Cold Brewed Iced Coffee

There's nothing like a tall glass of iced coffee on a hot summer day.  The easy way out is to use regular brewed drip coffee.  But if you want the ultimate iced coffee experience -- and you are willing to wait for it -- you have to go with the cold-brewed method.  Applying heat to ground coffee beans is the most efficient way to extract the flavor from the bean and make that hot cup of coffee in the morning.  The downside is that the heat also extracts the acid from the bean, which gives us that bitter aftertaste that comes with most commercial coffees (Pike's Place, I'm talking to you).  The cold-brewed method extracts the flavor without the acid, resulting in a super smooth coffee.  Beware that this method also results in a super-caffeinated brew, so you will have to dilute it milk or water by at least 20%-30%.  I found this out the hard way after I had the jitters all day at work (it was very traumatic).  The method: Steep a 4-1 ratio of cold water to course ground coffee beans for 10-12 hours in a French press or other vessel and strain when ready using a fine mesh sieve or coffee filter.  I recommend trying it first without milk or sugar to give you an idea of how smooth it is.