MAKE YOUR ICE CUBES WORK HARDER THIS SUMMER
Coffee, milk and sweeteners are familiar parts of a crafted-coffee experience—but making simple changes to your ice cubes can elevate your iced coffee, keeping it cool without watering it down.
Customize Those Ice Cubes
It's summer. Iced coffee is in order. Iced coffee is a wonderful thing, but melting ice means it will eventually taste watered down. To make every iced coffee at home a delicious as can be, it just takes a little bit of innovation—with ice cubes made from coffee, milk or syrup.
Will It Freeze?
There are many ways to customize your ice cubes for iced coffee—and we recommend using a silicone ice tray for all of them. Since you’re not freezing regular water, the ice might be softer or more fragile. A silicone ice tray makes it easier to get the cubes out of the tray without breaking them.
Milk and coffee freeze easily and work perfectly in an iced coffee—or even to cool down a hot coffee. If you’re using whole milk, there can be some separation in the cube, but the flavor won’t be impacted. On the other hand, syrup doesn’t freeze well on its own because of its sugar content, but we have a few ways to work around that.
COFFEE ICE CUBES
Start by brewing your favorite Starbucks® coffee, using your preferred brewing method. (If you’re still looking for your favorite way to make coffee or want to try something different, check out our brewing guide.)
Once the coffee is brewed, let it cool for 10-15 minutes. Pour it into your ice tray and place in the freezer for a few hours—but preferably overnight. Once frozen, you can try your coffee ice cubes in any of our delicious summer iced coffee recipes.
MILK ICE CUBES
Simply pour the milk (or your preferred milk alternative) into your silicone ice tray. Place it in the freezer and let it sit overnight. Some plant-based milk alternatives can separate slightly and take on a grainy texture in the coffee, but that delicious iced coffee flavor won't be affected.
SYRUP ICE CUBES
While flavored syrups and sauces add incredible taste and sweetness to any coffee drink, they don’t freeze well on their own.
Maple syrup, honey and flavored simple syrups typically won’t freeze completely solid without a little help. The easiest way to get these syrups to freeze is by adding a bit of warm water to them and stirring before pouring them into the ice tray.
If you're freezing chocolate or caramel sauce, you might be able to get them to freeze solid because of the dairy content. But if you're having trouble, try adding a bit more milk to them.
Ice Up Your Summer
Iced coffee is delicious, and the right ice cubes can make it last longer and prolong your enjoyment. These customized ice cubes keep cold coffee refreshing without losing the uplifting taste of your favorite Starbucks® cold coffee.
Bring on summer. We’re ready.
A COLD TIP
Ice CubesWe recommend using syrup or sauce ice cubes in a warm beverage. The heat helps both melt enough to combine with the drink.
For your deliciously cold iced coffee, we suggest trying coffee ice cubes to keep your drink cool without watering it down.
