How to Make Iced Coffee: 3 Tips for Preparing Iced Coffee

Iced coffee is a beverage consisting of hot brewed coffee served over ice, which sometimes features sweeteners like table sugar, mocha, or vanilla syrup. Popular milk options like standard creamer, cow’s milk, oat milk, and nut milk help balance the coffee’s bitter taste.

The popular summertime beverage has variations across the globe, including Vietnamese iced coffee, which features sweetened condensed milk, whiskey-infused iced Irish coffee, and Chile’s café helado, which features a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

You can find variations on iced coffee worldwide, some of which are made from instant coffee or coffee concentrate.

1. 1. Aisu kohi: Baristas make this classic Japanese iced coffee using the flash-chill method, in which the hot coffee is dripped over ice to cool it immediately. The iced coffee is sometimes served with gum syrup, a simple syrup infused with gum arabic.
2. 2. Flavored iced coffee: To add dimension to your homemade iced coffee, consider infusing the simple syrup with spices like vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon, or even aromatic additions like rose water.
3. 3. Frappé: This Greek iced coffee features instant coffee, sweetener, and water, which is shaken to incorporate the ingredients and create its signature foamy consistency.
4. 4. Iced espresso drinks: If espresso is your preferred caffeine source, pull a shot or two, then allow it to cool before pouring it over ice. Top it with cold milk (frothed or not) to create iced lattes, iced cappuccinos, and iced macchiatos.
5. 5. Vietnamese iced coffee: This popular variation pairs a rich, dark roast drip coffee with sweetened condensed milk for an unapologetically sweet drink.

The best iced coffee takes a little extra time and preparation, but the results are well worth it.

1. 1. Add sweeteners while hot. Sugar granules dissolve best in hot liquid, so stir in your preferred sweetener before transferring the coffee to the refrigerator to chill. To make a simple syrup to mix into your cooled coffee, boil one cup of sugar in one cup of water, then set it aside to cool to room temperature. Add creamers like half-and-half or almond milk after pouring the coffee over ice.
2. 2. Make coffee ice cubes. Some iced coffee drinkers swear by coffee ice cubes, which keep the beverage cool without diluting the flavor over time. For best results, let the brewed coffee come to room temperature before transferring it to ice cube trays.
3. 3. Brew a strong coffee. Coffee brewed for use in iced coffee should be a little stronger than your usual hot cup of coffee to balance out the dilution from ice cubes. Add an extra tablespoon or two of beans when grinding, or use a coffee maker like the French press carafe. Unlike other coffee brewing methods that utilize a paper coffee filter (like pour-overs or drip coffee), the French press allows for deeper extraction of the flavor compounds within the beans with a hands-off approach. The result is a more potent, robust coffee that won’t be as impacted by dilution.

While you can enjoy iced coffee and cold brew coffee chilled, there are distinct differences between the beverages:

• Water temperature: The temperature of the water you use to brew coffee has implications for the rate of extraction—or how the flavor compounds and caffeine are drawn out from the beans. Iced coffee is coffee that has been brewed with hot water, then cooled before being served over ice. Cold brew is made by steeping fresh coffee grounds in cold water, which changes the expression of the beans.
• Brew time: Cold brew requires a longer soaking time than iced coffee, which you can prepare in a few minutes and quickly cool. This lengthier brew time compensates for the cooler water and lower extraction rate.
• Flavor: While the cold brew extraction process takes longer, it results in the smoother, stronger iced coffee found in most coffee shops. You can prepare iced coffee similarly by letting the hot brewed coffee sit overnight.