How to make iced coffee at home

There’s nothing quite like an iced coffee. Whether you’re making cold brew at home or enjoying a Café Freddo in the Greek sunshine, cold coffee in hot weather is just delicious. But sometimes you can’t be in Greece or go back in time to set a cold brew on its 16-hour journey. Enter the flash-brewed or Japanese-style iced coffee, a great alternative to other iced coffees that doesn’t need any sugar!

Ice Ice Baby

This brewing style has a few advantages over other cold coffee drinks. First off, it’s easy to make this iced coffee at home. All you need are some ice cubes, some kind of pourover device, good coffee, and a kettle. Secondly, it’s brewed hot. This means you get all the flavours of your gorgeous speciality coffee. Even over the full 16 or more hours of brew time, the cold water in cold brew just can’t extract all the good stuff in the way hot water can. Finally, because it’s brewed hot and instantly cooled (hence ‘flash’), you get to drink it pretty much as soon as you make it. No waiting, no sitting in the sunshine wishing you’d checked the weather forecast yesterday, and no last-minute ticket to Athens.

An awesome iced coffee recipe

Follow this method and enjoy a cracking cup of ice-cold coffee in ten minutes or less.

Kit & Ingredients

30g Two Chimps Coffee

250g ice

275g freshly boiled water

Hario V60 or similar

Carafe or other suitable vessel

Scales

Timer (I use my phone)

Grinding for iced coffee

We recommend using a medium-fine grind for this recipe. As we’re using less water than for a standard pourover, the extraction rate will be a little lower. Therefore, we recommend using a slightly finer grind and a bit more coffee than we’d use for a normal V60 pourover to compensate. Darker roasts extract a little more easily, so they can be ground a little more coarsely than lighter roasts.

 

Good coffee for iced coffee

As to coffee choice, it’s totally personal taste. Unlike cold brew, this method brings out all the flavours in your coffee. So, you can use your light and fruity microlot or your dark and chocolatey morning blend. Don’t know what a microlot is? Here’s the Two Chimps lowdown.

Method

Set up

Boil your kettle. Fill your carafe with the ice and place it on your scales. Set your V60 on top and add your coffee. Zero your scales.

Bloom

Let your kettle cool for 30 seconds, then pour 60g of water onto your coffee. Pour slowly in a circular motion. Stir, or give the cone a swirl to get all the coffee grounds wet and evenly distributed at the bottom of the cone. Leave to soak for 45 seconds. You may want to tap your scales occasionally to stop them from turning off while you wait.

Pour

Add another 100g of water, again pouring slowly in a circular motion. The aim is to disrupt the coffee as little as possible during the pour. At 100g pause for 30 seconds, then add the remaining 115g using the same technique as before.

 

Serve

Let the remaining water draw down. Remove the V60 and give your carafe a swirl. Serve and enjoy!

An infographic detailing how to make Japanese-style iced coffee

Charlotte Dibble

Meet the chimp behind this article!
Charlotte joined Two Chimps after completing her BA Hons in Graphic Communication and Illustration at Loughborough University. She also earned two diplomas: Art and Design Foundation and Professional Studies.

What Charlotte does outside of the treehouse:
In her spare time, Charlotte is a keen baker and loves to bring delicious treats for the team to enjoy during their Monday tea break. Charlotte likes to practice her drawing and painting skills to relax, usually with one of her cats sitting on her lap to keep her company!

Charlotte says…
“I’m thrilled to join the Two Chimps Troop after five years of studying. I get to write blogs, design, manage social media, and connect with our amazing customers every day. It’s always exciting, and I learn something new every day!”

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