DIY Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate (with step-by-step pictures!)

With highs still in the 90’s where I live, iced cold brew coffee is perfect for these sweltering afternoons and muggy evenings. If you’ve never tried cold brew coffee, it’s got a smoother, milder taste than traditionally brewed coffee and actually packs more caffeine per cup. I love this cold brew coffee concentrate because it’s so cheap and easy to make, not to mention super versatile. It’s a concentrate, so you simply dilute it to taste by adding ice, water, and/or creamer to get it just the way you like it for a delicious cold coffee drink or you can dilute it and heat it up to make hot coffee with a more mellow taste then a traditionally brewed cup. It seriously cost me around $5 dollars to get all the supplies I needed (I already had a measuring cup, ground coffee, and water at home) and it’s really great to keep on hand – especially during the never ending heat wave that seems to be sweeping my area!

What You Need:

1 cup of ground coffee (I used Gevalia French Roast)
3 cups of water
1 jar (I got the one above at Target for $2)
1 metal strainer (I bought the one above at my local 99¢ only store)
1 coffee filter
1 container to strain coffee into (I recommend using a large measuring cup)

Directions:

Step 1 : Pour 1 cup of ground coffee into bottom of jar. Add 3 cups of water. Stir well.
Step 2: Screw lid on jar and place jar in refrigerator for 18-24 hrs. (I leave mine for around 20 hrs, but experiment with different times until you find the one that tastes the best to you).
Step 3: Place coffee filter inside metal mesh strainer and place over container to catch coffee as you filter it.
Step 4: Pour coffee mixture into coffee filter a bit at a time, pausing to allow the level to go down to avoid overflow. When the last bit of coffee mixture is out of the jar and into the strainer, rinse the jar so you can pour the filtered coffee back into it for storage.
Step 5: Pour filtered coffee into cleaned jar and refrigerate. Your cold brew coffee concentrate should stay good for at least 2 weeks (I’ve added a chalkboard sticker here so I can date it to keep track).
Step 6: Add some ice. Add some creamer. Heck add a dash of cinnamon on top. Drink up and enjoy!