Iced coffee

I love iced coffee and have unsuccesfully tried to make it at home on various occassions, it never quite tastes as good as the ones you can buy in the supermarket and pay an absolute fortune for. I don't know what I was doing wrong, but it always tasted cr*p and lacked that sweetness that comes with the shop bought varieties...I tried adding sugar, tried a tiny drop of vanilla, drop of honey, this coffee, that coffee,adjusted the strength, but never did it taste very good. Don't get me wrong it wasn't undrinkable, but that's about all you could say about it.

Anyway folks, I think I've cracked it..and please forgive me if i'm teaching my grandmother how to suck eggs..but that new style of finely milled instant coffee seems to be the key. Azera by Nescafe is far nicer (imvho) that the other ones eg Millicano and Carte Noire Intensio. Anyway make a very small (espresso size) cup of Azera using not quite boiling water and one sweetener. Pour very cold milk...I always used skimmed into a long tall glass or almost fill a small plastic bottle (fanta..that kind of thing), carefully add the coffee, I use a funnel if i'm pouring into the bottle..give it a good stir, or shake...and hey presto. Iced coffee that's every bit as good the ones in the shop that cost a fortune...yay!

Yep, I agree the new finely milled coffees make a huge difference. I have a friend who cannot drink boiled water and for her I heat approximately an espresso sized portion of milk with the coffee in the mic, top up with cold milk, add ice and about three teaspoons maximum of vanilla syrup, to make this without the vanilla syrup, I use agave syrup and vanilla extract.

I have recently started buying the stevia based products, I tried the truvia sachets first, but found they had a powdery aftertaste, since then I have bought the purevia cubes and they taste as good as sugar, so I mix them with the truvia to use them up.

I use basic syrup to sweeten anything like iced coffee, ice cream etc. It really is worth it and it takes only seconds to make. I use a medium strength syrup for frozen stuff or dessert sauces.