How to Make the Best Iced Coffee – Guide for Coffee Lovers

If you love coffee, then you probably want to enjoy it in as many forms as possible. From piping hot espressos and frothy cappuccinos to the cool and refreshing iced varieties which are a hit in the hot weather.

Rather than buying iced coffee from a mainstream outlet, you can always make it yourself at home. So how can you go about this and get the best results if you are a serious coffee aficionado?

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Invest in a decent espresso maker

The key ingredient in a quality iced coffee is a single or double shot of espresso, and if you don’t already have a machine to make this for you, head over to this guide to gadgets for coffee lovers to find the right gear.

An espresso maker is not just suitable for your iced coffee creations, but will also provide you with the base for all sorts of other barista-grade beverages, so it is definitely a worthwhile investment.

Of course if you already have an espresso maker to hand, then fire it up and prepare one or two shots before moving onto the next step.

Sweeten things up

It’s perfectly possible to enjoy iced coffee which consists of nothing more than an Americano which has been left to cool and then augmented with a handful of ice.

The problem with this is that the colder a coffee is, the more the bitterness of its taste will be accentuated, which can turn a coffee you enjoy into one which literally leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

The solution is to sweeten things up with a teaspoon of sugar, stirred into the espresso you make while it is still hot.

If you have a particular sweet tooth, then you can add more sugar. Or if you are happy to overlook sweetness altogether, then this is definitely an optional ingredient.

Just be aware that most store-bought iced coffee is sweetened, so if you are aiming to recreate this at home, sugar is your friend.

Chill out

Let your sweetened espresso cool down for a few minutes, while you half-fill a glass of your choice with ice.

This is where you face another decision to make; do you go with standard water-based ice, or do you go the extra mile and prepare coffee ice cubes ahead of time?

The former will be easier from a preparation point of view, while the latter will ensure that your iced coffee does not become too diluted as the ice cubes melt.

Again, this is a matter of preference, so don’t be afraid to experiment and try different methods to see which suits you best.

Get pouring

With ice in the glass, whether water or coffee-based, it’s time to combine the cooled espresso and finish it all off by adding milk.

All you need to do now is stir this together, enjoy the sight of the coffee, cubes and milk swirling together, then either sip directly from the glass or grab a straw to slurp away happily.

Don’t forget that iced coffee will have exactly the same amount of caffeine in it as a standard cup of fresh coffee, so you will get the same effects from drinking it.

This is why if coffee impacts on your sleeping habits, drinking iced coffee in the evening may not be the best idea, and the same goes for espresso martinis as well!

As you can now see, making iced coffee is not rocket science, but it does need a bit of planning and preparation to get right, as well as tweaking and experimentation to find the sweet spot for your tastes.

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