Easy Iced Coffee at Home

Cool, caffeinated refreshment.

 Summer is here, coffee lovers. With the warm weather upon us, nothing beats a refreshing iced coffee as a way to get your caffeine fix. Of course with coffee prices the way they are, they can be pricey treats. So let's look at a few ways to prepare iced coffee quickly, easily and inexpensively at home.


Iced Mocha

One of my favorite varieties of iced java is the iced mocha. Especially when it has a nice robust, dark chocolate flavor to it. With Starbucks Iced Via making it at home is a breeze. Here's what you need:

Starbucks Iced Via

Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Syrup

2% Milk (or whatever you prefer)

Mixing cup

Combine the powdered Via with water as directed in your mixing cup (water bottles are fine, take a few sips out first to make room for the Via). Add milk and chocolate syrup to taste and shake vigorously. Pour over ice and enjoy! This typically yields two medium servings, or one large serving with ice. Of course, whipped cream and chocolate flakes can be added, too but, on the rocks is fine enough for me. Vias already have sugar in them so the end result is sweet enough for my taste. Best of all, one medium serving ends up being well under $1.


With Keurig machines in nearly every coffee lover's home, another option for iced coffee is with K-cups. My favorite is Green Mountain, either iced french vanilla or Nantucket Blend. However, any kind works, the iced ones are just specifically formulated for iced coffee. Here's what I use:

Iced Coffee with K-cups

Green Mountain Iced K-cups (or your favorite iced or regular brand)

Sweetener

Milk (or creamer or coconut milk, almond milk, goat milk, breast milk...you get the idea)

With the cups specific to iced coffee you simply brew it over ice, add your milk, sweetener and give a good stir, maybe adding a bit more ice. Voila, that's it. For regular cups, I simply brew it, add sweetener and chill it in the fridge for a few hours. For some reason when I brew regular K-cups over ice, it comes out watery tasting to me. Chilling it first ends up working better in the end. The cost per serving is a bit higher making it with a Keurig, but still well below Starbucks or any local shop.

There are tons of ways to make iced coffee at home. However, when cost and convenience are a factor these two methods work well. Not to mention it beats waiting in line at Starbucks!