How to Make Iced Coffee at Home in 2 Steps

There's nothing better than a tall glass of iced coffee on a hot morning, and nothing sadder than a watery, bitter one. The trick to great iced coffee at home isn't a fancy machine. It's brewing hot coffee straight onto ice so it chills instantly and keeps all its flavor. It's called flash brew, it takes about ten minutes, and once you try it you won't go back to the sad stuff.

Flash brew vs. cold brew (the quick version)

Two different drinks, both delicious. Cold brew steeps grounds in cold water for 12 to 24 hours: smooth, low-acid, mellow, and a project you start the night before. Flash brew, this recipe, brews hot and chills instantly over ice: bright, aromatic, and ready in minutes. If you love the nuance of a good hot cup, flash brew keeps it; cold brew trades a little of that sparkle for smoothness.

What is flash-brew iced coffee?

Flash brew, also called Japanese iced coffee, is just a pour over brewed directly onto ice. Brewing hot pulls out all the aroma and flavor you love in a hot cup, and crashing it cold over ice locks that in before it can go flat. The result tastes like your favorite coffee, only cold and refreshing, instead of the muted, slightly stale flavor you get from chilling leftover coffee in the fridge. Anyone who drinks their coffee black will especially love how much character survives the ice.

The best coffee for iced coffee

• Reach for a full-bodied coffee so the ice doesn't thin it into nothing.
• For sweet, creamy, chocolatey iced coffee, go with a medium roast from Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, or Honduras. Think cream soda on the rocks.
• For a bright, tea-like glass with fruit notes, try an Ethiopian or Kenyan coffee. Those berry and citrus notes absolutely pop over ice.
• Go easy on the darkest roasts. They can turn ashy and flat once chilled.

Easy flash-brew iced coffee recipe

Total time: about 10 minutes. Makes: one tall glass. The whole idea is to keep the same coffee-to-water ratio you'd use for a hot cup, then count the ice as part of your water, since it melts into the drink.

• About 22g of coffee (4 tablespoons), ground a touch finer than usual
• About 200g of hot brewing water, just off the boil (around 200F)
• About 150g of ice (a heaping cup) in the cup or carafe you brew into

Step 1: brew straight onto the ice. Put the ice in your carafe or mug first. Set up your usual pour over, a Hario V60 or Chemex is perfect, and brew the hot coffee directly over the ice so it chills the instant it lands.

Step 2: keep the ratio. Your 22g of coffee to about 350g of total water (200g brewed plus the 150g of melting ice) lands right around the 1:16 ratio we love for hot coffee. If you'd rather not eyeball it, our coffee-to-water ratio calculator does the math.

Give it a quick stir and drink it right away, while it's cold and aromatic. A splash of milk or a little simple syrup is lovely, but taste it black first. Good flash brew rarely needs much.

A few tips for better iced coffee

• Use a scale if you have one. Iced coffee is less forgiving than hot, so a kitchen scale keeps it from going weak or harsh.
• Brew strong, not long. If it tastes watery, add coffee rather than brewing longer. Longer just adds bitterness.
• Use good ice. Big, fresh cubes melt slower and dilute less than little freezer-burned ones.

Prefer the smooth, slow-steeped kind? Our ready-made Bean Box Cold Brew comes in two flavors, no dilution needed. And if you want fresh, full-flavored beans built for a great glass over ice, build a coffee plan and we'll keep you stocked all summer.