How to Make an Iced Coffee

Did you know hashtag #icedcoffee has over 3.9 billion views on TikTok? So many of us are searching for the best ways to make a glass of iced coffee, pronto. 

With that in mind, here are the steps you need to follow to make a great glass of iced coffee. Sweet tooth on a diet? We’ll help you find the best sugar-free coffee syrups.

What Do I Need To Make Homemade Iced Coffee?

You don’t need anything too fancy to make iced coffee at home. Here’s all that you need:

• Coffee
• Milk
• Sugar
• A tall glass of ice
• A spoon, stirrer, or shaker 

The most important ingredient, of course, is great coffee. Find the brand and style of coffee that best matches your personal taste. Dark roast works best, but if you don’t like the strong flavor, use a medium roast.  If you’re in a rush go with ground coffee, but for the freshest and most flavorful cup, begin with whole coffee beans and grind them yourself. 

Milk and sugar are optional of course. Instead of refined sugar, you can also use alternatives such as coconut sugar, honey, or syrup in your coffee. As for milk, we recommend using richer 2% whole milk or even half and half, as skim milk can make the finished drink a little watery. There are plenty of great milk alternatives these days too, made from soy, almond, coconut and more. 

How To Make Homemade Iced Coffee

You’ve got your ingredients and you're ready to make the perfect glass of iced coffee. First, brew your coffee, then pour a cup of coffee into a tall glass. Put the coffee in the freezer for 45 minutes, or in the refrigerator overnight. Once your coffee has cooled, add milk and sugar to taste, stir well, pour over a glass of ice, and you’re done. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can go shaken, not stirred. Put your chilled coffee, milk, sugar, and ice cubes in the shaker, close tight and shake like you’re making a cocktail. Then pour into your glass and enjoy.

Iced Coffee Vs. Cold Brew

Making standard iced coffee is as simple as taking coffee brewed with hot water and pouring it over a glass of ice. We recommend chilling the coffee first as mentioned above, but if you’re short on time you can even pour it over ice while it’s still hot. 

Cold brew coffee is more complicated and needs more time. Instead of using regularly brewed coffee, cold brew coffee entails leaving coarse ground coffee steeped in cold water for at least 13 hours. The longer the coffee sits in cold water, the tastier and the stronger the flavor..

How to Prevent Your Iced Coffee From Becoming Watery

You can double down on the amount of coffee to ensure your iced coffee doesn’t become a watery mess as the ice melts. Or even better, make your own coffee ice cubes. To do this, just make a batch of coffee, allow it to cool, then pour it in an ice tray and put it in the freezer. Once frozen, you’ll have a try full of coffee ice cubes to pour over that won’t water down your iced coffee when they melt. 

Final Thoughts

The perfect cup of iced coffee is the one that best fits your tastes. If you don’t like sweet or milky coffee, then you can enjoy your iced coffee black. If you do, mix it with the sweetener and milk or milk alternative of your choosing, or make a coffee-shop inspired drink flavored with extracts, syrups, and spices.