Awesome Holiday Coffee Drinks

 

Don't you just love Starbucks' drinks this time of year?!

All their yummy holiday flavors, especially their caramel brulee latte, or the gingerbread latte, or the peppermint mocha and my number one all time fave, the toffee nut frap... Oh my goodness, I could go on and on about my love of a good holiday coffee drink, but I will spare you the dramatics.

The only think I don't love about Starbucks' drinks... The price.

Sometimes (by sometimes, I really mean almost all times, money is usually too tight to rationalize spending five bucks on a drink that is sure to last all of five minutes) 

Instead of giving up my favorite guilty pleasure altogether, I decided to figure out how to make my own iced coffee drinks at home.

Common sense might say, just brew a pot of coffee, let it cool off and add ice... that's not really the best way to go.

With that method, the ice melts quickly and waters down the rich flavor of the coffee.

After some research and a little bit of trial and error, I think I've found the best method of making iced coffee drinks at home.

 What you need:

1 cup ground coffee (flavored or plain)

2 qts water

 Empty half gallon milk or juice container with lid

Add coffee to container and fill with water.

 Shake a few times to get the coffee completely saturated.

 Leave out on the counter, overnight.

In the morning, strain out the grounds with a wire strainer, lined with cheesecloth or a coffee filter.

That's it!

You can use your favorite flavored coffee creamer or syrup to add some flavor. 

Using this cold brew method, you can make tons of wonderful iced coffee drinks.

Try mixing different creamer and coffee flavor combinations and see which ones you like best.

I like Kroger's store brand Toffee flavored coffee with International Delights Caramel Macchiato flavored creamer, it is very reminiscent of Starbucks' Toffee Nut Frappachino.... Amazing!!! 

One of my new favorite things to use in my iced coffee is Torani's new holiday syrups. 

Torani is a premium flavored syrup that offers tons of amazing syrups that can be used in a variety of drink and other yummy recipes.

They offer both regular and sugar free syrups. 

I recently had the opportunity to try the Sugar Free Salted Caramel syrup as well as the Gingerbread flavored creamers and honestly, the sugar free syrup was better than the regular one.

Don't get me wrong, both were amazing, but the flavor of the salted caramel was so nice and rich and spot on, it even taste great in a plain glass of ice cold milk.

Micah always wants to try my coffee drinks, but I'm not too fond of him bouncing off the walls, so I make him his very own "Gingerbread Man Coffee Milk".

Coffee Milk is nothing more than a glass of 2% milk and a teaspoon of Gingerbread flavored Torani syrup. 

He loves it, but has no idea it has zero actual coffee in it.

Torani has soooo many awesome flavors, it's is hard to choose just one.

Whether it's the Pumpkin Pie, or the Almond or the Orange, you're sure to find a flavor that suits you!

 You can also use the Torani syrups if you have a soda stream, I don't have one ( I haven't given up yet though, if you're reading this SodaStream PR people. [wink wink]), but I am pretty sure it would work, as it already has a sweetener in it.

My dream, is to get a SodaStream and a plethora of Torani syrup flavors, lock myself in a room and make flavors like a mad scientist, then go sell my "World's Best Soda" sodas from a reconditioned lemonade stand.

I like to dream big, but in the meantime, I'll stick with just making iced  and regular coffee with them.

Disclaimer: I received the above mentioned products from SheSpeaks and Torani to facilitate my review. I was not monetarily compensated for this review nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review. My opinions are my own and yours may differ.