Iced Cuban Coffee With Milk

I am using a French Press to make this coffee, which only brews about 8 cups at a time. If you have a larger French Press, you’ll need to adjust the amount of ingredients you put in. If you are using a drip press, you’ll need to brew the coffee, then add and stir other ingredients afterwards.

When making iced coffee, you want to make your original batch of coffee double-strong. In this case, I’m using 8 heaping tablespoons of coffee beans, ground, per 8 cups of coffee.

Put enough water to fill your French Press plus about one or two cups extra on to boil (or set your coffee to begin percolating if you have a drip press).

For French Press users: add about 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar for eight cups of iced coffee, plus about a tablespoon of cinnamon. I am not the biggest fan of cinnamon, so I tend not to use a lot of it. If you’re a cinnamon fan, feel free to add more!

Pour water over your coffee grounds into your French Press as it boils. Stir the coffee grounds, cinnamon, and brown sugar with a wooden spoon a few times, then set your top on to let it steep.

For drip-press users, allow your coffee to sit and cool just a bit while you add the brown sugar and cinnamon to a carafe (remember to use a carafe that is either tempered glass or that you know can stand up to hot liquids!).

Pour the coffee over the brown sugar and cinnamon, stir until it seems dissolved.

After five to ten minutes of sitting and steeping, press down the filter to separate grounds from water. Pour into carafe.

For the drip press, you can move on to the next step once you feel everything has dissolved well.

Add about one cup of ice, piece by piece, stirring continuously while you do so. When the overall temperature of the liquid feels lukewarm and no longer hot (I just touch the outside of the carafe to check), put your coffee in the fridge to cool.

Once cooled, pour over two to four pieces of ice, to about 3/4 of the way up the glass. Top off with cream or milk and voila! Delicious, chilled iced coffee for a hot summer day.

If you want to make this beverage a little more adult, I’d recommend adding some Kahlua or other coffee liquor, Irish Cream, Creme de Cacao and maybe a splash of vodka to make a real Cuban Cocktail!