If you love to treat yourself to an iced coffee every now and then but don’t like the high cost, then luckily there is an easy option to make one for yourself at home, using your own Keurig coffee maker.
Keurig’s provide coffee quickly and easily and a single serve machine is perfect for when you want a quick cup for breakfast. But they can also be used to create the perfect iced coffee with a little imagination.
Here is what you need:
- A Keurig cup
- A glass or a thermos
- Some ice
- Milk and sugar to taste
Quick tips
- Using ice will water down your drink, as will adding milk, so for an iced coffee go for a darker roast for a stronger flavour.
- Don’t use a glass if you are brewing over the ice because the temperature change might make it break.
The method
Fill your Keurig machine with water and add the ground coffee as well, as you would normally do. Then place your Keurig cup under the machine, ready for the brew to begin.
Fill another cup with ice and keep it to one side for later. You can fill your Keurig cup with the ice and brew directly into it but there is a chance this might become messy and there won’t be enough room in the cup.
Brew the coffee as you normally would and add your milk and sugar to taste, before pouring it on top of the ice into the second cup. By adding the milk to the coffee first it will help to cool the coffee down slightly, so that it won’t melt all the ice immediately.
If you are lucky enough to own a K-Elite Keurig this machine has a dedicated ice brewing option built in to it so you can follow the instructions to make the perfect iced coffee
Avoiding the ice dilution issue
If you don’t want to make a simple iced coffee, which can dilute your drink over time, there are a few other tricks you can try. For example, making frozen coffee ice cubes to add to your hot coffee drink.
Simply brew your coffee, allow it to cool, and then pour it into the ice cube tray and leave to freeze overnight. You can then remove them from the tray into a freezer bag. You can also be clever with these and add in extra flavors if you wish to.
Or, to create a stronger flavor, use two smaller brewed cups to make your iced coffee, to avoid diluting the flavor so much, create two cups using your machine and then pour them both over the ice, making it stronger.
Creating different flavor coffees
For other flavours, why not add condensed milk into your cup first, then brew your coffee into it and then pour it over ice, to create the perfect Vietnamese-style iced coffee?
A way to experiment with different flavour coffee ice cubes, is by adding extra elements such as cocoa powder or vanilla essence before freezing, so that you can then create a variety of flavor options to choose from.
Alternative way to create iced coffee
An alternative to brewing iced coffee is to create the coffee cold in the first place. In this case you simply put some coffee grounds in a cup of water and leave it in the fridge overnight. The next morning, filter it and use the resulting concentrate to create your iced coffee by adding milk, water and ice.
Conclusion
If you have a Keurig at home, making iced coffee couldn’t be simpler and there are many ways to do it easily. Whether you choose to brew directly over the ice, or brew first and then pour over ice into a different mug, making iced coffee at home is now a simple possibility.
It’s important not to use glass cups to make this drink because the temperature difference between the brewed coffee and the ice could cause the glass to shatter suddenly, making it dangerous. Always use a thermos or mug designed to withstand temperature changes.
Once you have mastered the technique, you can try adding different ingredients and flavors to create different iced coffee experiences. If you don’t want to have diluted, watery coffee try creating the frozen coffee ice cubes to keep the flavor intense throughout.
If you have a K-Elite you can use the specially designed ice coffee function but you can make your iced coffee with any Keurig machine with a little imagination and a handful of ice, so make sure you fill up those ice trays in the freezer and you can enjoy your favorite cold coffee drink any time of day or night, instantly, without having to queue up in an expensive coffee shop or shell out your hard-earned money.
