Even on those hot summer days, you can still enjoy your favorite coffee blends by making iced coffee. If you have a Keurig unit, you can use it to make this chilled coffee beverage. Iced coffee gives you a cooling sensation while still allowing you to get your daily kick of caffeine.
Does Keurig make iced coffee?
You can make iced coffee using a Keurig coffee machine. In fact, some types of Keurigs even allow users to make specialty iced coffee drinks like an iced latte or iced cappuccino. There are also K-Cup blends whose ingredient formulation is specifically designed for making iced coffee.
How to make an iced latte with Keurig?
To make an iced latte with Keurig, select your favorite K-Cup, prepare ice cubes with water or make coffee cubes, perform a water-only brew cycle, pour the ice into a stainless steel coffee cup, brew your K-Cup, heat and froth milk, and finally, add the heated milk to the coffee cup.
Pick your favorite K-Cup
The first step in making Keurig iced latte is to purchase K-Cups of your choice. K-Cups that are specifically formulated for iced lattes are preferable, as they’re packed with more coffee to compensate for the flavor dilution caused by the addition of ice. However, if you like any other type of K-Cup, you can still brew an iced latte with it nonetheless.
Prepare your ice cubes
To make ice cubes for an iced latte, pour bottled or filtered water into your ice cube tray. Avoid using tap water, which contains more minerals and can affect the flavor of your iced latte. Place the tray in the refrigerator’s freezer for at least 2 hours.
Note: If you have a freezer that has an inbuilt ice cube dispenser, the above steps won’t be necessary. You can also use a portable ice maker to make ice cubes for your iced latte.
A second option is to make coffee cubes instead. To do this, brew a cup of your favorite K-Cup coffee before pouring the brewed coffee into an ice cube tray and placing the tray in the freezer.
Undertake a water-only brew cycle
To ensure that the water in your Keurig is sufficiently hot to extract a more intense flavor out of the K-Cup coffee, ensure you bring the brewer to optimal temperatures. Do this by performing a water-only brew before performing the actual coffee brew.
With the water tank filled with water, place a large cup or jar on the drip tray. Open and close the K-Cup holder without placing a K-Cup inside. Finally, press the large cup size button to start brewing. Get rid of the hot water that’s dispensed from the Keurig.
Pour your ice into the coffee cup
Remove the ice cubes that you’ve been preparing from the freezer and transfer them into a stainless steel cup until the cup is 75% full. Place the cup under the drip tray. If you’d made coffee cubes, use them instead.
Brew your coffee
Refill the water reservoir with fresh, bottled/filtered water. Then, as the water heats, place your preferred coffee K-Cup inside the Keurig unit’s K-Cup pod holder and close the brew head. Once the ‘Ready to brew’ light comes on, press on the smallest cup size to start brewing.
If you prefer a larger beverage, don’t brew the largest cup size as your Keurig will only pass more hot water through your coffee K-Cup, resulting in a milder flavor. Instead, insert a new K-Cup inside the K-Cup holder and brew using the small cup size button again. This way, you’ll get a larger drink with a more intense coffee flavor.
If you have a Keurig model that has a shot option for brewing espresso (concentrated shot of coffee), use this option for a more intense flavor. The shot option ensures that you’re able to brew the strongest possible cup of iced latte.
Also, take note that if you’re using K-Cups designed for iced coffee and lattes, it’s okay to use ice cubes as the K-Cups contain more coffee and the flavor won’t be diluted. However, if you’re using ordinary K-Cups, it’s better to pair it up with coffee cubes instead of ice cubes for a stronger flavor. Ordinary K-Cups + ice cubes result in a weaker flavor.
Note: You’ll also want to avoid putting the brewed coffee in the refrigerator before adding ice cubes. Even though you’ll get to preserve the flavor, your beverage will go stale.
Steam and froth the milk
Since you’re preparing an iced latte and not just iced coffee, you have to add steamed milk to complete the beverage. Some Keurig models, such as the Keurig K-Café and the Keurig K-Latte, come with a frother compartment, making this step faster and easier. Follow the steps detailed below to steam and froth milk in a Keurig:
i. Take out the frother and make sure the whisk at the bottom is correctly positioned. Pour milk into the frother up to the ‘latte’ fill line. Return the frother into the frothing unit.
ii. Ensure the frother is well connected to the base of the frothing unit before pressing the button to start heating. The whisk will automatically froth the milk.
iii. Once done, remove the frother and pour the milk + froth into the stainless steel cup containing the ice cubes and coffee that you’d brewed earlier.
However, even if your Keurig doesn’t come with a milk frother, you can still steam and froth your milk on the side. Heat the milk in a microwave or in a saucepan on a stovetop, before frothing the milk using a handheld frother. If you don’t have a frother, you can create froth by repeatedly pouring the heated milk from one cup to another.
Add a sweetener (optional)
With your cup containing ice cubes, brewed coffee, steamed milk, and froth, your iced latte is now ready. You can drink it as it is or you can enhance the drink’s taste by adding a sweetener. You can use sugar or your favorite flavor syrup.
Keurig Iced Coffee Recipe
Supplies and equipment:
i. Iced latte K-Cup/Ordinary Coffee K-Cup
ii. Bottled/filtered water
iii. Whole or skim milk
iv. Sugar or any other sweetener (optional)
v. Heating pan and handheld frother
vi. Stainless steel coffee tumbler- can handle low temperatures of cold ice cubes
vii. Large mug- for collecting hot water for the water-only brew cycle
viii. Ice cube tray
Recipe:
The process for making iced coffee in a Keurig isn’t any different from that of making a Keurig iced latte as described in the preceding section. The only difference is that an iced latte has steamed milk while iced coffee doesn’t. Therefore, to make Keurig iced coffee, follow the same steps excluding the addition of steamed milk and froth.
Note: Iced coffee can also be taken with or without a sweetener. Remember, too, that some of the K-Cup coffee blends already contain sweetener ingredients.
3 Iced coffee Keurig brewer
The best Keurig brewers for iced coffee include the Keurig K-Café, Keurig K-Elite, and Keurig K-Supreme.
i. Keurig K-Café– this Keurig features a frothing compartment, allowing you to brew specialty iced coffees such as iced lattes. However, you have to wait until it finishes brewing to start heating and frothing the milk.
ii. Keurig K-Elite– this Keurig model boasts a ‘Strong brew’ option that allows users to brew concentrated coffee that doesn’t lose its flavor when added to ice cubes.
iii. Keurig K-Supreme– this Keurig version features multistream technology for more even saturation and extraction of coffee that results in more intense flavors and aromas. On the downside, though, this Keurig model doesn’t feature an inbuilt milk frothing section.
References
i. Keurig- the Brews-feed: How To Make Iced Coffee With Your Keurig® Coffee Maker
