Coffee Ice Cubes

Chilling your drinks with Coffee Ice Cubes instead of standard frozen cubes of H20 removes the risk of dreadful watered-down drinks. Use this handy barista hack for iced and frozen coffee drinks, cold brews, iced Cuban coffee, coffee cocktails, and more.

Enjoying iced coffee tends to be a race against the pace of the melting ice. Keep up or be left with a watery drink -nothing like what it once was. However, with a stash of coffee ice cubes in your freezer, you can say so long to the disappointment of diluted drinks.

This no-recipe recipe for coffee ice cubes is as simple as it sounds. Brewed coffee is frozen in ice cube trays, and the frozen cubes are then used to chill drinks instead of regular ice. As the coffee ice cubes melt, the drink is enhanced with pure coffee flavor!

Why You Should Make Ice Cubes With Coffee

• Freeze leftover coffee instead of tossing it. This trick works with any brewed coffee (regular and decaf), cold brew, espresso, and prepared instant coffee -all of which can be sweetened or unsweetened.
• Use to ice all different types of drinks. Iced coffee, frozen coffee drinks, creamy beverages, cocktail, etc.
• Make iced coffee with hot coffee. No more waiting for it to cool! Instead, simply pour hot coffee into a glass full of coffee cubes to quickly cool it off, then add more coffee cubes if you like!

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☕ Ingredients

All you need is coffee, and any coffee will do. This is a clever way to save the last of your morning pot of regular or decaf coffee.

Espresso works too! Just let it cool at least to room temperature before freezing.

Of course, you can also use cold brew. It takes more time than hot coffee, but it’s truly the best-tasting option. It’s less acidic, making the flavor more smooth.

🥄 Learn how to make homemade cold brew coffee and decaf cold brew coffee for your iced coffee cubes.

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✅ Recommended Tools

Silicone Ice Cube Tray – This is the best ice cube tray for freezing coffee. The durable silicone makes it much easier to pop the cubes out of the molds. A plastic ice cube tray also works, but you may need to defrost the tray in warm water to remove the cubes.

Measuring Cup – The spout helps pour the coffee into the molds without overfilling or spilling.

Baking Sheet – Or any sturdy, flat surface to keep the silicone ice cube tray on a level surface in the freezer.

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📖 How To Make Coffee Ice Cubes

1️⃣ Step One: Brew coffee & cool

Brew 2 cups (16 ounces) of coffee using your favorite coffee. Alternatively, you can use leftover coffee or prepared cold brew. Let cool to at least room temperature before freezing.

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2️⃣ Step Two: Pour into ice cube tray

Place the ice cube tray on top of a baking sheet, then pour cooked coffee into the ice cube tray using a liquid measuring cup.

Be careful not to fill each mold more than 3/4s full, as there needs to be some room at the top to accommodate expansion.

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3️⃣ Step Three: Freeze

Place the baking sheet in the freezer and sit until the coffee is frozen solid (about 2 hours or longer, depending on the size of your ice molds).

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4️⃣ Step Four: Remove and store

Remove the ice cube tray from the freezer and pop out the frozen cubes. You can use them immediately in drinks or return them to the freezer. Keep frozen in an airtight container or zip-top bag for up to 1 month.

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👉 How to Remove Frozen Coffee from an Ice Cube Tray

Silicone ice cube trays typically make removal a cinch, but if the frozen coffee ice cubes need some coaxing:

• Set the tray on the counter for 3-5 minutes allowing the coffee to thaw just enough to pop right out of the mold. It’s easiest to flip the tray over and push the cubes out from the back.
• If you’re using a plastic ice cube tray, run the bottom under lukewarm water to make the cubes easier to remove.

🗨 Recipe Tips

• Do not freeze stale coffee. When coffees sit on the burner longer than 3-4 hours, it quickly becomes bitter and off-tasting.
• Cool before freezing. For food safety purposes, always allow food and drinks to cool completely to room temperature before freezing. Letting the coffee cool also avoids bringing down the temperature of your freezer.
• Make sweetened coffee cubes. After brewing, sweeten the coffee with simple syrup or brown sugar syrup. You can also use an unrefined sweetener like maple syrup, honey, or agave nectar.
• Make flavored coffee cubes. Combine coffee or cold brew with any sweetening syrup flavor you like before freezing. Try with vanilla, caramel, or mocha syrup!

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🥤 Ways To Use Coffee Ice Cubes

Check out the list below for ways to use these convenient ice cubes.

• Coffee ice cubes in milk – Make a deconstructed iced latte. Pour milk over frozen coffee cubes. Almond milk, cashew milk, and oat milk are great dairy-free options.
• Iced Cuban coffee – For a spin on iced cafe Cubano, pour milk over frozen espresso cubes and sweeten the drink with cane sugar syrup.
• Frozen shots of espresso – Freeze espresso into cubes. When you need an extra caffeine kick, simply drop a cube or two into your coffee.

You can also use coffee ice cubes to revamp creamy cocktails. Check out these chilled spins on a few classics.

• Iced Bailey’s & Coffee. Serve Bailey’s Irish Cream on the rocks -the rocks being coffee cubes!
• Iced Toasted Almond. Shake 1.5 ounces of amaretto liqueur, 1.5 ounces of coffee liqueur, and 2 ounces of cream in a cocktail shaker, then strain into a glass of iced coffee cubes.
• Iced Irish Coffee. Pour 1 ounce of Bailey’s Irish Cream and 1 ounce of Jameson Irish Whiskey into a glass filled with coffee ice cubes. Fill the rest of the class with hot coffee and stir.

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❔FAQ

🫘 More Barista Hacks

• How to Freeze Simple Syrup
• How to Make Cold Foam
• Coffee Creamer Cold Foam
• No Cook Simple Syrup
• Microwave Simple Syrup