During my days as a student in the darkest depths of Dunedin, I came to know a rather cool collection of people pursuing all manner of paths. I came to befriend a gentleman by the name of Arjun who had a bit of a thing for coffee. He started making this delectable liqueur called Quick Brown Fox. Things have progressed and he now has a finger dipped in the oh so trendy cold brew scene with his Harpoon Cold Brew.

The cool thing about knowing cool people is every so often you put your heads together and come up with something even, well, cooler?

I got a message from Arjun asking if I would be interested in concocting a variety of bevvies using his Harpoon cold brew. Of course I said yes (I was up for anything after being stuck with the dregs that come out of the machine at work).

I keep coming up with new ideas so there may have to be a part two to this project but for now I have three recipes to share with you. We decided we needed something hot, something healthy and something just down right delicious and so the following were born..

If you want to get your hands on some of this amazing liquid black gold then you can find it here: www.harpooncoldbrew.co.nz

Vietnamese Coffee

This brew made it onto the list by accident. I had an open can of condensed milk in my fridge and it spurred me into making something I haven’t had since being in Vietnam. The Vietnamese love mixing their strong black coffee with condensed milk (due to the hot climate, fresh milk went off too quickly and so wasn’t readily available). The sugar in the condensed milk was the perfect morning kick start for people working outdoors in the rice fields. My most favourite memory of this coffee is when my friend who I met on my travels and I went walking at 5.30am in the pouring rain and stumbled across a roadside stall just down the street from where we were staying. A local couple welcomed us to join them were we perched ourselves on tiny plastic chairs and drank this delightful brew watching the quiet street transform into a chaotic thoroughfare all whilst the monsoon bucketed down.

Be warned, this concoction packs a punch and will certainly get up and going for the day.

Vietnamese Coffee

Serves 1

2 shots Harpoon cold brew concentrate

2 shots boiling water

2 teaspoons condensed milk (or less if your sweet tooth is less raging than mine)

Warm the Harpoon and boiling water in the microwave for 30 seconds, pour over a short glass containing the condensed milk and stir to combine. Sip gently and watch the world go by.

Breakfast Blend

Sometimes I want a smoothie and sometimes I want a coffee. I feel like having both in quick succession (which is usually what ends up happening) is just too much fluid in one go. The last thing I want to feel whilst sitting at my desk is a whole lot of sloshing going on. For those of you wanting a post work-out boost might I suggest throwing in half a banana and a scoop of protein powder into the mix? If you’re adding chocolate flavoured powder just skip on the cocoa, unless of course double chocolate is your jam. Keep a tray of Harpoon ice cubes in the freezer, that way blending them up with not only make your bevvie icy cold but also stop it from getting diluted.

Breakfast Blend

Serves 1

250ml trim milk (or almond milk or coconut milk or whatever floats your boat)

4 Harpoon ice cubes (or plain old water ice cubes for those wanting to actually get some sleep that night)

1-2 tablespoons of honey

5 dates, soaked and softened

2 shots of Harpoon

1 teaspoon good quality cocoa

1 scoop protein powder

Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend on high for 20 seconds, consume (from the blender or a glass).

An excuse to drink blended ice cream

Ok so I couldn't think of a very good name for this one. I am more than open to suggestions. You can’t do a post about cold brew recipes without something that involves delicious chocolate ice cream being blended into the mix. By the time I whizzed this one up I was already 6 shots of Harpoon down. I figured that consuming yet more caffeine as well as a pile of sugar was definitely a good life decision, sure my body felt like it was doing a long distance sprint for the rest of the day but YOLO. You will be pleased to know that in spite all of the buzz I did sleep that night. This is of course my favourite. Use a good, rich chocolate ice cream. You can tell that an ice cream is of good quality because it won’t come in a tub larger than 1L and it will cost you at least twice that of a 2L tub. This is ok though because you aren’t going to be sharing it with anybody other than your own wonderful self. I made this one a little more potent and decided to sneak in a cheeky shot of Arjun’s Quick Brown Fox brew just for an extra kick in the pants. I also feel like coconut milk ice cream would work well in this. I shall have to investigate and will report back with haste.