How to Store Leftover Iced Coffee? Can You Freeze Coffee in the Refrigerator?

When FrontStreet Coffee sees watermelons being sold on the streets, they know summer is approaching. As the temperature rises, iced coffee is about to become popular.

If you ask what the simplest iced coffee is, many people would say cold brew. With just a few simple steps, you can have a delicious cold drink. However, for friends who prefer a fast-paced lifestyle, the filtering step is time-consuming and troublesome. Moreover, the flavor extracted at low temperatures really tests the quality of the beans, so they hope to find a simpler and quicker method for making iced coffee.

For these friends, FrontStreet Coffee is here to share a lazy method that allows you to have iced coffee ready in just 1 minute. Because it's often frozen into square shapes, it's also called "ice brick coffee." The operation is very simple: just freeze the coffee liquid into ice cubes in advance, then take them out when ready to drink and add water or milk to turn it into an Americano or latte. This not only eliminates long waiting times but also requires no complicated steps—truly a blessing for the lazy.

FrontStreet Coffee wants to emphasize that this pre-made method is mainly aimed at friends who are rushing to get out. Compared to freshly ground and extracted versions, the coffee that has been frozen overnight will certainly have lost most of its crema, and the aroma and flavor will be somewhat diminished. However, there are quite a few advantages: it's simple, convenient, and most importantly, fast.

To cater to the preferences of different groups, FrontStreet Coffee is satisfying everyone's three wishes at once, teaching you how to use the ice brick method to unlock iced Americano, iced latte, and iced pour-over.

Ice Brick Americano

We know that iced Americano consists of only three elements: espresso, ice, and water. Essentially, it's a lighter version of cold black coffee. When the espresso is pre-frozen into ice cubes, our remaining step is just adding water—making it faster than buying a cup of coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee typically uses a 300ml glass cup for making iced Americanos. During preparation, they add 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 preparing ice brick Americanos, FrontStreet Coffee adds room temperature water to the espresso in equal proportions (1:1), so the coffee melts faster when drinking and the taste is more refreshing.

Preparation steps: First, extract the coffee—one espresso shot for one Americano. Here, FrontStreet Coffee uses 20g of Sunflower Warm Sun coffee grounds with parameters adjusted for the day, extracting 40g of coffee liquid in 29-30 seconds. Pour the espresso into a clean container, then add an equal amount of room temperature water in a 1:1 ratio and stir well. Next, carefully pour into ice cube trays and finally place in the freezer.

When drinking, we just need to take out the corresponding number of ice bricks, drop them into the cup, then add drinking water to cover the cubes, and stir thoroughly with a straw or spoon to let the coffee completely dissolve in the water. A refreshing iced Americano is ready.

Ice Brick Latte

Compared to the refreshing Americano, when making lattes, we pursue more intense and mellow coffee aromas. Therefore, when making coffee ice bricks, FrontStreet Coffee recommends directly pouring the espresso concentrate into ice cube trays to freeze, reducing the dilution effect from water. The melting effect also blends better with milk.

When FrontStreet Coffee makes iced lattes, they first put 90g of ice in the cup, then pour 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 itself is already frozen, we can directly pour 150-200g of milk after taking out the coffee bricks according to personal taste.

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

Ice Brick Pour-Over

Theoretically, a cup of "overnight" pour-over coffee cannot match the flavor of freshly extracted coffee. However, to get out earlier, one of FrontStreet Coffee's customers prepares pour-over coffee the night before and freezes it into ice bricks, then takes them out the next day and puts them in a to-go cup, using the commute time to let it melt slowly. As a working professional, she finds this method not only time-efficient but also allows her to enjoy the fruity acidity of the coffee—truly killing two birds with one stone.

Based on this experience, FrontStreet Coffee believes that the best pre-made iced pour-over should use a 1:12 to 1:13 coffee-to-water ratio for brewing to obtain a more concentrated black coffee, then add water after freezing. Here, FrontStreet Coffee will briefly demonstrate using Colombian Navel with the following parameters:

Coffee beans: Finca El Diviso · Navel
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 bloom, wait 30 seconds, then start the second stage with 80g, pouring small, even circles outward. Then wait for the coffee liquid to drop, and just as the coffee bed is about to be exposed, use the same technique to pour the final 70g of water. Continue waiting for the coffee to drip into the lower pot, with total extraction time around 1 minute 40-50 seconds.

Gently shake the brewed coffee to mix evenly, let it cool naturally at room temperature, then pour into ice cube trays and freeze overnight. When drinking, we similarly take it out directly and add a small amount of room temperature water to help it completely dissolve, resulting in a coffee with moderate concentration.

This Navel prepared this way has a moderate concentration when tasted, with grape acidity and faint nutty milk aroma, plus a lemongrass aftertaste. Although it's indeed not as good as freshly extracted iced pour-over in all aspects, imagining enjoying it after rushing for the bus (or subway) on a hot summer day, it definitely qualifies as a nice cold coffee drink.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473