Make your ice cubes work harder this summer
Coffee, milk, & sweeteners are all integral to that crafted coffee experience - but making simple changes to your ice cubes can help elevate your cold coffee while keeping it cooler for longer, without watering it down.
Customise those ice cubes.
It’s summer, so iced coffee is going to be the order of the day.
And while iced coffee is a wonderful thing, there’s nothing worse than when the ice starts to melt, and the coffee gets watered down. So, it’s time for a bit of summer innovation, to make every iced coffee at home as delicious as it can be – with ice cubes made from coffee, milk, or syrup.
TO CUBE, OR NOT TO CUBE?
There are a few ways to customise your ice cubes for an iced coffee – but we’d recommend starting off with a silicone ice tray. Since you’re not freezing plain water, the ice might be softer or more fragile, and a silicone ice try makes it easier to get each ice cube out without breaking.
Milk and coffee are easy to freeze, and make great ice cubes to use in any iced coffee, or even to cool down a hot coffee. If you’re using whole milk, there could be some separation, but the flavour shouldn’t be affected. Syrup, on the other hand, doesn’t freeze very well by itself, because of the sugar content, but we’ve got a couple of ways around that.
Start off by brewing your favourite Starbucks® coffee in the way you most prefer. This could be with a French press, a Chemex® brewer, or any of the other ways you can brew. If you’re still not sure of your favourite brewing method, check out our guide here.
Once the coffee is brewed, let it cool slightly – about 10-15 minutes. Pour it into your ice tray, and pop it into the freezer for a few hours, or preferably overnight. Once frozen, you can use your coffee ice cubes in any of our delicious summer iced coffee recipes.
Simply pour the milk (or plant-based alternative) of your choice into your ice tray and place it in the freezer overnight. Some of the plant-based dairy alternatives sometimes separate slightly, and can take on a bit of a grainy texture in the coffee, but that delicious iced coffee flavour won't be affected.
While the flavoured syrups add a whole new taste experience to any coffee drink, they don’t freeze very well. Maple syrup, honey, or any of the other flavoured syrups don’t really freeze solid – without a little bit of extra help. The easiest way around it is to either add a bit of warm water.
If you're using something like a chocolate or caramel sauce, you'll probably have an easier time freezing it because of the dairy content. If it's not freezing solid, you can add a bit more milk to help it along.
HOW DO YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE?
If the sauce is dairy-based – like caramel or chocolate sauce, which is often made with butter or cream – then you can add a bit of milk, whisking it in to slightly loosen the sauce.
If you’re working with water-based syrup – like maple syrup, honey, or flavoured simple syrup – you can whisk in some warm water to loosen the syrup a little.
ICE UP YOUR SUMMER
Iced coffee is the hero of any summer, so let's give them a chance to last longer, and prolong the enjoyment. These customised ice cubes keep all the ice-cold refreshment without losing any of the bold, uplifting flavours of your favourite Starbucks® iced coffee.
Bring on summer. We’re ready.
A cold tip
ICE CUBESWe’d recommend using syrup or sauce ice cubes in a warm beverage; something that will melt the syrup or sauce enough that it begins to combine with the drink.
For that deliciously cold iced coffee, we'd suggest using coffee ice cubes to keep it cool without watering it down.
