Make
Cold Espresso Drinks Just Like A Pro
By Bethany Dasko
Published by Bethany Dasko at Smashwords
Copyright 2010-2011 Bethany Dasko
License Notes:
This
free ebook may be copied, distributed, reposted, reprinted and
shared, provided it appears in its entirety without alteration, and
the reader is not charged to access it.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Why
Make Your Own?
Step
1 – Required Equipment
Step
2 – Making Toddy, or Cold Brewed Coffee
Step
3 – Where to get Ingredients
Step
4 – How to Make an Iced Latte
Making
it Special
Step
5 – How to Make a Frappuccino style Blended Drink
In
Closing
An Introduction from the Author
Hello and welcome to the wonderful world of DIY espresso! My name is Bethany, and I own a small company called Humerus Wares. We specialize in those wonderful clear to-go cups with a straw that look just like the disposable ones. Yes, you know, like those cups that are always out of stock in that national coffee chain that rhymes with Marbucks? Yep, those ones. Here’s a sampling of our lineup that you can view on Amazon.com:
I am also an ex-barista. When I was working in the industry, I was pretty surprised at how simple and easy the cold (iced and frozen) espresso drinks were to make. People spent insane amounts of money on them every month, but they really didn’t need to. So when I opened Humerus Wares, I knew that it would be ideal to help my customers save even more money by learning to make their own cold espresso drinks.
I’ll be taking
you step-by-step through the process and please don’t forget –
if
you have any questions at all, (really!) just shoot us an
email and we will do our best to help you out! You can reach me at
bethany@humeruswares.com.
So, sit back and read on to learn how to save loads of money by making your own espresso drinks.
Why Make Your Own At Home?
In this economy, it just makes sense to start making your coffeehouse drinks at home. Most iced and blended coffeehouse drinks can be completely duplicated at home for fractions of what you would pay your local espresso shop.
If you go to the espresso stand even twice per week, that can add up to over $450 a year. The person with a 5-latte-per-week habit spends over $1000 per year on lattes alone!
Now, please don’t get me wrong – I also believe very strongly in supporting local merchants, and if people completely abandoned their favorite local coffee stand, it would be a very negative effect on their business and the economy in general.
However, we need to keep all things in balance, and when money is tight we need to find ways to cut back a little. This way you can cut back your spending while having an alternative!
Step 1 – The Required Equipment
The items and utensils you will need to make your own iced and blended coffee drinks are actually fairly standard. You will most likely not need to buy any kind of special equipment, though you may want to.
Basic Kitchen
Equipment
In this tutorial I am teaching you how to make both
iced and blended drinks. However, I realize that not everyone will
be making both kinds. Following is a list of items you most likely
already have in your kitchen. I have notated each piece if it is only
used for one type of drink.
Kitchen Colander
4QT or larger container
Storage jars for the refrigerator
Cheesecloth or coffee filters
Tablespoon
Cup measure set (including 1/4, 1/3 cups, etc)
Graduated measuring container that measures in ounces (for blended drinks only) such as a Pyrex measuring cup
Long stirring spoon
“Nice to
Have” Equipment
Mostly this applies to blended drinks.
The three pieces of equipment that I highly recommend are the
following:
1. A high powered
blender.
Yes, you may have a standard basic blender but we would
definitely recommend getting one that is higher powered, made for
blended drinks. That doesn’t mean spending $300 on a Vita-Mix
(though they do work GREAT) but investing a little more if all you
have is the basic $20 blender. If you make more than a few blended
drinks, you are going to burn out the motor unless it was designed
for use like that.
2. A large graduated
measuring cup.
With blended drinks it is important to make sure
your measurements are exact, because too much or too little can
affect the blending of your drink.
These can be found in restaurant supply and bar supply stores.
They are tall beer-type glasses but they have measuring marks for ounces.
If you have one of the Pyrex measuring cups they will work in a pinch but these ones are perfect because you have a mark for EACH ounce level.
3. Small graduated
measuring cup
This actually would go for both iced and blended
drinks.
These can be found in most grocery stores, restaurant supply and bar supply stores.
They generally measure up to one or two ounces with graduated marks for tablespoons and fractions.
In the recipes on step 4 and 5, I’ve given the syrup proportions in both tablespoons and ounces. For the larger drinks, though, it is really nice to be able to measure 1.5 or 2 ounces of syrups in a nice small container to make it more accurate.
The Proper Serving
Device
If you are going to go all out and make a nice fancy
iced latte or blended drink for yourself, you should serve it in a
cup that corresponds with said fanciness. There are all sorts of
great fancy glasses you can serve iced and blended drinks in, and
many options for to-go cups as well.
I’ll talk more about the to-go options in Step 3, since there is now a great option for a to-go cup that is a sturdy acrylic but looks almost identical to the clear iced latte cups you see at latte stands.
The truth is, when you go get an espresso drink, you aren’t just getting coffee – you are buying an experience. It’s a little indulgence, just a little fanciness for your day. Unfortunately, it also gets expensive.
But if you are going to try and replicate that experience while making these drinks at home, you really will not get the full experience unless you serve it in a manner that it warrants.
Step 2 – Making Toddy, or Cold Brewed Coffee
Here I will show you how to make the foundation of most iced and blended (frozen) coffee drinks – the coffee. I have no idea how it got the name “Toddy” but that’s what it is.