What's the best method for making iced coffee?

Do you like it cold-brewed? The absolute best thing to do from my perspective is to stir half a cup of grounds into a quart of water and let sit overnight; you can then filter it using your french press or a regular plastic filter the next day to get a low-acid coffee concentrate. Mix one part of this with 1-2 parts of water (hot or cold, adjust for strength) to get coffee. The concentrate keeps well in the fridge too.

The only problem is that the coffee you get will be very low acid; if you like your iced coffee more acidic, this won't help. For my palate it's great, but YMMV.

French presses work pretty well for cold brewed coffee. Just put the coffee and the water in and let it "brew" for a long period of time, then press it down to remove the grounds. Recipe for cold brewed coffee from the New York Times.

First of all, I highly recommend you buy an Aeropress. I have no affiliation, I'm just a fabulously happy customer, and my french press is now gathering dust.

I haven't tried the cold-brewed methods above, but I if you don't want to do them, you are looking at a two step process with a french press:

1) Make ice coffee cubes: make some coffee, put it in ice cube trays, and freeze it.

2) For iced coffee, make coffee regularly, put a few oz of the hot fresh coffee in a cup, and fill up with coffee cubes.

This is probably the lowest-acid method I have done using only a french press.

I always just take old coffee, add sugar then ice. Its just iced coffee, not rocket science.

There was a New York Times article from 2007 on cold-brewed iced coffee. I've used their method ever since it was published. Essentially, it is Dennis's version from above, but it makes a more concentrated brew that you can dilute with water or milk. I typically use about 3 parts concentrate to 1 part milk and sometimes stir in a Splenda packet.

Recipe:

1. In a jar, stir together 1/3 cup ground coffee (medium-coarse grind is best) and 1 1/2 cups water. Cover and let rest at room temperature overnight or 12 hours.

2. Strain twice through a coffee filter, a fine-mesh sieve [my preference] or a sieve lined with cheesecloth. In a tall glass filled with ice, mix equal parts coffee concentrate and water, or to taste. If desired, add milk.

Yield: Two drinks.

NOTE: To make hot coffee, dilute concentrate one-to-one with water and heat in the microwave.

Try using some additional flavoring syrups, such as vanilla or caramel.

If you don't want to cold-brew, you can make coffee as you normally would and refrigerate before using. This works better than adding ice cubes to hot coffee, since the melting ice dilutes the coffee.