How to Make Iced Coffee: 3 Easy Recipes

Iced coffee is a refreshing summertime drink. The richness of coffee with refreshing ice-cold temperature. In this post, you’ll learn how to make iced coffee at home.

In fact, there are three easy methods to make your own great iced coffee.

Iced Coffee Overview

• Time to first sip: Depends on the method you use, so from 2 minutes to 24 hours
• Type of Coffee: Cold, smooth, and refreshing drink with optional flavors
• Coffee grind: Depends on the brewing method you use
• Gear required: Thermal shock mug(s)
• Difficulty: As easy as the brewing method you choose

Here are some tips for making great iced coffee.

1. Iced Coffee Tip: Cold brew coffee makes the best-tasting iced coffee because of the flavor, but also because it is already cold.
2. When making iced coffee from hot coffee make it nice and strong (about 3 tbsp per cup) because it will be diluted by the ice cubes used to cool it, plus the additional ice to keep it cold.
3. Use a liquid sweetener (liquid sugar, maple syrup…) because it dissolves better in cold liquid than regular sugar does.

For many, iced coffee is a treat that they drink occasionally like at a cafe with friends or during the hot summer. But, if you know how to make iced coffee at home, you can enjoy it as often as you like.

Curious how to describe your cup of coffee? Here are 244 delicious words to describe coffee

3 Iced Coffee Recipes

You can make iced coffee at home using either the cold or hot brew methods. You can also make it really quick and easy with instant coffee.

1. Make iced coffee with cold brew

If you already have cold-brewed coffee on hand, you can dilute it with a little water and some ice cubes, then add in any sugar, cream, or flavorings you wish.

If you don’t already have a batch of cold brew coffee in the refrigerator, you’ll have to first make some (described above in our 5th brewing method on this list) and that may take you anywhere from 12 to 24 hours.

But, at least then you can make several cups or glasses of iced coffee at a time for use over a couple of weeks. Iced coffee made from cold-brewed coffee is ideal because it gives you a smooth, naturally sweet taste.

And because cold brew is a concentrate it lasts longer (remaining flavorful) in the fridge than hot brewed coffee.

2. Make iced coffee with hot brew

You can also make iced coffee from hot brewed coffee. However, the key to getting the best taste is to cool the coffee as quickly as you can because the longer hot brewed coffee sits and cools, the more bitter it may become.

This is why you’ll need to immediately pour your hot brewed coffee over ice cubes. The sudden mixture of hot and cold temperatures like this can shatter your cups, so to prevent this, make sure you use mugs or drinking glasses that are thermal shock resistant.

When making iced coffee from hot brewed coffee, you can use any of the methods on this list such as the French press, drip coffee maker, pour-over brewer, etc.

The only difference will be that you add ice cubes to the carafe, beaker or mug to quickly cool the hot water as it drips or pours down. You can also use an iced coffee maker if you like.

The Ninja Coffee Bar is a great option. We received one as a review copy and I love it. It has an “over ice” setting that brews up iced coffee quickly. It also accounts for the ice in your mug by brewing the coffee rich and slow so it isn’t too diluted and the ice doesn’t melt very much.

Add-ins for your iced coffee

If you like your iced coffee to be sweet, you can make a liquid sugar sweetener ahead of time by mixing boiling water and sugar with a 1:1 ratio until the sugar is dissolved.

This is a good idea since sugar doesn’t dissolve that well in cold drinks. If you want to spice up your iced coffee, you can add syrup flavors like vanilla or caramel. I love maple syrup in mine.

3. Make iced coffee with instant coffee

The fastest way to make iced coffee is with quality instant coffee. All you need to do is mix a packet of instant coffee with a couple of tablespoons of room-temperature water and stir until the coffee crystals are completely dissolved.

Add in the rest of the water and ice cubes and sweeten according to your preferences with a liquid sweetener, cream, and/or flavoring.

Here are the differences between cold brew and iced coffee.

How to make iced coffee video

In the following video, you’ll see how iced coffee is made using the pour-over method. She uses around 3 tbsp of coffee to make a nice strong brew because it will be diluted with ice.

Your Turn

How do you like your iced coffee? Are you a year-round iced coffee drinker – on just for hot weather? Let me know how you like to prepare your iced coffee drink.