Hooray for summer!  Here in the Pacific Northwest, summer doesn't really get under way until July 4th, so this weekend is the official start of our season.  Although I realize that in a lot of the country, it's been over 80 degrees since March or so.  We start the iced beverage season late up here.  But since we invented coffee, what we say goes, right?  (Kidding!)

There are a lot of subtleties to making a good cup of iced coffee.  As you may have noticed if you ever tried to just pour day-old brewed coffee over some ice and call it "iced coffee."  (Surely I'm not the only one who has tried to do that?)  

When you make coffee using hot water, the heat extracts alkaloids from the coffee grounds.  These alkaloids, in combination with the oils that are also extracted, are what turn bitter after the coffee cools.  Of course, this bitterness isn't the end of the world.  And it's not against the law to save yesterday's leftover coffee in the fridge, and drink it cold the next day.  But the flavor can definitely stand up and do some talking.

A secondary problem is that, thanks to the effects of the melting ice, cold coffee should ideally be made to double strength.  This is a lot of why your leftover coffee never tastes quite right as iced coffee later - it started out too weak.  Then it got bitter!  That's a recipe for disaster.

A somewhat better method is to make double-strength coffee or espresso shots, and pour it directly over ice.  This at least cools the coffee quickly, and reduces some of the alkaloid bitterness that develops over time.  Without the oxidation that takes place over the hours of sitting, this "fresh" method of making iced coffee is a big improvement.  

However, it's still a bit much sometimes.  I typically like an Americano with just a splash of milk - but I take my iced Americanos with extra milk and two sugars, to help balance out the flavor.

The best method of all is not only the most delicious, it's also the easiest.  I first heard about Cold Process Iced Coffee in the New York Times.  That's a fancy name for "make it double strength and let it steep overnight."  You can make it easily in a French press, if you have one.  I broke mine years ago and never replaced it, so I "brew" my iced coffee in a Mason jar.

My procedure in summer is to mix grounds and water in the jar in the morning, let it sit at room temperature all day, then pop it in the fridge overnight.  The next morning I strain it using a coffee filter in a strainer.  And voila - unbelievably sublime, delicious, and un-bitter iced coffee!  

For a real treat, add a spoonful of sweetened condensed milk, which is the "secret ingredient" in Vietnamese iced coffee.  Just don't blame me if you get hooked on this preposterously delicious summertime treat!

Image credit: Flickr/thebittenword.com