Ice Cold Brewed Espresso Coffee Recipe (2024)

There’s nothing like this Ice Cold Brewed Espresso Coffee Recipe on hot summer days to perk you up. I’m here to tell you that making your own couldn’t be easier or cheaper.No fancy cold brew equipment, no French press (although if you already have one, great!), no Starbucks… just a jar, some sort of filter and a couple of good beans. Just add some milk (or water) and a sweetener to this concentrate and you’re good to go!

I used to think that making a cold coffee was as simple as brewing an espresso, sweetening it and then adding a couple of ice cubes to make it cold. Now I know better – following this, admittedly simple, the method will give you a cold coffee that is diluted and bitter. Why diluted? Well, adding ice-cold water (a.k.a. an ice cube) to a hot beverage will do that!

So I refined my method a little bit. I thought about making the espresso stronger. Then I even got the genius idea of freezing my leftover regular morning coffee into ice cubes to add instead of normal ice. My new-and-improved method for cold espresso coffee was indeed no longer diluted. Still, I personally wasn’t comfortable with how much sweetener I needed to add to remove the bitter taste. When I think of all the family and friends that I offered this drink to… I truly apologize!

I have my holy grail method now, and I’m happy to say. The bitterness issue is taken care of, actually, by cold brewing the beans. To “cold brew,” by the way, is simply to leave your ground-up coffee beans to soak in cold water for an extended period of time, usually overnight. From what I read, when coffee beans are subjected to intense heat, the chemical structure of the bean changes, and when you try to make this into a cold coffee, there is a bitterness that is created. By allowing the beans to sit in cold water, the end product will be less acidic and, as a result, less bitter. Hello, cold coffee mug of silkiness and smoothness 🙂

So, how is this achieved without any fancy equipment?

1- Grindyour coffee beans to medium-coarse. I have found that a light espresso roast gives a less bitter flavor than dark roasts. Feel free to experiment and see what works for you. Using a medium-coarse ground will help to achieve a clear liquid. Finely ground coffee beans will result in a cloudy liquid. To maximize the taste, combine the freshly ground beans with the water ASAP.

2- Add cold filtered water to the freshly ground beans (regular cold tap water is fine).

3- Stir. Stir. Stir. Every freshly ground coffee bean needs to be completely submerged by the water.

4- Coveryourjar (or whatever container you are using).

5- Refrigerate and wait forat least 12 hours

6- Filter the cold brew coffee concentrate. I will use my regular coffee filter for this. If you don’t have one, you can line a sieve with some cheesecloth…but that can get expensive if you are going to be making a lot of this Ice Cold Brewed Espresso Coffee Recipe.

7- Adjustyour coffee concentrate with milk or water and a sweetener.

Recipe inspiration

A couple of years ago, I found this article in my local paper, the Montreal Gazette and this article from the New York Times Food section. Once I tried this recipe, I immediately tasted the difference “cold brewing” made and was hooked. I’ve adjusted the ratio to suit my personal tastes. Needless to say, I’ve been making it ever since. Feel free to adjust the number of coffee beans to the amount of water to suit your own personal taste.

Oh, I almost forgot… if you’ve ever wondered what to do with coffeegrounds, here’san articlethat you might find interesting.

So there you have it, my dear coffee aficionados! An Ice Cold Brewed Espresso Coffee Recipe to help you beat the summer heat. How do you plan on staying cool this summer?

Recipe

Thanks for dropping by.

Ciao for now,

Maria 🙂