Earlier this year, Mike and I tried to cut caffeine out of our diets and we succeeded for about three months. We stayed away from brewed coffee even longer by purchasing a nifty little espresso machine. Dark roasts have less caffeine so cappuchino, latte and espresso (expresso anyone?) drinkers are in theory better off than their drip coffee friends. Granted, once you dump in your sugar and dairy, no coffee is really a health drink. But I digress. For quite a while we enjoyed our lattes, even the entire process of steaming the milk and grinding the beans every morning. That’ll keep you from drinking more than one or two cups a day, I’ll tell ya!

But summer is here and so is iced coffee season, two things that don’t mix well with steamed milk lattes. Luckily, before I broke down and purchased a drip coffee machine, the newest coffee fad hit the blogosphere. Cold brewed coffee. You start with a rough grind of your favorite bean, add cold water and let it sit in your fridge for approximately 12 hours. Drain through a filter and you’re set…just add your sugar/milk as needed and enjoy. The ratio is about 1 cup of rough ground beans to 4 1/2 cups of water.

I’m here to tell you…this stuff is addictive. So smooth and mellow, it is definitely the upscale cousin of the hot brew, latte or otherwise. We’ll just pretend we didn’t hear it has even more caffeine than it’s less elegant family members, shall we?