How to make an iced coffee at home

With the last few weeks of summer heating up, we’re all about cold drinks, but we also still need our daily hit of caffeine. Enter the iced coffee: the best of both worlds! Here’s how to make one at home.

Step 1: Brew your coffee

Start with your regular hot cup of java – whether that be freshly ground from your coffee machine, percolator or plunger, or instant coffee from the kettle. Remember quality is key, so we recommend freshly ground beans over instant coffee. Leave your coffee to come to room temperature.

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Step 2: Top it up with ice

Place ice blocks in your serving glass and pour over your cooled coffee. Note that as the ice melts, it will dilute your coffee further, so we recommend either making your coffee slightly stronger than usual or get really fancy and create coffee-flavoured ice blocks. That way, your ice will actually add extra flavour as it melts.

Step 3: Adjust it to taste

Add cream or milk (depending on how creamy you like your iced coffee) and sweetener. To get a real coffee-house effect, make a simple syrup by melting sugar and water together, and use that in place of sugar. This will make it easier to dilute your sugar in the cold liquid.

Iced coffee or blended coffee?

Ask almost anyone and they’ll have a preference: some people love a good strong iced coffee while others prefer their coffee to resemble a milkshake. If you fall into the latter camp, invest in a high-quality blender that can easily crush ice. Then simply add your iced coffee (with dairy and sweetener added) to your blender and blend until you have a delicious, slushy consistency.

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