Thai Iced Coffee

My husband and I are big coffee drinkers, both of us having come from big coffee-drinking families. We love the stuff! So, of course we have our morning coffee, and everyday in the afternoon we have what we've come to call, our "3 o'clock coffee". Sometimes when the weather is really hot, we'll switch it up a bit and have iced coffee. Recently, we were having a discussion over our iced coffee and my husband said to me "the best iced coffee I have ever had was years ago when we lived in Glendale (California). I went to a Thai restaurant with a co-worker. At the end of the meal we had Thai Iced Coffee and it was incredible!"

Intrigued, of course, I went to my computer and started looking up recipes for Thai iced coffee. I came upon this one from Williams-Sonoma and found that a key distinctive ingredient in Thai coffee is cardamom (or cardamon). I'm sure a lot of you who are much more knowledgeable about Thai food already knew this.

Off I went to my nearest health food store to find the cardamom pods. My coffee was already ground so I just used my coffee grinder to grind up the pods.

This is me being extremely impatient, waiting for the coffee to cool down.

We did end up adding a little half and half for extra creaminess.

This beverage was refreshing and enjoyable. The cardamom was a bit overpowering so I think next time I make it, I will use 3 of the pods. It does however add a wonderful spicy-sweet element to the otherwise "normal" iced coffee.

Thai Iced Coffee

From William-Sonoma

Ingredients

• 3⁄4 cup French roast or other darkly roasted coffee beans
• 5 green cardamom pods
• 4 1⁄2 cups water
• 3⁄4 cup sweetened condensed milk
• Crushed ice as needed
• Splash of half and half (to taste)

Directions

In a coffee grinder, combine the coffee beans and cardamom pods and pulse until finely ground, about 15 seconds. Transfer the coffee mixture to the filter of a drip coffeemaker. Fill the top of the coffeemaker with the water and brew according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Transfer the coffee to a heatproof pitcher and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until cold, at least 2 hours or up to overnight.

Pour 1⁄3 cup coffee into each of 12 small glasses. Add 1 Tbs. sweetened condensed milk to each glass and stir to combine. Add ice and stir again, then serve.

Yield: 12 servings