Cold-Brewed Coffee

To enjoy your coffee cold, don't just add ice: Doing so will result in a bitter brew. The best iced coffee is the result of a cold-brew process. It's easy enough to do at home but requires foresight and time.

Better left to the experts, we say. Recently, a handful of top coffee outlets have begun packaging their cold-brew elixirs in glass bottles for spur-of-the-moment iced-coffee jolts:

Chameleon A coffee-shop owner and his java-loving neighbor are behind this bottling, a concentrated Central American blend cold-brewed for 24 hours. Simply dilute it over ice to best detect sticky chocolate notes, or use the brew in one of Chameleon's recipes for buzzy horchata, hot chocolate and even protein drinks.

Stumptown To reduce the waste created by paper coffee cups, this Portland-based coffee standard bearer recently debuted cold-brewed blends in old-timey bottles that recall Red Stripe beer. Instead of being filled with concentrate, the 10.5-ounce Stubbies ($3.50) contain ready-to-drink coffee with bright berry notes.

Kickstand This New York-based coffee-by-bike delivery service recently started delivering 16-ounce bottles of single-origin concentrate ($27 for 32 ounces) throughout the city.

Grady's This new Brooklyn coffee company recently began bottling growlers of New Orleans-style coffee concentrate with chicory. The velvety liquid ($30 for two 32-ounce bottles) is rich, dark and needs no sugar.