Brew Iced Coffee In An Instant With One Simple Machine Hack

Everyone gets excited when the weather starts to get nicer. The flowers are blooming, the sundresses and shorts emerge from the back of your closet, and parks fill up with picnickers. When the temps begin to climb, you know it's the start of iced coffee season. In fact, in 2022, Starbucks reported that cold beverages made up 75% of drink sales from April to June, according to the New York Times.

For many of us, an iced coffee is something we pick up at the café on the way to work, not something we make at home. That's because the perfect at-home iced coffee can be elusive; there are a lot of ways to mess it up. But there's one simple hack you can use to make delicious iced coffee all summer long. You probably already have the equipment to do it and it only takes a few minutes.

The trick to making sure your iced coffee comes out flawlessly every time is to brew up a really concentrated batch of coffee. Add around 10 to 12 scoops of a dark roast to your regular drip coffee maker, then pour in about 1½ cups of water. Fill the carafe with ice and brew the coffee directly over the ice. Remove the carafe from the burner as soon as the coffee is done brewing, then give it a swirl to melt any remaining ice. That's it! You've got delicious home-brewed iced coffee that's delightfully chilled and not watery.

You might be wondering how this is different from cold brew. Regular iced coffee and trendy cold brew are made in two totally different ways. Making iced coffee in your coffee machine is quick and easy, while cold brew can take a full day to make — and who has that kind of time in the morning?! Its name is actually a misnomer, as cold brew is steeped rather than brewed. Ground coffee beans are infused in cold water for 12 to 24 hours, which causes more caffeine to be released thanks to the long extraction period.

The main complaint with OG iced coffee is that it's weak and watery. By brewing a large batch of extra-strong coffee directly over ice, you can achieve that cold brew strength in a fraction of the time. With the leftover coffee, you can try making coffee ice cubes. It takes some forethought, but if you're an iced coffee devotee, it's worth having a tray of these at the ready. Just make your iced coffee at regular strength and pour it over some homemade coffee ice cubes. This will give it some strength without watering your coffee down. You can also put these coffee cubes in the carafe and brew a fresh batch of java directly over them. Once you've tried this hack, you'll never want to pay for an iced coffee at a café again.