From-scratch Iced Coffee
Start your morning with a sweet, cold glass of iced coffee from the comfort of your home! Learn how to make your own cold brew with this simple and easily adaptable tutorial and recipe. Reliable for warm summer mornings or a refreshing afternoon pick-us-up!
What stands out
There are plenty of reasons to make your own iced coffee at home. We love this simple recipe because:
- It’s cheaper than the coffee shop plus you have no commute to get there.
- You can customize it anyway you want meaning no two iced coffees made at home have to be the same.
- Making it yourself means you control how strong it is and how much sugar you add into the iced coffee.
- Steeping cold brew coffee in this fashion creates a less acidic and less bitter coffee.
- There are unlimited refills (at least until you run out of coffee).
Now that you know why you should make this iced coffee recipe at home, let’s break down the process into two main steps.
The Main Ingredients
A great cup of coffee comes from selecting a standby ingredients for the base. Let’s discuss the two main ingredients for making coffee- the grounds and the water- and how they impact your morning sip.
Ground Coffee
To make a standby glass of iced coffee start with freshly ground coffee. We would suggest selecting a roast to match your strength preference. If you like your coffee:
- Strong: Select a dark roast coffee.
- Mild: Use a medium roast coffee.
- Weak: Go for a light roast coffee.
- Flavored: You can also pick a flavored coffee from the start. These tend to be more medium to light roast in their flavor profile.
Not sure where to start? We would suggest going with a medium or light roast coffee until you determine where your tastes lie.
Water
If you are following our preferred steeping method listed in the directions, you will want to use cold water. In the alternative methods below we will list other ways to brew coffee and a standby type of water for those methods.
Alternative Methods for Brewing Coffee
Two other straightforward ways to prepare the coffee for this iced coffee recipe are to use a traditional coffee maker or try a cold brew coffee maker.
Brew and Chill Method
This method involves using a traditional coffee maker and chilling it until you are ready to fix the iced coffee.
- Brew a pot of coffee with your drip coffee maker.
- Allow the coffee to come to room temperature.
- Transfer to a food-safe container.
- Refrigerate until ready to use.
- Note: If you use this method, you will not garner the benefits of the cold brew steep, which makes less acidic and less bitter coffee.
Cold Brew Coffee Maker
Similar to our method, the cold brew coffee maker allows the coffee grounds to sit in the water for an extended period of time until it’s ready to strain, pour, and fix up into an iced coffee.
To use the cold brew coffee maker:
- Place coffee grounds inside the mesh sieve of the cold brew coffee maker.
- Fill with water.
- Refrigerate based on the maker’s directions. Typically 24 hours.
Adjusting the Strength of Your Coffee
Aside from selecting a different roast of coffee to impact the strength, you can also adjust the coffee strength by changing the coffee to water ratio. For this recipe, we used a ratio of 1:16. For every 1 ounce of coffee, we used 16 ounces of water.
To make a stronger cup you can increase the amount of coffee you use. For a weaker cup of coffee, decrease the amount of coffee grounds.
- Stronger Coffee: Increase the coffee grounds to 9 ounces and keep the water the same. This will give you a ratio closer to 1:14.
- Weaker Coffee: Decrease the coffee to 7 ounces and keep the water the same. This will result in a ratio closer to 1:18. Still too bold? Dilute with additional water after brewing.
Flavoring Iced Coffee
One of the beautiful things about making iced coffee at home is your ability to make a variety of flavors. Here are some different ways to flavor, sweeten, and top your iced coffee.
- Stir in flavored simple syrups to get vanilla, salted caramel, or hazelnut flavored coffee.
- Add milk, oat milk, or almond milk for a creamy iced coffee.
- Sweeten your drink with half and half, condensed milk, or sugar.
- Drizzle in some from-scratch salted caramel sauce.
- Top with fresh whipped cream.
Serving Suggestions
If you want to make your morning cup of iced coffee feel a little more like going to the coffee shop, you can add a few fun touches to elevate your morning brew:
- Serve with fun straws, maybe even changing them up based on the season.
- Make some coffee cake to go with your cold cup of Joe.
- Swap the ice for a large scoop of vanilla ice cream and serve your iced coffee a la mode.
- Have a slice of New York Style Crumb Cake for an extra sweet start to the day!
Storing and Shelf-Life
- Storage: A standby way to store your iced coffee is separately in parts. Keep the coffee stored in a food-safe container in the refrigerator. Simply add ice and any additional mix-ins when you are ready to enjoy!
- Shelf-Life: Stored separately you can keep the cold-brewed coffee for up to 1 week in the refrigerator.
- If you’ve mixed your coffee with ice and other flavors it will keep up to 8-12 hours in the refrigerator, less if it’s at room temperature.
- Yield: 12 servings
- Prep: 30 minutes
- Total: 12 hours
Ingredients
- 8 ounces ( 226.8 g ) ground coffee
- 4 quarts ( 3.79 l ) cold water
- Sweeteners as desired, sweetened condensed milk, half-and-half, syrups, etc.
Method
- Place the coffee grounds in a large food-safe container and add the cold water. Mix with a large spoon, then cover and allow to sit overnight at room temperature.
- Strain the mixture into a clean container through a fine-mesh sieve that has been lined with two layers of cheesecloth or coffee filters. Discard the coffee grounds. Chill mixture until ready to use.
- To make the iced coffee, fill a glass with ice and fill it two-thirds full of the chilled coffee concentrate. Sweeten as desired. (we made ours with 2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk and an additional splash of half-and-half.)
Notes
Equipment: Large food-safe container / Fine-mesh sieve / Cheesecloth
Coffee Strength: See the post above for details on how to adjust measurements for stronger or weaker coffee.
Flavoring Options: Simple syrups, dairy and non-dairy milk, sweetened condensed milk, sugar, from-scratch salted caramel sauce, whipped cream.
Storage: A standby way to store your iced coffee is separately in parts. Keep the coffee stored in a food-safe container in the refrigerator. Simply add ice and any additional mix-ins when you are ready to enjoy!
Shelf-Life : Stored separately you can keep the cold-brewed coffee for up to 1 week in the refrigerator. If you’ve mixed your coffee with ice and other flavors it will keep up to 8-12 hours in the refrigerator, less if it’s at room temperature.
Photography by Lauren Grant.
