Crimes against coffee.

I am a convert to cold-brewed coffee.

Z will roll her eyes because she believes coffee must always be drunk hot, never cold, and by proxy, coffee must always be brewed hot at the optimal temperature.

J will roll her eyes because, despite growing up in the Seattle area, she has managed to avoid becoming half the coffee fiend that Z and I are. (Which must be commended; that's an incredibly difficult thing to master in Seattle.)

I followed the NY Times recipe: steep 1/3 cup medium-grind coffee in 1.5 cups water for 12 hours at room temperature. Strain twice: first through a sieve, second through a coffee filter. The sieves, bowl, measuring cup, and steamer (improvised coffee filter rig) are much easier to clean than the french press.

I'll admit to using decaf instead of regular, but in my defense, I used Peet's. I don't agree with the description in the article. I couldn't taste caramel notes anywhere, although the resulting brew was definitely less harsh than iced coffee made with hot-brewed coffee. Also, this iced coffee definitely needed milk and sugar, and the recipe made too little coffee for my taste.

It tastes wonderful with condensed milk, although I have yet to figure out how to dissolve the condensed milk in cold liquid.