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Tall glass of iced coffee with milk beside a French press of cold brew coffee concentrate

French Press Iced Coffee Concentrate

A cold brew style coffee concentrate steeped for 12 hours in a French press, then pressed and diluted with equal parts water or milk over ice.
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Steeping time 12 hours
Total Time 12 hours 10 minutes
Servings: 4 drinks (about 2 cups concentrate)
Course: Beverage
Cuisine: American
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

For the concentrate
  • 1 1/2 cups coarsely ground coffee about 115 grams / 4 ounces
  • 3 cups cold filtered water
For each glass of iced coffee
  • ice cubes
  • 1/2 cup coffee concentrate
  • 1/2 cup cold water or milk dairy or nondairy, or to taste
  • sweetener to taste (optional)

Method
 

Make the concentrate
  1. Grind the coffee coarsely, as for a regular French press pot, and put the 1 1/2 cups of grounds into a clean 34-ounce (8-cup) French press.
  2. Pour in the 3 cups of cold filtered water slowly. Stir gently with a wooden spoon or chopstick until all of the grounds are wet.
  3. Cover the press. Either set the lid on with the plunger pulled all the way up, or cover the top with a small plate if the press is too tall for the refrigerator shelf with the plunger raised. Do not press yet.
  4. Refrigerate for 12 hours. Anywhere from 12 to 16 hours is fine.
  5. Take the press out, fit the lid and plunger if they are not already on, and push the plunger down slowly and evenly until it stops.
  6. Pour the concentrate right away into a clean glass jar or bottle with a tight lid, leaving the last cloudy spoonful in the press. For a clearer concentrate, pour it through a paper or cloth coffee filter set in a fine mesh strainer. Keep refrigerated.
Make a glass of iced coffee
  1. Fill a tall 12 to 16 ounce glass with ice cubes.
  2. Pour 1/2 cup of concentrate over the ice, then add 1/2 cup of cold water or milk.
  3. Sweeten if desired, stir and taste. Add more water or milk for a milder glass, or less for a stronger one.

Notes

Equipment: a 34-ounce (8-cup) French press, a wooden spoon or chopstick for stirring (metal can chip a glass beaker), and a lidded glass jar or bottle for storage. For a 51-ounce (12-cup) press the recipe can be made one and a half times: 2 1/4 cups grounds to 4 1/2 cups water.
Storage: the concentrate keeps in a sealed jar in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Do not leave it sitting on the grounds after the steep is finished, or it turns bitter.
Granulated sugar does not dissolve well in cold coffee. Use a liquid sweetener such as a flavored coffee syrup, maple syrup or agave, or make simple syrup by stirring equal parts sugar and hot water until clear.
Coffee ice cubes keep the glass from watering down: dilute some of the concentrate with an equal part of water, freeze it in an ice cube tray and use the cubes in place of plain ice.
For hot coffee, mix 1/2 cup of concentrate with 1/2 cup of water just off the boil.