A scoop of ice cream, chilled thick cream, icy cold milk or half n’ half, there are a number of great ways to finish off the best iced coffee.
But first you must get the basics right, starting with making perfect hot coffee.
I actually stumbled upon making an iced coffee by accident, on a hot summers day last year. This year is not looking so promising for the sun just yet, so maybe I won’t be sitting in the garden sipping one this year (but I really hope I do!)
I love my coffee, but it was so hot that drinking a hot coffee was not as great an idea once I had made it! I was working hard on my laptop and was fed up of drinking cold orange juice of just water.
Now drinking cold milk on a boiling hot summers day does sound nice, but (and if you’ve had one before, then you’ll know) milk is nice going down but it leaves you feeling a bit too ‘heavy’ in the stomach.
Anyway, my answer for quenching my thirst was already laying in front of me. I just hadn’t noticed.
Voila, I thought! I’ll try a cold coffee with milk. But when I made it, it really didn’t look very inviting
Now, I’ve been on holidays plenty of times and had a tall glass of iced coffee so I figured it could not be very hard to make.
And this is what I came up with.
What you will need?
- 1 cup of coffee – espresso or a quality strong instant (room temperature or chilled)
- 1 cup of ice
- Cream, milk or ice cream at hand!
- Sugar
How to make it:
Make your strong black coffee and either leave to cool down to room temperature, or for quicker results put it in the fridge to chill. Make sure you cover it, because this will preserve the aroma.
When it’s ready, add your coffee to your tall glass or glasses (if you’ve got company) of broken ice. Then poor over the coffee, but not to the top – leave room for your milk or cream.
If you love your strong coffee like I do, you can always use coffee ice cubes instead of plain water cubes. This way your final sips won’t taste so watery! However, if you’re going to use cubes made from just water, you will want to double the strength of your black coffee before starting. If you don’t, when the cubes melt it will dilute your pleasure for those all important final sips.
And if you serve your guests diluted coffee, guess who won’t get invited to host the next shindig?
Finally, add your full fat milk or even cream for a stunning cafe liegeois. And there is nothing wrong with adding some whipped cream to the top, then finishing with some fresh mint of strips of lemon zest if that is what you fancy. (There is no hard and fast rules here, just make it to your liking!)
Then sit back and enjoy slurping on a couple of long straws!
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