Summer 2023 has finally arrived in the UK!! 🌞🌞

The heat wave has officially begun today, with 30 degrees heat being recorded across most of the country!

If you are feeling hot hot hot and sweating as you drink your usual morning coffee, then this iced coffee and cold brew article is just for you. Find out what the difference between iced coffee and cold brew is, how to make it and some ready to go eco-friendly, high quality options for you to try (there is also a lot of sugary junk you should avoid!)

Rather than quitting coffee for the summer, you will find yourself drinking more than ever… just cold! 

What’s the difference between iced coffee and cold brew?

Iced coffee is typically made with espresso thats been brewed for around 25-30 seconds. Its as easy as pouring the espresso over ice and adding milk or oat milk. As you will see with the recipe below, cold brew requires freshly ground coarse coffee to be steeped in the fridge in a bottle such as this one. The more patient you are, the better it will taste. At RiSE coffee box we tend to leave ours in the fridge overnight. The taste intensifies the longer you can leave it. If you add milk or oat milk it will still taste good, but this may dilute the flavour ever so slightly. We prefer to drink our cold brew black.

How to make a simple Summer cold brew Coffee

What you'll need:
85grams of coarsely ground coffee (use a scale to grind the right amount, the right rations will improve the taste). Buy a mid range coffee scale here
1 Litre of room temperature water 
Paper coffee filter
Jar or container (this can be a cafetière) or one of these Hario cold brew bottles

Method:
Grind your coffee to coarse grind (or use you ready-made ground coffee) 

Add your ground coffee to the water in a jar, container or cafetière, give it a stir

Steep for at least 12 hours, in the fridge 

Pour through a paper filter (or plunge your cafetière)

Add some ice and enjoy!

Top 3 Ice Coffee in a can we would drink.

There are many ready to drink coffee options on the shelf, but there are only a few that we would drink. Personally we would avoid the Starbucks and Costa and head for a higher quality, sustainable and eco friendly option like one of the below.

Jimmys Iced Coffee

First on our list and a RiSE coffee box favourite, is Jimmys Iced coffee. We partnered with them in April 2023 which went down a treat with our coffee club members. They are B-Corp and Rainforest Alliance and only use single origin arabica coffee to ensure the iced coffee cans taste amazing! Thousand of reviews including one from Jay who says “Brilliantly tasty drink in a smart and recyclable bottle. Really good value for a high quality product”

True Start Coffee

True Start Coffee are the only ready to drink flavoured iced coffee cans that are zero sugar, zero calories and zero sweeteners. Every drink in the range is Vegan and Keto friendly. True Start are also B-Corp and Carbon Negative. If this wasn’t enough, the canned coffee is delicious and refreshing in the summer heat. A really fund positive brand, that you will love.

Range of flavours incuding Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Salted Caramel, Vanilla Coconut and original black cold brew.

Minor Figures

First of all Minor Figures are Carbon Neutral and their products are 100% plant based, so you will be making the right sustainable choice here. The team behind this range of iced coffees (mainly oat milk) are a bunch of quirky specialty coffee lovers and their branding is too cool for school. We featured their chair latte in our RiSE coffee box subscription in 2022, and hopefully we will see them back in the box soon.

should I use freshly ground coffee beans for iced coffee?

In our opinion, you should always use freshly ground coffee beans. We would avoid instant coffee or coffee pods (see why here). You wont save that much time, and the difference in taste will be incredibly noticeable. You may find your ice coffee has a bitter taste otherwise. If you use freshly roasted and ground coffee and then steep overnight, the flavours you will be experience will be worth the extra few minutes.

Which coffee works best for Iced coffee?

Generally speaking we find that medium roast coffees work best for iced coffee or cold brew. Dark roast or Italian style coffee once steeped in ice and cold water can taste very bitter. Lighter roasts tend to have more floral and fruitier flavours and aren’t usually used. This is changing though as the specialty coffee scene begins to experiment with a range of brighter flavour profiles. Medium roast coffee with backbones of nut and chocolate (a bit like this Garage Roasted coffee) flavour profiles tend to be preferred for ice coffee or cold brew. At RiSE coffee box, our founder Ben likes the fruiter iced coffees and has recently been using this Murmuration coffee as it has a delicious chocolate base with hints of raspberry and orange that comes through the longer you steep your cold brew.

A specially developed cold brew blend we have come across is from Mont58 or we would recommend medium roasted specialty coffee here that are best for cafetiere.