When making iced coffee or other frozen drinks during the summer, regular ice cubes can thaw and dilute your coffee, making it taste watered done. There's a simple solution to this, with a little prep work:
Coffee Ice Cubes!
Genius, right? They're the perfect solution for iced coffees, and can also be used in any number of other drinks.
Coffee cocktails shaken over coffee ice cubes? Yes please.
Milk shake with coffee ice cubes? I'll take two.
Having frozen coffee ready is the basis for a number of coffee recipes, such as an espresso granita.
Coffee Ice Cubes
The simplest way to make coffee ice cubes is to simply brew coffee like you'd normally do, fill an ice cube tray with them and stick them in the freezer.
Coffee Ice Cubes Recipe
Ingredients
- 42 g coffee beans
- 420 ml water filtered (14 oz)
Instructions
- Prepare your coffee as you normally would - here we use 42 grams of coffee with 420 ml of filtered water to produce 420 ml of coffee
- Once brewed, carefully pour the coffee into the ice cube trays
- Place in freeze for approximately 2 hours
Notes
Cold brew ice cubes
The best solution here is to make cold brew coffee, then use the cold brew to make the coffee ice cubes. The cold brew method of making coffee creates a much smoother flavor that's also less acidic, and therefore less likely to curdle any dairy.
Cold brewing coffee takes more prep work - minimum 8 hours (overnight) but we recommend 24 hours - which means starting the day before you actually need them. But we think you should keep your freezer constantly stocked with coffee ice cubes anyway.
Espresso ice cubes
Because of the crema and low volume of an espresso shot, espresso isn't an ideal brew to make ice cubes out of. Even if you're willing to pull multiple shots of espresso, you'll need to blend the crema in to the espresso before setting it into the tray to freeze.
And then once they begin to melt in a drink, you could end up with globs of crema, creating an inconsistent flavor that doesn't look appetizing either.
Cold brewing is a much simpler solution.
Coffee ice cubes in milk
Had too much coffee in the day but want an easy-drinking ice drink? Another favorite of ours is the coffee ice cubes in milk (or "leche con cafe" por favor). Simply use the coffee ice cubes you made in the previous step to fill a glass, and pour milk over.
We recommend using the cold brew method for making ice cubes, as the lower acidity is less likely to curdle the milk as it melts.
