5 Tips for Better Iced Coffee
Watered down cold coffee, un-tasteful, lacking flavor, bitter or bland, is the poor excuse for coffee you probably make every day and you have been passionately yelling, “HOW DO I MAKE BETTER ICED COFFEE?”. Well, don’t yell, because we are here to help! Here are the top 5 tips for making the best iced coffee your luscious eyes could feast on, and possibly become Hokage someday. (Believe it.)
Tip #1 – Make Your Coffee Strong
Before you go talking about how you can’t handle strong coffee, let us explain! When you make iced coffee, you are pouring a hot beverage over ice, which in turn melts that ice. You fill up the cup (all the way) with ice. After that, pour the hot coffee in and it will fill up with a lot of water and ice, because the coffee is going through a process of cooling, it will melt the ice, thus diluting your coffee.
Tip #2 – Do Not Refrigerate Your Coffee
If you make your iced coffee by brewing it, refrigerating it, then pouring it with over ice, you might want to stop. In theory, there is nothing wrong with this at all, but you risk quality for convenience. When you refrigerate your coffee for future consumption, you allow the coffee to age more, especially in a cooler atmosphere, coffee will begin to form very interesting layers of bitterness (like souring of the lips) and this depends from roast to roast, which brings us to our next tip.
Tip #3 – Pick Good Roasts
When brewing iced coffee, we find a medium roast is the best since it handles the textures so well. A light roast will taste too watered down, and a dark roast will over-power the water with cold temperature. We recommend a Kona, El Salvadorian, or Metropolis’ Schweik's Blend for your iced coffee needs.
Tip #4 – Clean Your Coffee Machine
This is a very general tip which a lot of people don’t do. The mineral build up on your coffee machine can alter the taste which will push your ultimate goal of making the best cup of iced coffee. Stay clean, keep yourself safe and use a little mineral remover or descaling solution for your coffee machine. Here is a good one to pick up.
Tip #5 – Using Milk or Dairy Additives
Make sure when embellishing your iced coffee to use a heavy creamer, as skim or 2% milk will water down your coffee, more fat equals more flavor. Personally tested (and what we use for our Cold Brew!) lactose-free creamers and dehydrated creamers work well with iced coffee as well, so do not be afraid to dabble in that field.
In case you are wondering, here is how coffee shops make iced coffee, grabbed from our previous blog, “Cold Brew Vs. Iced Coffee” Here is a run-down, plus some.
“…A lot of businesses brew a hot cup container of coffee, and refrigerate it until the beverage is cold, and other businesses only brew a strong, extracted amount of coffee, cut with ice water, then that makes an iced coffee. Most consumers are satisfied with just this, but the biggest issue which is often avoided and overlooked in this process is dilution. A lot of companies cut their coffee, with hot brewed extract, then dump over ice, and then cut again with water. The issue is when you put hot coffee over ice, you produce water so you will get a very watered down taste which doesn't really taste good, and believe me, you can taste the difference once you compare. Besides that, the general process and concept of Iced Coffee is quite simple, and is most commonly drank.”
