We all love a good iced coffee. And I don't mean a watered down milky coffee or a cup full of ice with a few sips in it. I mean a GOOD iced coffee. The ones you get on vacation 800 miles away or from the one good local spot in town. But we don't always have the time to stop for coffee on the way to work, or maybe your goal this year is to save money so you've cut out something that you used to look forward to. Well, we're about to bring excitement back to your mornings with 3 ways to make "iced coffees" at home.
First, let's clear up what Iced Coffee actually is. Sounds simple, but "iced coffee" has become a blanket term for every cold drink with coffee in it, and each coffee method is unique and deserves to be recognized!! We're going to give methods and instructions for each.
So, iced coffee. Iced coffee is coffee that has been brewed as regular hot drip coffee and then it is either chilled in the fridge then served over ice OR some people pour the hot brewed coffee directly over ice. No judgement....but the latter does often water down your coffee quite a bit (unless you use coffee ice cubes!). We can't speak for all coffee shops, but in our cafe we brew our Dark Roast Single Origin Nicaragua coffee, and chill in the fridge!
Iced Lattes are also often casually referred to as "iced coffee". But it's so different. Iced coffees, as we said, are well, literally iced coffee. But lattes are made with espresso instead of drip coffee. Espresso is a more concentrated coffee form. Brewed with high pressure and espresso beans that are finely ground, espresso is smooth with a caramel colored layer of crema on top (this is an important indicator of a good shot of espresso).
Since espresso is so concentrated, a typical 16oz sized drink would have around 3oz of espresso while an iced coffee would be closer to 12oz of brewed coffee.
While actual iced coffees are typically preferred with a splash or two of cream, the espresso in lattes needs to be balanced out. This is why lattes have such a high milk-to-espresso ratio.
While we're on the topic...what makes espresso beans espresso beans? This is actually a very common question. What makes espresso beans different than regular coffee beans? Anatomically, nothing. Any coffee beans could be used as "espresso beans" as long as its ground fine. The "espresso roast" or "espresso beans" you see on a coffee shop shelf or on a roasters website are simply beans or a blend of beans that the roaster has determined to have natural flavor notes or qualities that best compliment the brewing method of espresso. Of course this is also paired with an exact roasting process. Different temperatures and length of roasting change everything about the taste of a coffee bean. So "house espresso beans" are often just the exact recipe of beans and roasting process that the coffee nerds (us) have deemed the best. For example, our House Espresso is a blend that our owner & roaster Dave has perfected over the last 13 years!
Now, the 3rd coffee drink is probably less often referred to as "iced coffee" but could still fall under that category. Cold Brew. If you know a cold brew drinker, you know that they'd never call it "iced coffee". It's just brewed much differently than any other coffee drink you see on a cafe menu. Both iced coffee and espresso are brewed with a machine and hot water. Cold brew is the opposite. It's actually a very manual process which means you can experiment to find the exact way you like it! Cold Brew is a slow brewing method where you steep the coarse ground beans (this is important) in water in the fridge for 18-24 hours. Why? What's the point of waiting nearly a whole day to drink it when you could just make iced coffee? Well cold brews main defining quality is that it's smooth. Like really smooth. Because of that long steeping process, cold brew is much less acidic than regular brewed coffee and the resulting coffee from that long wait is smooth, delicious liquid gold basically. If you're someone who thinks coffee tastes "bitter" no matter how it's made, give it one more chance with a cold brew!
Alright. Now it's recipe time! How do you make these "iced coffees" at home?
Iced Coffee
- 6 tablespoons of regular ground coffee beans
- 20 fl oz of water
- 0.5 oz - 1 oz sweetener of choice (optional)
- cream or creamer to taste (optional)
- cup of ice
- Brew your coffee in a regular coffee machine. Your coffee beans should be a medium/fine or "regular" grind
- Put coffee in fridge for a couple hours or until it's chilled
- Once ready, put your sweetener into your cup of ice
- Pour in iced coffee, leaving room if you plan to add cream
- Add cream (start small) and stir or toss until thoroughly mixed
- Enjoy!
Not sure what coffee beans to use for your iced coffee? Here's what we recommend.
Next up, Iced Latte! Of course, you will need an espresso machine for this one.
Iced Latte
- 18g of finely ground espresso beans (for a double shot)
- 0.5 oz - 1 oz sweetener of choice
- 14-16oz milk of choice
- whipped cream or cold foam (optional)
- Cup of ice
- Put your flavor into a pitcher or separate cup from your drinking cup
- Pull your shots of espresso (appx 3oz total)
- Mix espresso and flavor together
- Pour your milk over your ice
- Combine milk and espresso/flavor together by tossing back & forth between cups
- Add toppings (optional)
- Enjoy!
Need to stock up on some espresso beans? Grab some here!
Last, but definitely not least, let's make some Cold Brew!
Cold Brew
- 2 oz of coarse ground coffee beans
- 20 oz filtered water
- Cold brew bags
- 0.5oz - 1oz sweetener (optional)
- cream or creamer to taste (optional)
- cold foam (optional but incredible)
- Put your coarse ground coffee into a cold brew bag and seal or tie it
- Fill a container with water and put cold brew bag in
- Put container in fridge for 18-24 hours (we do 20)
- Once finished steeping, remove cold brew bag and enjoy black or add sweeteners, cream, or cold foam!
Personally, I love a black cold brew. But I often top it with cold foam too!
So now that you're equipped with coffee shop level iced coffee recipes, you can look forward to mornings again AND save some money with our affordable coffee beans!