Homemade iced coffee all year long? Yes please! It’s such a delight! But do you know the difference between a cold brew and an iced coffee? In any case, you can forget Starbucks, Tim Hortons and McDonald’s coffees. Instead, prepare the best homemade iced coffee recipe for your tastebuds’ delight! Plus, this way you can vary the toppings and syrup dosages to create your dream beverage. What’s An Iced Coffee? No surprise there, an iced coffee is simply a coffee served on ice. However, you must double the ground coffee quantity that you usually put in your coffee maker to make sure beverage will be concentrated enough. Also, another tip that will surely impress your loved ones: prepare coffee and vanilla milk ice cubes in advance for more intense flavours! A coffee with ice cubes, cow or plant-based milk, and a sweetening agent to taste is a delicious guilty pleasure… Plus, you can add fun toppings or flavours depending on your current cravings. Trust me, you have nothing to envy of McDonald’s or Tim Horton’s iced coffees! What’s A Cold Brew? The key difference between these two types of cold coffees is their method of preparation. The secret for a better result than Starbucks’ cold brews? Time. Indeed, your ground coffee should soak in cold water for at least 12 hours. Besides, the longer a coffee brews, the more pronounced its aroma will be. A cold brew makes a coffee less acidic and bitter because the oils, sugars, and caffeine content are not released through the heating process. It is therefore delicious on ice with a bit of milk and a sweetening agent, to taste. Once again, there is an infinite number of toppings and variations possible. A caffeine boost From a nutritional point of view, this homemade iced coffee alternative is also an interesting option because it lets you enjoy the natural flavour of coffee thanks to its more subtle taste when cold. Those with a good sense of smell may even distinguish the different aromas and flavours, similarly to a connoisseur of wines. Unlike regular coffee served on ice, cold brew has no bitter notes. Plus, the latter contains less caffeine than coffees brewed with hot water for the simple reason that the solubility of caffeine is linked to temperature. Indeed, the higher the temperature, the more caffeine is dissolved into your beverage. Following Coffee Trends Small independent coffee shops are not the only ones to have hopped on the iced coffee bandwagon. Indeed, even large chains such as Starbucks are following this trend. Freshly ground coffee is brewed by hand (in small quantities) for 20 hours to get the concentrate that serves as a basis to the beverage. Then, the coffee concentrate is mixed in equal parts with water and ice. Since this process is quite long, cold brews are served in limited quantities. For instance, Starbucks serves about 45 cups of coffee daily in each of its shops, which usually corresponds to the quantity of cold brew coffee made each day.
