Marylou's News

One of my life goals is to open a Marylou's News franchise in the D.C. area. Maybe in Admo or U st, somewhere funky but still frequented by the yuppies. This is some of the most delicious coffee ever, served up by semi-cute, pink-clad high-schoolers on the South Shore of Massachusetts. They use flavored beans, rather than making an unflavored cup of coffee and then dumping sweeteners and syrups in it. My favorites include the Girl Scout Cookie (tastes like a thin mint), Chocolate Coconut, and Milky Way.

When I was home for Easter, I decided to buy a few bags to make at home. I don't actually have a coffee maker- I have an espresso coffee maker (image below) that I picked up in Italy, but other than that I rely on my Keurig that D got me a few years ago. Neither of these things are made for ground coffee beans, so what did I do?

If you enjoy iced coffee, I think cold brewing is the ONLY way you should be making it. Also known as cold press, this method involves steeping the coarse-ground beans in water for 12+ hours, then straining to make an iced coffee concentrate. This mixture is naturally sweeter, due to lower acidity- since there's no heat, there's an entirely different chemical composition of the end product. Whether you find this super interesting or totally boring, the result is a delicious cup of coffee.

If you've heard of the Toddy brewing system (pictured above), that's what I'm talking about. However, you don't need the Toddy tool (which costs $40 retail) to make this- if you keep in mind the ratio of 1lb coffee to 18 cups water, you can soak beans and strain all by yourself (which doesn't mean I'm not still asking for a Toddy for my birthday...take note readers who are obligated to buy me things).

I think I first heard about this method last year over at The Pioneer Woman, a totally bad ass blog about doing things yourself like a modern day Laura Ingalls Wilder. Her images and writing are perfection for this post, but I prefer the recipe (ratio) over at Bon Appetit. I've heard the ratio is very much a personal preference, and the end product is a concentrate anyway, meaning you're going to be messing with the ratio again when you blend it with water or milk before drinking. Try this! Now now!

One more thing- don't ruin your nice cold coffee beverage by melting plain old watery ice cubes into it. I make coffee ice cubes (I actually use the starbucks double shot drink for this) to keep the coffee flavor undiluted. I even found you this unnecessary-yet-cool ice cube tray to make ice "beans". Yay!

YUM. The Marylou's smells sooo good that D even just asked for some. I guess its tempting enough to make him forget how much he hates coffee (I'm dating an alien. Didn't you know?)