Perfect Iced Coffee
This recipe is quick, easy, budget-friendly, and tastes just like the gourmet coffee-shops, if not better!
When you live in California, you have a ton of options for great coffee. But whe you start hitting all the hottest coffee shops around town, it gets to be quite expensive. At one point, I ended up splurging on a $10 latte at Alfred’s Coffee!
But as always, nothing beats the homemade version – taste-wise and money-wise. And with this easy perfect iced coffee recipe, you won’t have to overpay for coffee ever again.
All you have to do is brew your coffee the night before using good-quality coffee beans. That way, it can come to room temperature by the time the morning comes around. Now I have personally never been a fan of pouring hot coffee over ice but if it doesn’t bother you, then you can whip this up in the morning – it’s up to you!
Then you can whip up a batch of simple syrup, but only if you need it. A batch should last you for a few weeks, unless you like to douse your coffee in sugary goodness. No judgment here. Then you can add a splash of milk or half-and-half, although I highly recommend the latter.
Now you can skip the hectic Starbucks line and have quality coffee for a quarter of the price right at home!
Perfect Iced Coffee
Ingredients
- 1 cup coffee, at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons half and half*, or more, to taste
For the simple syrup
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- FOR THE SIMPLE SYRUP: Combine sugar and 1 cup water in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Let cool completely and stir in vanilla extract; set aside in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
- Serve coffee over ice with half and half and simple syrup, adding 1 teaspoon at a time, to taste.
Notes
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This looks amazing! By far the best iced coffee recipe Ive seen! Thank you! 🙂
I love this! Thanks! Does the simple sugar mix need to be stored in the fridge?
Yes, it is best to keep it stored in the fridge. You can read more about it here.
Where did you find that glass?
I was able to find it on Amazon.com.
You can also make these for dirt cheap from the dollar store. My friend buys the mason jars along with a glass candlestick holder which he glues to the bottom and voila “Redneck wine glass” for $2.00.
Do you have any recommendations for “good quality coffee beans”?]
Thanks!
It really depends on the type of coffee that you like. I prefer to stock up on coffee beans at my favorite gourmet coffee shops like Alfred’s Coffee, Intelligentsia, and/or Blue Bottle.
How do you store coffee you stocked up on? I’ve heard to freeze, put in the fridge and just store it in the pantry but not sure which one keeps the flavor the longest!
I prefer to store it in the fridge for a few days.
What is your measurement for a cup? My morning cup of coffee is 12 oz not 8 oz. Do you mean an exact 8oz cup?
1 cup = 8 fl oz, but you can easily make adjustments as you are simply adding simply syrup and half and half (or milk), to taste.
I love iced coffee, even in winter.
A question regarding the recipe: why is water not considered an ingredient, why is it always skipped? It is so annoying to discover it later in the text. I know I am supposed to read the whole text, but I wonder how many of us do. I like to gather my ingredients first and then proceed to methodology.
Some authors prefer to write in the water as an ingredient and others do not. It’s just a matter of personal style.
Thanks. I thought it was some rule from the culinary powers that be. Is it because it’s just … water? Why not apply the same rule to salt and pepper, then, since they’re so common? What would a dough recipe look like? “Ingredients: 10 oz flour” “Mix the flour with salt and pepper and add 5 fl oz water.”
Some actually do skip over salt and pepper. I’ve seen a number of recipes that just put in the directions to add salt and pepper to taste without including it in the ingredient list.
I thought the same thing about the water in reading the recipe I thought that is going to be so sweet half as much sugar as coffee. Glad I read on
The ingredient of water is left out because the kind soul that spent her time and effort in sharing this recipe for our benifit assumes that the audience has common sense. Seriously… the ingredient of coffee naturally needs water. And if you don’t know how to make coffee perhaps you need to start at a more basic level than mixing coffee, however you come by it, with sugar, dairy and ice. Bless your heart, Linda.
To be fair…. the water in question is not used with the coffee, but with the making of the simple syrup. No need to be snarky. The author if the blog answered her quite politely.
Amen!!! I was bitting my tonge not to answer. Thanks for doing it and thank you to the lady that wrote the recipe. I can’t wait to go home and try it. My daughter LOVES iced coffee. Have a great day. P.S. to the people criticizing…When you have nothing nice to say – stay quite!