Coffee Ice Cubes
Ice made from coffee, so your iced coffee gets stronger, not weaker, as it melts. It takes five minutes of work and a night in the freezer, and it fixes the single most common complaint about iced coffee.
At a glance
- Coffee : water
- 1:15
- Active time
- 10 min
- Total time
- 370 min
- Makes
- 24 cubes
- Serve
- Frozen
- Kit
- Covered ice trays
Ingredients
Note: Freeze it at the strength you want to drink. Cubes made from concentrate turn the last of the glass into syrup.
Method
-
Brew at normal strength
Brew the coffee as you would to drink it hot: a French press, a pour-over, a drip machine, or cold brew diluted to drinking strength.
The cubes will melt into your drink, so they should taste like the drink.
4 minutes -
Cool it first
Let the coffee cool to room temperature, about thirty minutes, before it goes in the freezer. Stir in any sugar while it is still hot.
Hot coffee in the freezer warms everything around it and freezes unevenly.
Cool 30 minutes -
Fill and cover the trays
Pour it into the trays and put the lids on, or cover them tightly with cling film.
Coffee absorbs smells. Uncovered, the cubes taste of whatever else is in your freezer within two days.
-
Freeze and bag
Freeze for at least six hours. Then pop the cubes out into a sealed freezer bag, press out the air, and use within two weeks.
Freeze 6 hours -
Use them
Fill a glass with coffee cubes and pour over cold milk for an instant iced latte, or over cold coffee for an iced coffee that stays the same strength as it melts.
Why this works
Ordinary ice dilutes iced coffee because melting ice is water. A glass that starts at the right strength loses a third or more of its flavour by the time you reach the bottom. Coffee ice melts into coffee, so the drink stays the same strength throughout. In a glass of milk, the drink actually gets stronger as you go, which many people prefer.
The strength rule follows from that. Cubes frozen at drinking strength melt into drinking-strength coffee. Concentrate cubes, which some recipes suggest, make the end of a glass strong and syrupy. Freeze what you want to drink.
Cover the trays because frozen coffee is surprisingly good at absorbing odours. Its oils and aromatic compounds bind other volatile molecules, and the open air of a freezer is full of them. Uncovered cubes pick up freezer smells within days. Ice also slowly sublimates, losing water straight to the air, which concentrates the surface and gives old cubes a stale, freezer-burnt taste. Sealed and used within two weeks, they taste fine.
Cooling the coffee first is about even freezing. Liquid that goes in hot takes longer to freeze, forms larger ice crystals and is more likely to crack or freeze with a hollow centre.
Sugar has to go in hot, before freezing. Undissolved sugar in a cold drink sinks, and sugar in a cube lowers its freezing point slightly, so sweetened cubes freeze a little softer and melt a little faster.
Variations
- Milk cubes: freeze whole milk in trays and pour hot espresso over them for an iced latte that never waters down.
- Vietnamese cubes: freeze cà phê sữa đá, already sweetened with condensed milk, and drop them into cold milk.
- Mocha cubes: stir cocoa syrup into the coffee before freezing.
- Cold brew cubes: diluted cold brew, which gives a smoother melt.
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Questions
Should coffee ice cubes be strong?
No. Freeze coffee at the strength you would drink it. Concentrate cubes make the end of the glass too strong.
How long do coffee ice cubes last?
About two weeks in a sealed freezer bag. After that they start to taste stale and pick up freezer smells.
Can I make coffee ice cubes with leftover coffee?
Yes, as long as it has not been sitting on a hot plate for hours, which makes it taste burnt. Cool it and freeze it the same day.
Can I freeze milk coffee into cubes?
Yes. Coffee with milk, or plain milk, freezes well. Use it within a week, as milk picks up freezer flavours faster than black coffee.