Coffee Ice Cubes: Awesome & Messy

Like many of us, I'm obsessed with pinterest!  One big pin going around is freezing your extra or leftover coffee to make iced coffee drinks with.  This is something I've been doing for years now, ever since I discovered in college that I truly hate hot coffee!  Buying those iced or frozen coffee drinks is ridiculously expensive, so I would often make my own, and today I'll share a few things I've learned.

First:  Freezing your coffee is awesome, but it won't be what you expect.  The first time I froze my coffee I threw it out because I thought it was bad.  For some reason, when coffee freezes it gets very sticky and kind of slimy and it almost looks marbled.

 see?

This is normal, don't throw yours away.  It will also leave a black residue on your ice cube tray (and your hands or anything else it touches).  You may want to reserve one specifically for coffee because this is what it looks like after just one use:

eeew

Most iced coffee recipes call for double strength, chilled coffee.  The way I see it, that doubles the cost of each beverage (since you have to use twice the grounds!).  So, instead, I just brew regular strength and cool it to room temperature, add my coffee cubes, and any creamer, sweetener, or flavor.  Most often I'll brew my coffee in the evening and let it cool overnight, or put it in the fridge.  For me this works great. 

Well, this usually works great for me, that it, when I actually do it.  Often I don't have any coffee in the fridge when I wake up... oops.  So I just brew my coffee with an extra scoop of grounds so it's ever so slightly stronger.  Then I throw my coffee cubes directly in my hot coffee and bam - cold coffee.

One thing I've found with these methods is that if you make your iced coffee and fill it full of your frozen coffee cubes, your drink will get darker and less sweet as the cubes melt.  Usually, I'll add two or three cubes and stir until the drink is thoroughly chilled, then add another two or three regular cubes.  I do this so I don't waste the precious coffee cubes, and also to help keep it from getting blacker as they melt.

I crave it so badly I drank half of it before I thought to take a picture

And since coffee preferences are as personal a choice as underwear style, experiment!  Don't be afraid to try something new, you never know what you'll discover - I discovered I like half granulated sugar and half brown sugar in my coffee.  WHO KNEW!?

I'd love to try some coffee experiments, let me know what you come up with!

~Nicole