Beat the Heat with our Iced Coffee and Cold Brew Recipes
With the warm weather set to continue in the UK, you may be thinking of ways to get your caffeine fix while staying cool and refreshed.
If you haven’t had the pleasure of enjoying a delicious, homemade iced coffee or a cold brew coffee until now, why not treat yourself to these perfect summer coffees using our handy guide?
Iced Coffee or Cold Brew?
While there are the obvious similarities between iced coffees and cold brew coffees, there is an important difference between the two: iced coffee involves brewing coffee in the usual way, using hot water before cooling it and serving over ice or in cold milk, while cold brew coffee involves a longer preparation method whereby ground coffee is added to cold water and allowed to brew, in a cold environment, for usually at least 12 hours.
Both methods make for a delicious drink, but you will likely find that a cold brew coffee is a little smoother and naturally sweeter than an iced coffee; with a cold brew process, the subtle characteristics of particular coffee beans are slowly and gently extracted over time, which doesn’t occur to the same extent with a more quickly prepared iced coffee. However, the choice is yours and mainly comes down to how much time you have to prepare your drink.
Choosing Your Beans
When making your tasty, chilled coffees, we highly recommend that you use a quality, freshly roasted bean, either pre-ground or as a whole bean that you can grind at home.
Some of our top bean suggestions for iced coffee and cold brew coffees include Santos, Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, Mocha Java and Kona, but there’s plenty of room for variation. Why not take a look at our coffee finder tool to pick your perfect bean?
How to Make an Iced Coffee at Home
For a quick and easy iced coffee, you’ll just need a few simple ingredients: 200ml black coffee, made using freshly roasted beans; 50ml milk; a few handfuls of ice; sugar or coffee syrups, but only if you prefer your drink a little sweeter.
1. Start by preparing a cup of black coffee through your usual method. We strongly recommend using freshly roasted coffee beans to make your coffee and suggest preparing 200ml of black coffee.
2. Allow the black coffee to go completely cold, either by chilling in the fridge or leaving out in a cool place.
3. Once the black coffee is cold, pour it into a blender along with 50ml of milk and a few handfuls of ice. You can add something to sweeten the coffee a bit if you like, such as sugar or syrup.
4. Blend until the drink is smooth, then pour into a chilled glass and enjoy.
How to Make a Cold Brew Coffee at Home
If you have a bit more time on your hands, this delightful treat is well worth the extra effort! The process of making a cold brew creates a smooth and sweet-tasting drink, without the bitterness that you may find in an iced coffee.
1. Start with a quality coffee bean that has been coarsely ground. We would recommend our ‘Percolator Grind’ pre-ground coffees as an ideal coarseness.
2. A good ratio of ground coffee to water is 1:8, so 50g of coffee to 400ml of water for example.
3. Put the coffee and water in a jug or jar and give it a very gentle stir.
4. Place the mixture in the refrigerator and leave it to infuse for at least 12 hours, but not more than 24 hours.
5. After 12-24 hours, you can discard the coffee grounds if using a device with a filter or strain the coffee through coffee filter paper or a few pieces of kitchen towel into another clean container.
6. Now your cold brew coffee is ready and can be enjoyed with the addition of ice or milk!
At Coffee-Direct, we offer a fantastic range of quality, freshly roasted beans for you to use in your homemade iced coffees and cold brews, so take a look at our selection to find your perfect bean, or why not take a look at some of our other delicious coffee recipes on our YouTube channel, which includes recipes for tiramisu coffee, amaretto coffee and a delicious rum coffee.