Yummy Vanilla & Caramel Iced Coffee

This was cheap, easy, and fun to make! It was slightly an experiment but it worked out well for me. Making and drinking coffee is such a delight to me! To the point that alot of my friends know to make a pot of coffee when Courtney is coming over. ; )

Making iced coffee consists of four ingredients.

1. Fresh brewed coffee (I like to use a dark roast coffee instead of a medium or light roast because the ice cubes water down the coffee to the point that I feel like I'm just drinking flavored milk water... Yuck!)

2. Half & Half (If you normally put a flavored creamer in your coffee, you will not want to use it for this recipe, because they are already sweetened creamer. So adding anymore sugar to it will be like sticking your tongue in a jar of sugar! Yuck!)

3. Flavored Syrup (Most any flavor will do! Pick your favorite, whether it be Peppermint, Vanilla, Pumpkin, Caramel, etc. You can make these at home or buy them from most grocery stores. I saw some at Target that are for $4.99.)

4. Lots of Ice

There is a basic recipe that you can used and really make almost any flavor of syrup you want. What's even cooler about this is you can use this syrup in your hot or cold coffee drinks, drizzle some on ice cream, add them to sweet recipes, or your favorite cocktail!

Your basic supplies you will need for this syrup recipe is sugar and water, then your favorite flavor. I used an organic raw sugar, because we are trying to impliment organics into our daily diet, but a regular white, gradulated sugar works fine too.   

The ratio between the sugar and water is 1 cup to 1 cup. Two cups of sugar means I need two cups of water.

Vanilla & Caramel Syrup

2 cups of sugar

2 cups of water

2 tablespoons of pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup of caramel sauce

Sealable jar (found mine for $3.00 at Target) 

Stir the water and sugar in a medium sauce pan. Turn the heat to medium high and stir well.

When the mixture begins to boil, remove from heat and add vanilla and caramel sauce. Stir well and allow to fully cool. Pour into sealable jar, label, and enjoy.

Now to the enjoying part!!!

  A. Have a glass, any size is fine, and pack it with ice, especially since you are using hot, fresh coffee.

 B. Pour in 8 oz (1 cup) of coffee. For this cup, I had to use 1 cup and a half.

 C. Add about 1/4 cup half & half which will fill the cup the rest of the way, and add about 1 tablespoon of your syrup. If you like it sweeter, add more syrup.

 D. Stir well with a fun straw and ENJOY!!

Even this guy likes it!

In the end, one bottle of syrup costs me a grand total of $1.14. Which makes each tablespoon into my coffee is worth $0.03.

There are about 57 tablespoons of coffee in a 12 ounce bag. I use about 1 tablespoon per cup of coffee on my drip machine. So I can make 57  8 oz cups of coffee. Ladro's coffee beans sell for $11.50 per 12 oz which equals about $0.21 per cup. 

One half gallon of half & half, has 32 servings of 1/4 cups. At Thriftway half & half is $5.49 for 1/2 gal (expensive!!!) but that is still about $0.18 per 1/4 cup.

My total for a delicious cup of Vanilla Caramel Iced Coffee is $0.42!!!

So you enjoy that iced coffee, that only cost you much less then $.50 to make!! That's those corporate guy's refill price!!

Additional Flavor-Aid

For Vanilla Syrup: add 3 tablespoons of pure vanilla extract after the water boils.

For Caramel Syrup: add 1/2 cup caramel sauce after the water boils.

For Peppermint Syrup: add 18 peppermints to the water and sugar before it boils.