It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that it is very hot in the UK right now. If you aren’t lucky enough to have air conditioning at home, good luck getting any sleep or smashing out remote work in the same way as usual.
At least we’ve got coffee on our side to at least perk us up a bit. The British Coffee Association reckons we’re going through 98 million cups a day between us, but the typically hot beverage might not appeal so much in these sweaty climes.
Thankfully, iced coffee is a thing. It can be an expensive treat if you head out to a coffee shop, but if you roll up your sleeves to make it at home it’s a relatively painless and cheap way to get some cool refreshment along with the essential caffeine pep.
If you want to go all out and make yourself an iced latte at home, it’s easier than you might think. You don’t need an espresso machine either – believe it or not, you can make some pretty solid coffee beverages from the instant stuff.
All you need is one trick that will enhance both its flavour and texture, and it comes courtesy of TikToker @yescoffeenodecaf. Rather that making a coffee and chilling it with ice, the trick is to make the ice the coffee itself.
Step one: brew your coffee with whatever means you have available, but leave it black for now.
From there, wait for it to cool down and then pour it into an ice cube tray. Stick them in the freezer and give it a few hours for them to go rock solid. Prepping it just before bed and leaving them overnight is the recommended method if you want to get up and go with an ice cold coffee.
When your cubes are frozen and you’ve a hankering for an iced coffee, pop the cubes in a glass and pour your preferred milk option over them. If you’d rather have it black, you could always brew a weaker coffee, cool it, and pour that over your coffee cubes.
If you’ve gone for a milky one, TikToker @yescoffeenodecaf then recommends pouring another espresso shot over the cube to melt them slightly. Now is also the time to bung in any sugars, syrups or other accoutrements that take your fancy.
The results, we’re confident you’ll agree, are pretty special. Given how swelteringly hot it is at the moment, you owe it to yourself to give yourself the refreshment.
The cubes, milk and extra shot will all blend together slowly too, giving it all a thoroughly Instagrammable aesthetic. If you’re as pink and damp as the heat would suggest, some shots of your at-home iced latte can keep your Insta story busy while the selfies are off the cards.
Featured Image Credit: Iryna Melnyk/Getty ImagesTopics: Drinks, Social Media, TikTok
Rachael Davis