How to Make the Best Iced Coffee -- cold brewing & Melipone®
(Detailed instructions for the Toddy® cold brew method are here.)
Iced coffee can be more than just another cold beverage during hot months -- it can be your top selling product. It's very easy to make the best iced coffee ever, but a lot of shops don't because they don't know the two simple secrets.
The first secret is that the coffee must be cold brewed: no matter how strong you make it, iced coffee won't taste right if made in your drip brewer. Details on how to cold brew coffee are here, but the idea is to soak coarsely ground coffee in cold water for a long time (10 - 12 hours) to make a concentrate, which is then mixed with water and milk to make the beverage. This method was originated by the Toddy Company, and made popular by PJ's Coffee in New Orleans.
The second secret is to add a little Ronald Reginald's Melipone® Mexican Vanilla to the concentrate. Melipone® vanilla is an extract similar to one you would cook with, but it has a more intense, distinctive vanilla flavor and aroma. I think it's the "nose" added by the Melipone® aroma as much as the taste that makes Toddy Iced coffee so good. Ordinary vanilla extract will not work as well. Melipone, however, is not organic, so if you're a stickler about all the organic details, you may have to choose between the best taste and a 100% organic beverage.
We can set you up with a commercial-sized brewer (with a spigot like the one shown below), large paper filters & strainers, and the correct type and grind of coffee to get you started. See the detailed instructions for cold brewing with the Toddy method.