While from a bean appreciation standpoint, I prefer hot coffee or espresso drinks to iced, all through the sticky New York summer I tend to stick to iced coffee. But when to switch back? Yesterday morning in the city, it felt like a hot coffee day, but by 10 a.m. we were back to iced coffee weather. When I was out in Seattle last week, it was definitely hot coffee weather (in a great coffee city!), but down in New Orleans a few days before, we slurped down frozen cafe au lait. And in the Bay Area this weekend, I was definitely sticking to the iced... except in San Francisco. (It's pretty much always hot coffee weather in San Francisco.) So, what are you drinking this morning? Hot coffee or iced? » More

After having an iced coffee just about daily for the last month, I can easily say the best was Blue Bottle's New Orleans–style iced coffee from Ferry Plaza (the small Bay Area chain has seven other outlets, including one in Brooklyn). The cold-brewed liquid happiness is a much richer, smoother version of the chicory-laced coffee at the famous Cafe du Monde in New Orleans. This one is dark but not too acidic or harsh, with a buttery finish. It's definitely on the dessert end of the iced-coffee spectrum—served over ice chunks with some sugar and a good wrist's worth of milk—but not enough to drown out the dark, deep, chicory flavors underneath. More

If there's one thing we all do on the fly, it's grab coffee. So it's a natural candidate for the fast-food world. Recently, McDonald's began offering Iced Coffee, stepping on the toes of Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts. All three offer standard iced coffees, as well as sweet and flavored twists on the iced coffee theme. Intrigued, I set off to compare the three offerings. More

An iced coffee has precisely two ingredients: coffee, and ice. Right? Well, not at Starbucks. There, your tall iced coffee (unless ordered "unsweetened") contains a shot of simple syrup and around 90 calories. The website does note this, as Newsday reports; the iced coffee is described as a "Starbucks Terraza Blend, served chilled and slightly sweetened on ice." Still, since coffee in this country doesn't usually come pre-sugared, it's a little surprising.... More

Photo from Gourmet.com Probably not, Matthew Amster-Burton at Gourmet.com concludes. After noticing the country's penchant for sweetened iced coffee and blended fruit shakes, he had wondered if the Vietnamese weren't the first to make the Frappuccino. His theory is soon disproved—since blenders have only recently become available to the masses in Vietnam, he learns, they couldn't have invented the blended coffee drink. Still, it seems like he's onto something: after sending his own Vietnamese iced coffee for a whirl in the blender, he's plenty happy with his own Vietnamese-style Frappuccino. Even if it's not quite traditional.... More

Don’t forget, it's Iced Coffee Day at Dunkin’ Donuts today. Fifty cents (plus a few pennies for tax) will get you a small, sixteen-ounce iced coffee at DDs nationwide. For every coffee sold, a nickel will go to Homes for Our Troops, a nonprofit helping construct homes for injured American vets. Check the website for locations. (Or this website if you’re not sure if it’s atmospherically an iced coffee day.)... More

©iStockphoto.com/eyecrave Matthew Yglesias of The Internet Food Association has an easy way to go straight to iced coffee, skipping the whole pour hot liquid over ice step: "What you need to do is fill a pitcher with a mixture of water and coffee (if you’re grinding your own, aim for a coarse grind) in a ratio of about 1 cup of coffee to about 4.5 cups of water. Stir it up to mix, and stick it in the fridge for, ideally, a 12 hour overnight brew. In the morning, strain the mixture." Pour it over ice, and you're set. Note: this yields a more caffeinated brew and apparently is easier to guzzle down because of the lower acidity. Try... More

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not what you would call “enamored” with Yelp. All too often I’ve looked up reviews for a joint, only to find that the rating it was communally granted was completely skewed by strange people. The kind of strange people who strangely decide to rate a pho place based on the bubble tea it serves. Seriously. Pho To Chau in Mountain View, California, is one such maligned joint. Perhaps I’m being too harsh on the strange people, and perhaps I have lower than average expectations of an eatery’s ambiance and service standards. But there aren’t many places to eat in Silicon Valley that aren’t spendy, so when I chance upon it, and... More

New York Times In recent weeks, anchors on KVVU, the Fox affiliate in Las Vegas, sat with McDonald’s iced coffees as they broadcasted the "news-and-lifestyle" portion of the morning show. But as reported by the New York Times, they weren't from an early morning drive-thru trip. In fact, the anchors hardly touched the cups. It's part of a six-month product placement deal where the on-air cast will join their new iced coffee friends, but not during the "straight news portion," said KVVU news director Adam Bradshaw; just during the lightweight stuff between 7 and 9 a.m. Other stations owned by the Meredith Broadcasting Group may have logoed cups from the Golden Arches soon too. What if a report involves... More