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You don’t need to buy fancy equipment to try these easy iced coffee upgrades.
Last summer, social media algorithms brought the “fluffy seagull latte,” a trending coffee creation from a Massachusetts café, to feeds across the country. This is far from the only coffee drink to go viral. As a coffee lover and a perpetually online person, I try — and often write about — most of these trends. However, the ones that stick with me the longest, becoming part of my regular coffee routine rather than a novelty I might order once, are the viral hacks that make my at-home coffee better with minimal effort.
There’s a short list of iced coffee hacks that live rent-free in my brain, and I’ve compiled them here to help fellow coffee aficionados keep cool and caffeinated this summer without spending $6 a day on a barista-brewed latte.
I don’t use all of these every week — for example, I have a cold brew coffee maker, so I don’t usually need an alternate method for making it now — but they’ve come in handy when I had less coffee equipment at home or when I stayed at an Airbnb. And several of these tricks are now on regular rotation in my kitchen, either to subtly switch up my morning beverage or to make a classic cup of iced coffee taste better.
Make cold brew with coffee filters
With just a Mason jar, some paper coffee filters, and butcher’s twine, you can make your own cold brew. If you don’t have a large Mason jar, that’s fine too — you just need a vessel big enough to hold several cups of water. Chef Hailee Catalano explains in her 30-second tutorial that you can make cold brew by creating little bundles of coffee grounds tied up in coffee filters. Just fill the filters with grounds, tie them closed into small parcels, place the bundles in your Mason jar, and add about a cup of water for each bundle. Let it sit overnight, and you’ll have cold brew ready in the morning.
Replace water with coconut water in your iced Americano
The coconut water Americano went viral last summer when New York City-based coffee shop Rhythm Zero put the drink on its menu, but unlike many other trending coffee creations, it doesn’t require any extra effort to make at home. You don’t need to make an infused syrup or take any additional steps. Instead, this drink simply calls for replacing the water in your iced Americano with coconut water. (You can optionally froth your espresso, too, but I don’t.) The liquid is subtly sweet and hydrating, and coffee and coconut pair beautifully.
Related: 5 Unexpected Ways to Use a Milk Frother — From Salad Dressings to Shots
Use a spoon to keep your coffee from being watered down
The easiest way to make iced coffee at home is, of course, to brew hot coffee and pour it over ice. However, unless you’re making a super strong brew like stovetop espresso in a Moka pot, this risks watering down your beverage as the hot coffee melts the ice. There’s a time-honored tip for minimizing this melting: Place a metal spoon over the ice, and pour the hot liquid onto the spoon, letting it overflow from the metal into the rest of the glass. While this won’t entirely prevent melting — that’s impossible — the metal spoon will absorb some of the heat from the coffee and give you slightly better results.
Make an instant coffee concentrate
Although you could certainly use it for standard glasses of black iced coffee, this hack is especially great for anyone who wants to enjoy iced lattes but doesn’t have an espresso machine. You’ll start by combining an entire container of instant coffee — ideally one that’s at least 7 ounces — in a heat-proof container with about 1.5 cups of hot water. (Some content creators pour the hot water directly into an instant coffee container, which I don’t recommend. You can’t guarantee the plastic won’t melt.)
Related: We Tried 7 Canned Cold Brews — These Are the 3 Worth Buying
If the instant coffee doesn’t fully dissolve, add more hot water, a little at a time, until it does. Chill the coffee concentrate overnight, then add a small amount to a glass of ice with water or milk for your morning pick-me-up. At around $10 or less per container, instant coffee is usually less expensive than store-bought cold brew concentrates, and this homemade concentrate will go further, yielding more cups of coffee.
Make coffee ice cubes
If you’re serious about avoiding watered-down iced coffee, this is the trick for you. Freeze coffee (hot or iced) into ice cubes, then use them to chill your cold brew, iced lattes, and Americanos. As the frozen coffee melts, you won’t end up with a weaker beverage. Plus, it’s a great way to use up the dregs of a pot of hot coffee that nobody wanted to drink. Bust out a tray of coffee ice cubes when you’re serving guests this summer, and they’re sure to be impressed.
Read the original article on Food & Wine
