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“You don’t see Ben & Jerry’s shutting down in the winter,” said Eric Heredia, barista at the Indian Road Café.
The implication being: if ice cream can sell year-round, why should iced coffee stop selling at the end of the hot season?
For some, iced coffee is a strictly “summer” treat that has no place in the colder fall and winter months. For others, iced coffee can be enjoyed any season.
Still, many coffee shops in Washington Heights and Inwood report a drop off in iced coffee sales by the end of September, early October.
So where can you get your iced coffee in Washington Heights or Inwood – if you’re of the persuasion that iced coffee shouldn’t meander too far into the fall?
The answer may depend on what you’re looking for.
Many in the neighborhood go for Dunkin Donuts iced coffee, what an employee called a good “day-on-the-run” coffee. The Dunkin Donuts employee said that people come back to to the Double D for coffee because of its consistency: customers get the same thing every time. However, you might get a stronger brew elsewhere, said the employee.
Some iced coffee connoisseurs in the Heights go to 181 Cabrini specifically for its organic iced coffee. 181 Cabrini offers a standard iced coffee, as well as iced versions of most of its coffee drinks.
Sara Frank, a barista at 181 Cabrini, said that soy milk is particularly good with iced coffee. It pairs well, she said, because it has just enough sugar in it that you don’t need to add any to the coffee.
At the Indian Road Café, the coffee is changed seasonally. Indian Road Café currently features Finca El Puente, a coffee out of South America that Heredia described as a roast that’s closer to the middle.
According to Heredia, if you have to choose between lighter or darker coffee, it is better to go with a darker roast for iced coffee. The reason is twofold. Iced coffee gets diluted by the ice, so a darker roast will mean more flavor. In addition, lighter coffees are more acidic and hot brewing coffee increases the acidity. The acid can bother some people’s stomachs.
At all three of these coffee purveyors, iced coffee is made by hot brewing it before pouring it over ice.
However, there is another way. The pinnacle of the iced coffee hierarchy may be the cold brewed kind, which takes longer and means making smaller quantities at a time.
According to Heredia, the cold brew method produces a richer, bolder, and smoother texture. It also decreases acidity.
Heredia said that, as far as he knows, no coffee shop in Washington Heights or Inwood currently cold brews its coffee. The reason? It can be challenging to estimate how much iced coffee to make beforehand. It typically takes half a day to cold brew iced coffee, so it requires planning in advance. So if a coffee shop runs out of iced coffee, there is no more for the day.
Heredia said that this occasionally happens at Sweet Leaf, a coffee shop in Long Island City that cold brews its iced coffee. However, Heredia explained that customers at Sweet Leaf are typically understanding when they come in for iced coffee and discover it is sold out – because they know that it is cold brewed and they consider it worth waiting for.
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