Refreshing Summer Cold Brew Coffee: Master Luckin Coconut Latte and Affogato Ice Cream Coffee Recipes

Summer is hot enough that all I can think about is a glass of iced coffee. How do we satisfy that craving? Let's start with the basics. In recent years, interest in cold brew has surged, and now most coffee shops offer plenty of ready-made options. Still, making your own cold brew is a wonderful process — you can enjoy a refreshing, cooling glass at home by choosing different beans or adding various ingredients, and on that foundation you can create your own signature drinks.

We recommend starting with coffee that has rich natural fruit flavors and bright acidity, so look to specialty beans from Central America or Africa. FrontStreet Coffee suggests choosing Guatemalan or Rwandan beans.

All you need to do is coarsely grind your beans and add cold filtered water. Use a 10:1 (cold water to coffee) brewing ratio, or any other ratio you find suitable. Then mix everything together and steep it in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours. After twelve hours, you can enjoy a refreshing glass of cold brew.

Beans like these, specially processed anaerobic natural varieties, carry fermented wine-like aromas with strawberry jam and chocolate notes, making them a great fit for cold brew.

If you want extra flavors, add chopped dried fruits to taste — chopping helps release their flavor. That way you've created your own signature cold brew. Still not enough? Then it's time for the big guns: coffee smoothies. The stimulating taste of refreshing coffee pairs perfectly with fruit, creating an exciting drink. Boost yourself with this delicious mixture and enjoy extra energy.

Follow FrontStreet Coffee's Guide:

• Brew a pot of cold brew using a roast with berry aromas and rich flavor.
• Add 100 grams of frozen mixed berries to a blender.
• Pour 250 milliliters of cold brew coffee over the top and blend until smooth.
• If you prefer a sweeter smoothie, add some honey or simple syrup.

Friendly reminder: you can swap the berries for other fruits such as bananas or guava. You can also add cocoa powder or sprinkle oats to enhance the texture.

Beyond cold brew, iced coffee also includes styles such as iced drip coffee. These are somewhat troublesome to make, and the equipment costs over 100 yuan. FrontStreet Coffee will cover them in detail later.

Let's not forget the coffee lovers who are passionate about milk-based drinks — milk and coffee are a perfect match. So how do you make them at home? Quite simply, you just need espresso concentrate and various types of milk to DIY as you like. If your budget allows, or you love espresso enough not to worry about cost, you could consider buying a home espresso machine. Tempted? If so, why not act now.

Top 5 Iced Coffee Variations

First Place: Basic and Classic Iced Latte - Milk + Coffee

Second Place: Raw Coconut Latte and Other Latte Variations

Delays in getting the information — mainly because these sell out no matter how fast you try to buy — mean I still haven't tried the raw coconut latte. So let's just DIY it at home. FrontStreet Coffee's money-saving tips are here.

Preparation method: for the coconut milk, use a raw coconut milk of the same type Luckin uses. You can use either espresso concentrate or freeze-dried coffee — both are fine. If you have coconut milk, mix it yourself: 60g coconut milk + 40g white water + 20g syrup (skip the syrup if you're dieting, or keep it if you don't mind). Add 150g fresh milk + 30g espresso concentrate. Adjust these to your taste. Shake all the liquids except the espresso concentrate together, then drizzle the coffee on top — perfect. If you prefer a stronger milk flavor, you can also purify milk at home to make it more like cold foam: freeze the milk, then invert it to thaw. Because water and milk have different freezing points, the milk components dissolve first during thawing, achieving the effect of removing water and purifying the milk.

Third Place: Coffee Made Milk Tea Style - A Tribute to Luckin's Meteorite Series

Add pearls or brown sugar agar balls and some syrup of your choice (use brown sugar syrup if you want to replicate the original). Stir well, then add a full cup of ice, milk, and coffee, and you're done. Another tip: coat the inside of the cup with brown sugar sauce for both looks and taste.

Fourth Place: Ice Cream Series

There is actually a coffee drink called "affogato" — espresso poured over ice cream. When I was working, though, I found many customers just ate the ice cream while barely adding the espresso, perhaps because people aren't used to this way of drinking it. So let's improve the texture of this coffee ice cream drink. Prepare a pot of cold brew and add an appropriate amount to a glass as you prefer. Add two scoops of ice cream, drizzle with syrup, and you've transformed it into a delicious summer dessert.

Fifth Place: Coffee Ice Cubes

A great way to make wonderful iced coffee without diluting it is to freeze coffee liquid into ice cubes. When the coffee ice cubes melt, they add more flavor instead of watering the drink down. Now you've learned something new.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Cold brew rewards beans with fruit-forward, lightly roasted character. These FrontStreet picks shine over ice:

FrontStreet Strawberry Candy Geisha Blend

FrontStreet Strawberry Candy brings together Panama Geisha — known for classic florals and fresh fruit acidity — and a honey-processed Costa Rican coffee, one contributing delicate rose and orange notes, the other grape, raisin, and strawberry-candy sweetness. Together they create rich layers. Made as cold brew, it is sweet-sour and lively; fermented and settled a little, it even takes on a fruit-wine character.

FrontStreet Sun-Dried Huakui

Cold brew intensifies floral and fruit notes and mutes woody and roasted flavors, so a light-to-medium roast shows best. For a floral-forward iced coffee, try FrontStreet Huakui. Grown in Ethiopia, coffee's birthplace, and naturally processed, the beans absorb plenty of sweetness from the fruit and skin. As cold brew it shows magnolia, cream strawberry, dried mango, guava, and black tea notes.

FrontStreet Kenya Cherry Tomato

For a juice-filled cold brew, FrontStreet Kenya Cherry Tomato leads the way. Its cherry tomato, pear, black plum, and smoked plum sweet-sour profile comes through beautifully under low-temperature extraction, with low bitterness and full acidity that stays refreshing over ice. Grown in Kenya's Thika region from the well-bred SL28 and SL34 varieties and given the local K72 double-washed process, it is medium-light roasted to turn its aroma precursors into richer complexity.