How to Make Coffee Ice Cubes at Home: A Step-by-Step Guide. Does Melted Frozen Coffee Taste Good?

When watermelons start appearing on the streets, FrontStreet Coffee knows summer is on its way. As the temperature climbs, iced coffee is about to become a favorite all over again.

For the simplest iced coffee, many would say cold brew. With a few easy steps you get a delicious cold drink. For those in a hurry, though, the filtering is time-consuming and fiddly, and the flavor extracted at low temperatures depends heavily on bean quality. So plenty of people look for an iced coffee method that is simpler and quicker.

For those friends, FrontStreet Coffee is here to share a lazy method that takes just 1 minute to prepare iced coffee to go. Because it usually freezes into cubes, it is also called "ice brick coffee." The process is simple: freeze coffee liquid into ice cubes ahead of time, then take them out when you want a drink and mix with water or milk to make an Americano or latte. Not only does this skip the long wait, it needs no complicated steps, a real blessing for the lazy.

FrontStreet Coffee wants to emphasize that this method is aimed mainly at friends rushing out the door. Compared with freshly ground and extracted coffee, the version frozen overnight will certainly have lost most of its crema, and the aroma and flavor will be somewhat diminished. Even so, there are quite a few advantages: simple, convenient, and above all fast.

To suit different preferences, FrontStreet Coffee will grant three wishes at once, teaching everyone how to use the ice brick method to unlock iced Americano, iced latte, and iced pour-over.

Ice Brick Americano

As we know, an iced Americano consists of only three elements: espresso, ice cubes, and water, essentially a lighter version of cold black coffee. When the espresso is pre-frozen into ice cubes, the remaining step is simply adding water, making it faster than buying a cup of coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee typically uses a 300ml glass for iced Americanos, adding 90g of ice (3 cubes), 160g of water, and 35-40g of espresso, in that order. The ratio of coffee, ice, and water is approximately 1:2.25:4. For ice brick Americanos, FrontStreet Coffee mixes the espresso with room temperature water in equal proportions (1:1), so the coffee melts faster when drinking and tastes more refreshing.

Preparation steps: first, extract the coffee, one shot of espresso for one Americano. Here FrontStreet Coffee uses 20g of Sunflower Warm Sunshine coffee grounds, extracted for 29-30 seconds to yield 40g of coffee liquid according to that day's calibration parameters. Pour the espresso into a clean container, add an equal amount of room temperature water (a 1:1 ratio), and stir well. Carefully pour into ice trays and place in the freezer.

When ready to drink, simply take out the right number of ice bricks, drop them into a glass, add drinking water to cover the cubes, and stir thoroughly with a straw or spoon so the coffee dissolves completely in the water. A refreshingly cold Americano is ready.

Ice Brick Latte

Compared with the refreshing Americano, when making lattes we want a richer, more mellow coffee flavor. So when making coffee ice bricks for a latte, FrontStreet Coffee recommends pouring the pure espresso straight into the ice trays to freeze, reducing dilution from water. The melting effect also blends better with milk.

When FrontStreet Coffee makes an iced latte, we first add 90g of ice to the cup, then pour in 200g of fresh milk and a double shot of espresso (36-40g). The ratio of coffee to milk is approximately 1:5. For ice brick lattes, since the espresso is already frozen, we simply pour 150-200g of milk directly over the coffee bricks according to personal taste.

What surprised FrontStreet Coffee is that, because espresso contains water, the coffee liquid at room temperature melts into the milk faster than the ice itself, making the latte taste even richer.

Ice Brick Pour-Over

Theoretically, an "overnight" pour-over cannot match the flavor of freshly extracted coffee. To leave home earlier, though, one of FrontStreet Coffee's customers brews coffee the night before, freezes it into ice bricks, and puts them in a to-go cup the next day so they slowly melt during the commute. As an office worker, she finds this method not only time-efficient but also lets her enjoy the coffee's fruity acidity, killing two birds with one stone.

Based on that experience, FrontStreet Coffee believes it's best to brew pre-made iced pour-over at a 1:12-1:13 coffee-to-water ratio to get a more concentrated black coffee that can be diluted with water after freezing. Here FrontStreet Coffee will demonstrate with Colombian Big Navel using the following parameters:

Coffee beans: Fenchixian Manor Big Navel
Coffee amount: 15g
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:12
Water temperature: 90°C
Grind size: EK43s grinder setting 9.5
Dripper: Hario V60
Pouring technique: Three-stage pour

First stage: gently pour 30g of water for the bloom, wait 30 seconds. Second stage: pour 80g of water in small, uniform circles outward. Wait for the coffee liquid to drop until it is about to expose the bed, then use the same technique to pour the final 70g. Keep waiting for the coffee to drip into the server, with a total extraction time of about 1 minute 40-50 seconds.

Gently shake the brewed coffee to mix it evenly, let it cool naturally at room temperature, then pour into ice trays and freeze overnight. When ready to drink, just take out the ice cubes and add a small amount of room temperature water to help them dissolve completely, and you'll get a coffee of moderate concentration.

This Big Navel coffee has a moderate concentration, with grape acidity, a subtle nutty milky aroma, and a lemongrass aftertaste. It certainly won't match freshly extracted iced pour-over in every respect, but imagine enjoying it after rushing for the bus or subway on a hot summer day: it would absolutely count as a decent cold coffee drink.

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FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Cold methods amplify floral and fruity notes while muting woody and roasted ones, so a light-to-medium roast shines here. FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopia Natural Huakui is a great match: grown in the birthplace of coffee and dried in the sun, the beans absorb plenty of sweet aromatics from the fruit, and as a cold brew they show magnolia, cream strawberry, dried mango, guava, and black tea notes.

If you want a juicy, fruit-forward cold brew, FrontStreet Coffee's Kenya Small Tomato is the first pick. From the Sika region of Kenya, at 1550-1750 meters from the SL28 and SL34 varieties, it is washed with Kenya's distinctive 72-hour double fermentation and lightly roasted, so the sweet-tart notes of cherry tomato, pear, black plum, and smoked plum come through vividly with low bitterness and full acidity, staying refreshing over ice. FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Guodingding is a value everyday choice for cold brew as well, delivering sweet, layered berry and honey flavors.