Iced Coffee

The arrival of summer doesn't mean you have to give up your favorite coffee: Just try it on ice. Toddy Products of Houston has developed a device that helps produce a good glass of iced coffee. It's called the Toddy Coffee Maker, and it makes a concentrate that can be mixed with water and poured over ice for a smooth, full-bodied coffee flavor. The concentrate can be stored in the refrigerator for up to three weeks.Besides Coffee Coffee, the Toddy Coffee Maker (about $25) is available at Gloria Jean's Gourmet Coffee stores, and at the Coffee Mill, in both its Belvedere Square and 36th and Chestnut locations.

Dinergram lets you share images of your latest Baltimore restaurant experiences. Submit your photos via Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #bmorediner, and you could see your photo in the Sunday Baltimore Sun. See more submissions at baltimoresun.com/dinergram. Artifact Coffee "Best iced coffee ever. " Submitted by Instagram user emilyries Wit & Wisdom "CHARRED OCTOPUS | calverts radish, preserved lemon, apple, steak sauce #bmorediner #baltimore #harboreast #dinner #food.

Summer weather presents a challenge to coffee fans. The steaming cups of java that get you through February just don't go down so well on sweltering days. But thanks to the new popularity of coffee bars and all kinds of cold and frozen coffee concoctions, it has become much easier for coffee drinkers to borrow a great idea from tea sippers and simply add some ice. Hot coffee may be hard to swallow in July, but a well-prepared iced coffee can be the highlight of a hot afternoon. Just like coffee itself, iced coffee offers a range of tastes.

If you stop at Starbucks for coffee in the morning, save the receipt to get a discount in the afternoon. A receipt for any beverage in the morning will be good after 2 p.m. for a Grande cold beverage for $2, plus tax. At participating stores, customers can choose from iced coffee, iced tea or Starbucks Refreshers in the Grande size - 16 ounces. The Starbucks deal is good through Sept. 3.  

Dinergram lets you share images of your latest Baltimore restaurant experiences. Submit your photos via Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #bmorediner, and you could see your photo in the Sunday Baltimore Sun. See more submissions at baltimoresun.com/dinergram. Artifact Coffee "Best iced coffee ever. " Submitted by Instagram user emilyries Wit & Wisdom "CHARRED OCTOPUS | calverts radish, preserved lemon, apple, steak sauce #bmorediner #baltimore #harboreast #dinner #food.

If you stop at Starbucks for coffee in the morning, save the receipt to get a discount in the afternoon. A receipt for any beverage in the morning will be good after 2 p.m. for a Grande cold beverage for $2, plus tax. At participating stores, customers can choose from iced coffee, iced tea or Starbucks Refreshers in the Grande size - 16 ounces. The Starbucks deal is good through Sept. 3.  

Duchess and dieting: She wrote the bookOK, so Sarah, the Duchess of York, doesn't cook. She readily admits it. But she still has to eat and feed her two daughters, she says.As a spokeswoman for Weight Watchers, the former wife of Britain's Prince Andrew, who has battled her own weight problems, has come out with a cookbook -- her second -- with recipes and advice on how to lead a healthy lifestyle.In "Dieting With the Duchess" (Simon & Schuster, 1999), she offers such easy meal suggestions as a PB&J bagel: Spread 1 small toasted oat bran bagel with 1 1/2 tablespoons strawberry spreadable fruit and 1 tablespoon peanut butter.

I still need a cup or two of hot coffee to get my engine cranking in the morning. But in the heat of the summer day, when thunderheads roll in and afternoon torpor threatens, I go for the cold stuff, iced coffee. Like most serious sippers, I am particular about what I sip. I have my iced coffee quirks. I like the coffee very cold and potent. I like the ice cubes to resist melting. And I like to top the beverage off with very rich cream, the half-a-cow variety. My brewing technique is to make a pot of hot coffee, let it cool, then stick it in the refrigerator to get even colder.

A heat wave is the kids going to bed sweaty because you let them chase after fireflies in their underwear. A heat wave is sleeping on top of the sheets and under the fan. A heat wave is getting your morning caffeine fix from iced coffee. A heat wave is feeling like a wuss because you drank iced coffee. A heat wave is sweating even though the air conditioner is on high, because the sun is glaring in on your side of the car. A heat wave is some cheesy DJ playing "The Heat Is On" by Glenn Frey.

Does Roland Park really need another hip/casual coffee shop, with funky reggae music, local art for sale on the walls and twentysomething customers clicking away on laptops? In the case of the Evergreen, which opened in October, the answer is yes. Although the Evergreen has plenty of competition in the baked goods department from Big Sky Bread, a bakery and sandwich shop a few doors down, and Sam's Bagels and More across the street, it has found a following of its own. Seems people can never get enough of good coffee, freshly baked goods and tasty light meals, all in a spacious, sunny space.

A heat wave is the kids going to bed sweaty because you let them chase after fireflies in their underwear. A heat wave is sleeping on top of the sheets and under the fan. A heat wave is getting your morning caffeine fix from iced coffee. A heat wave is feeling like a wuss because you drank iced coffee. A heat wave is sweating even though the air conditioner is on high, because the sun is glaring in on your side of the car. A heat wave is some cheesy DJ playing "The Heat Is On" by Glenn Frey.

It used to be that people just drank coffee. Then came the upscale designer models - espressos, cappuccinos and lattes. And now, seemingly every coffee shop is selling cool, creamy blends of coffee, sugar, milk and ice - a kind of super-caffeinated milkshake - or "frozen blended coffee beverages," as they're known in the trade. Starbucks has the Frappuccino, Dunkin' Donuts has the Coolatta, Panera Bread has the I.C. Mocha and XandO has the Arctic Chiller. This summer, Dairy Queen and Krispy Kreme entered the fray with their own versions.

Does Roland Park really need another hip/casual coffee shop, with funky reggae music, local art for sale on the walls and twentysomething customers clicking away on laptops? In the case of the Evergreen, which opened in October, the answer is yes. Although the Evergreen has plenty of competition in the baked goods department from Big Sky Bread, a bakery and sandwich shop a few doors down, and Sam's Bagels and More across the street, it has found a following of its own. Seems people can never get enough of good coffee, freshly baked goods and tasty light meals, all in a spacious, sunny space.

The Pour House Cafe bills itself as a "Seattle-style coffeehouse" on its menus and in its ads. While the words might bring to mind the overcrowded, overcaffeinated Seattle hangout on the TV show Frasier, the cafe is actually more like Central Perk, the ultra-hip, stay-all-day meeting place of Rachel, Phoebe and the rest of the gang on the TV show Friends. The Pour House, which rambles through several rooms of a brick building on Westminster's Main Street, offers an extensive menu of coffee drinks and teas, as well as some sandwiches, a soup of the day and baked goods.

Meg Enns distinctly remembers the summer morning a year ago when she went to buy produce and noticed a "for rent" sign on the old stone filling station at the intersection of Falls and Shawan roads. She immediately pictured a coffee shop at this busy junction. "But I said to myself, `Don't do it. Don't do it. Get it out of your mind,' " says Enns. For a few days she didn't say a word to anyone about what she envisioned. A Florida native, she had been in Maryland only six months and had just been laid off from her job at an Internet company.

Summer weather presents a challenge to coffee fans. The steaming cups of java that get you through February just don't go down so well on sweltering days. But thanks to the new popularity of coffee bars and all kinds of cold and frozen coffee concoctions, it has become much easier for coffee drinkers to borrow a great idea from tea sippers and simply add some ice. Hot coffee may be hard to swallow in July, but a well-prepared iced coffee can be the highlight of a hot afternoon. Just like coffee itself, iced coffee offers a range of tastes.

TOKYO -- There's a new buzz in town. Starbucks Coffee took a high-risk plunge last week into its first foreign market: Japan, land of $5 cups of coffee, chronically sleep-starved consumers and intense competition to supply their daily caffeine fix.Seattle-based Starbucks has opened its store in the posh Ginza district at a time when the coffee retailing market here is more competitive than ever.Coffee has supplanted green tea as Japan's most popular beverage. According to the All Japan Coffee Association, coffee consumption has risen about sixfold since 1980, while green tea consumption fell 8 percent.

The Pour House Cafe bills itself as a "Seattle-style coffeehouse" on its menus and in its ads. While the words might bring to mind the overcrowded, overcaffeinated Seattle hangout on the TV show Frasier, the cafe is actually more like Central Perk, the ultra-hip, stay-all-day meeting place of Rachel, Phoebe and the rest of the gang on the TV show Friends. The Pour House, which rambles through several rooms of a brick building on Westminster's Main Street, offers an extensive menu of coffee drinks and teas, as well as some sandwiches, a soup of the day and baked goods.

I still need a cup or two of hot coffee to get my engine cranking in the morning. But in the heat of the summer day, when thunderheads roll in and afternoon torpor threatens, I go for the cold stuff, iced coffee. Like most serious sippers, I am particular about what I sip. I have my iced coffee quirks. I like the coffee very cold and potent. I like the ice cubes to resist melting. And I like to top the beverage off with very rich cream, the half-a-cow variety. My brewing technique is to make a pot of hot coffee, let it cool, then stick it in the refrigerator to get even colder.

Duchess and dieting: She wrote the bookOK, so Sarah, the Duchess of York, doesn't cook. She readily admits it. But she still has to eat and feed her two daughters, she says.As a spokeswoman for Weight Watchers, the former wife of Britain's Prince Andrew, who has battled her own weight problems, has come out with a cookbook -- her second -- with recipes and advice on how to lead a healthy lifestyle.In "Dieting With the Duchess" (Simon & Schuster, 1999), she offers such easy meal suggestions as a PB&J bagel: Spread 1 small toasted oat bran bagel with 1 1/2 tablespoons strawberry spreadable fruit and 1 tablespoon peanut butter.