A summer favorite is iced coffee and so is bottlled cold brew coffee. Taking it a step further how about coffee popsicles for a hot day? You can make coffee popsicles out of any home brewed, cold brewed or coffee house coffee. All you need are ingredients, popsicle molds and a freezer. Here are a few favorites.
Cappuccino Popsicle
Cappuccino is made with espresso, milk and steamed foam. Consider adding a little chocolate for a mocha flavor and dusting the surface of the mixture with powdered nutmeg. Make as much as you like and pour into popsicle molds. Leave in the freezer until frozen hard. Remember that by adding coffee, milk, chocolate, sugar and more to the water that you are freezing you will depress the freezing point and it will require more time to freeze than when just making ice cubes. Take out on a hot, sultry day and enjoy.
Plain Black Coffee Popsicles
Our preference is always whole bean roasted healthy organic coffee. Starting with the best beans make your coffee, add to popsicles molds and freeze. These will be quicker to make than more complicated coffee house coffees or even coffee with cream and sugar.
Cold All the Way
If you want to stick with the cold theme in making coffee popsicles for a hot day make cold brew coffee and freeze it. For a refresher on making your own cold brewed coffee:
Cold brewed coffee is about two thirds less acidic than expresso or percolator coffee. It has to do with extracting caffeine and healthy antioxidants but less acid using a slow, cool extraction process. Basically the coffee just diffuses out of the ground beans over a few hours.
Our preference is to start with organic coffee, preferably one of the Colombian organic coffee brands. Grind the beans but coarse and not fine like you would with expresso. Ideally use bottled water and not chlorinated from the tap. If you do use tap water pour the water into a pitcher and allow to sit for several hours to let the chlorine evaporate from the tap water. Grind four and half ounces (1 ¾ cup) of coffee. Add three and a half cups of cold water to a two quart pitcher and then the coffee grounds. Cover, place in the refrigerator and forget for a dozen hours.
The rap against iced coffee is that pouring hot brewed coffee or even espresso over ice typically results on dilute albeit cold coffee. Cold brewed coffee is often stronger than regular coffee. Before serving pour the coffee through a filter or use a French press to remove the coffee grounds. Add a little water if the coffee is too strong for your taste and a little ice if you want it to be colder. Many folks add milk, sugar, chocolate or even liquor making it cold brewed liqueur coffee. This is an ideal drink for a hot summer day but works well in front of a roaring fire in winter as well. Check our liqueur coffee article for a list of liqueurs and how to make.
This is the purist approach to making coffee popsicles for a hot day. It is more work but rewarding in the end.