. I also used soy creamer because I don't like milk. But you, of course, can use regular creamer and whatever hot coco mix your heart desires.


Take the hot coco mix and water and you can do either of 2 things. You can mix the water and the hot coco mix together, then throw it in the microwave. Or you can take boiling water and mix with the hot coco. I will microwave because I'm being lazy. I microwave it for about 1 min. My microwave sucks so it may take a shorter time for you.

Once your hear your microwave beep, (or if your kettle starts to whistle) take out of the microwave and mix the water and coco mix. Make sure to mix the hot coco and water thoroughly. No chunks for you! I want to see that mixture smooth like a baby's bottom or smooth like silk or smooth like, well you know, syrup.

Add the mocha syrup and the creamer into the coffee.
Stir thoroughly. The syrup may start to harden a little and create little coco floaties. Don't worry, its ok and normal. Keep stirring and eventually it will all go away.
Once you no longer see chocolate floaties in the ice coffee, throw it in the fridge and enjoy when you want. Hell, enjoy it now. Drink the delicious coffee! What do you mean its 2AM and you'll be up all night? Whatever. JUST DRINK IT!


If you still get some tiny clumps from the chocolate, don't worry, you will not notice them while drinking the iced coffee.

Now you don't have to throw the creamer into the whole iced coffee batch. You can add it in the individual servings. I make it this way so I can enjoy it right out of the pitcher. Kind of like grabbing a Starbucks frappachino that are premade off the shelf at the local Walgreens or CVS.

Of course you don't have to add in the mocha to the whole batch either. You can make individual servings of the mocha syrup. But once again, my recipe, my rules, my blog, my way. If you don't like it, then tweak it. I won't get offended. I may cry a little but whatever. Go ahead. Make a 29 year old girl cry. See if I care.

If you do add the mocha to the whole batch, then make sure to stir it or shake (if the container allows you to) to mix up the coco, since it will settle to the bottom, before you pour yourself a glass.

For an added tip, you can make coffee ice cubes to prevent diluting your delicious drink of taste and caffeine. Using the cold brew iced coffee recipe, pour the completed cold brewed coffee into an ice cube tray (a spare one perhaps), throw it in the freezer (Note: Do NOT actually throw the tray in the freezer!) and use them in your drink (once they are frozen). I would recommend just using black coffee as the coffee ice cubes (no creamer, sugar or coco).

Also I don't know for sure how long the coffee left in the fridge will stay good for. I've heard anywhere between 2 days - 2 weeks.
I would not wait 2 weeks, but I tend to keep it in the fridge for 5 days before I decide it may no longer be good. But either way, fresher is always better so enjoy quickly, maybe not all at once. Unless you want to OD on coffee and caffeine and be up for days. But yeah, I don't recommend it. (Same principal for the ice cubes. I wouldn't have them sitting in your freezer for too long)

So if you made too much have a caffeine party. Invite some friends and make them drink your iced coffee. Even if they don't want to, guilt them into it until you get rid of the excess coffee.

Who would have known this blog would have been this long.
My apologies.
Are you still paying attention?
Really?

Amazing!

iced coffee

So searching for the perfect cup of coffee, I stumbled upon a recipe for Cold Brew iced coffee. At first I thought it was load of crap, but apparently there are coffee connoisseur who swear by this and will ONLY DRINK cold brew iced coffee. Meaning it could be 100+ degrees outside but they would drink a hot coffee over a hot brewed iced coffee. Weird? Well, yeah they are nuts. Have an iced tea instead if you are going to be like that. Freaks.
Anyway, I decided to try the cold brew approach. Mainly because people said that cold brew coffee is less acidic. And lately my stomach has been very upset at me when I drink coffee, especially from places like Starbucks. The punch in the gut of the acidity is too much for me.
I followed the recipe online and right away taking a sip before adding anything else (sugar or cream) showed that it WAS less acidic. But I didn't want to just put sugar in it or make a simple syrup for it, so I choose to make it a mocha.
Wielding some hot coco mix and rice milk I tried but it was clumpy and grainy.
But I'm now trying again, this time I will melt the hot coco and use Silk Soy plain creamer. I'll be trying it tonight, if all goes well, I'll add in the recipe and I'll let you know the jittery results. If it goes bad, then you will never hear from me again.
Who am I kidding, I can't stop talking!
Plus you guys would miss me too much! I know I'm irresistible!



I hope it turns out well.

here...

I decided to switch over tshirts to alternative apparel.
So out with the old in the new(ish).
Some of my designs will be gone forever (once they sell out).
But some will still continue to be around.

For example, I am keeping my geek and crossbones design because frankly, I love it too much to let it go.
I am working on some new designs that hopefully will do well enough so that they'll stick around for a while too.

In the mean time, I'm going to slowly start to introduce the new shirts or at least newish shirts.

The shirts I am using are new (meaning I haven't use alternative apparel in my shop previously) but the design has already existed.
Get it? Yeah? No? Maybe?

Well, either way, enjoy.
The alternative apparel shirts are super comfy and soft.

ideaz

I've had ideaz floating around in my head.


Will probably be on the right front chest of a shirt.


Exclusively on a tote bag.
Maybe I'll make (professional) prints of this?
Granted I need to fix it before I do that.

anyway.....
that's it for now.

I feel naked...

Its hard for me to believe that I got my first cell phone in 2002. I was 22. Especially when I see middle school and high school kids today carrying their cell phones with them. Most of my other friends had cell phones for a year (rarely 2) before I got my first, but they hardly used it. Everyone had landlines. So my friends only used it when calling long distance. Now, 16% of the population does not have a landline and its increasing.
Sales of landline phones are way down and I can safely say most of my friends don't have a landline.

Now you may be asking, why the crap are you talking about this and why is your titled "I feel naked..."
Well with the dependency of cell phones today, and the more uses cell phones have (texting, email, interweb, etc) when one forgets to bring their cell phone with them, well, the whole day is thrown off. So now here I am, without a cell phone, feeling lost and alone, oh and very naked. Plus I cannot go home and get it now.
Saying that I feel naked not only seems very appropriate to say, but also awkward, making it even better because, well, I like making a situation awkward.
So to avoid weird visuals, I'll give you this:


A sad iphone. Which is what my phone looks like right now because its not with me.
Either that or its happy that it gets a break for a day.
Doesn't the saying go "if you love them, let them go?" Maybe this day will allow me to love my cell phone even more than I did before.
*sniff sniff*
I know I'll love you more when we are reunited!

Please don't judge me...

Ms. Fix It

I enjoy learning how to do things.
Most of the time I like to learn it with the help of my friend the World Wide Web. Sometimes the World Wide Web and I will have our disagreements or arguments, but we always make up. I can never stay mad at them.
Anyway, I taught myself or sometimes with the help of others (actual people, not the computer) how to do things. I have learned from watching my dad (he attempted to be a handy man sometimes successful and sometimes not) and watching my friends. I learned the inter workings of the computer through friends and my brother. So when it comes to calling up customer support for further assistance (when I cannot figure it out) it pisses me off when I tell them I have done everything they just told me to do, but they want me to do it AGAIN because they think I don't know. Grr... But this isn't about that (yet). Other things I learned, HTML, CSS and Flash. Nothing at an expert level or even advanced (and most Flash I have forgotten now), but enough to get by or expand on if I wanted to.
But learning all these things would just build up in me and then I NEED to know how it works. So I learn how to do it. I'll ask my friends who know about it, questions.

My need for knowing how either things work or knowing how to fix things has grown. I just recently learned how to fix an ipod. I researched it about 1-2 years ago because someone thought their ipod died. It ended up just needing an old fashion reset, but I learned how to replace the hard drive, thinking maybe it was that. So I learned how to do it. Step by step. It was fascinating to me. I sat on it because I didn't want to spend money on getting all the parts on fixing an ipod when there was a chance it wouldn't work. Well, the urge to do it was too much and I gave in.
I bought a used ipod video on ebay.
They said it wouldn't turn on.
They lied.
The audio didn't work.
At all!
Through headphones or the dock (which FYI, its VERY COMMON for Ipod 5G/Video!)
Plus, the guy clearly busted the front cover probably trying to fix it himself and failing. Miserably. (now I have to buy a new front cover too)
So what I originally thought was a battery or hard drive issue, turned out to be a logic board issue.
I learned how to do that, bought a new logic board, swapped it out and presto! It works. So now I have a used ipod 5G for cheaper than a refurbished one and roughly about the same price as a used one I can get off ebay.
I must say I'm proud of myself.
Now, I'm no expert, but I can always help and send you in the right direction if you decide to fix your ipod yourself.
Just let me know.

photoshop

I'm still trying to learn.
Playing with textures.
I'm not impressed with this.
I should have played with this one a little more.
Oh well...