How to make vegan iced coffee at home: four simple vegan iced coffee drinks

With the sun out in full force this summer, I need a cold drink to cool down, and sometimes it’s nice to have something that’s not water. This is why iced coffee is the best. Cafes make a lot of money from ice-coffees, and frappes, and other cold beverages all summer. However, they can be very pricey or not to your liking. Sometimes they don’t have a vegan option, or you just want to avoid all the additives and have a healthier iced coffee. Plus, the plastic pollution that comes with the cups can be avoided. Iced coffee is bad for the environment, but these options are eco-friendly, healthier, and yummy. Here’s how to make vegan iced coffee at home with these four simple vegan iced coffee drinks:

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How to make vegan iced coffee at home: four vegan iced coffee drinks

The latte:

An iced latte hits the spot when you want coffee but aren’t looking for something particularly sweet. A regular latte is just an espresso and steamed dairy-free milk, so the vegan iced latte is no different.

Instructions

For one vegan latte fill one cup of ice, and brew an espresso shot.

If you don’t have an espresso machine, you can grind the amount of coffee you need for one cup and put a shot worth of water in your French Press, just like I did with these vegan gingerbread lattes.

Pour your espresso over ice, then add 200ml of your plant-based milk of choice. Give the espresso a minute to cool down, stirr the drink, and there you have it; a simple vegan iced latte at home!

Alternatively, if I make coffee for a few people at once, I take the concentrated bit at the end, and mix it with soya milk (or whatever milk/alternative you like) and ice. Add (or don’t add) sugar to your own taste.

You can serve as it is, or if you want a healthier version of a frappe you can blend it.

Tip: if you want a flavoured coffee but would like to skip the syrups, make this drink with coconut milk. You wind up with a refreshing coconut-y iced coffee!

The Iced Mocha

If you have a sweet tooth then you might prefer iced mochas to lattes! Personally, mochas are my favourite coffee drink! A mocha is very similar to a latte, except for the addition of chocolate!

Instructions

Follow the same instructions for the iced latte, but add some chocolate syrup to the drink after the coffee and milk have gone into the ice and give it a good stirr to make sure the chocolate isn’t all stuck to the bottom!

The Iced Americano

Sometimes you want black coffee but it’s too warm, and that’s when the an iced Americano comes in handy. So what’s the difference between cold brew and an iced Americano? A normal Americano is an espresso and hot water. The difference between cold brew and an iced Americano is that normal coffee is brewed in hot water, whereas cold brews steep the beans in cold or room temperature water over the course of a few hours. Cold brews as a result contain more caffeine than iced Americanos and are less bitter.

Instructions

To make an iced American make a regular cup of coffee as your normally would, leave in the fridge for a few hours and serve with ice. Unlike the others, this isn’t an almost instant drink so I’d advise making a big jug of it before going to bed to enjoy it the next day.

You can also try DIY a cold brew yourself.

The frappe

What’s the difference between iced coffee and a frappe? A frappe is a thicker drink where the ice is thoroughly blended in with the coffee. Iced coffee tends to be a coffee drink with actual ice cubes in it, so iced coffee drinks are more watery.

Often frappes are more like a dessert because they go all out with ice-cream or cream but that’s not always the case.

Instructions

For a sweet frappe, follow the steps from the latte except use half as much milk and add ice-cream or frozen yogurt to make up the other half. Put in the blender and enjoy. This one can be fun to play with, whether you want to use chocolate ice-cream to make it a mocha, or keep it simple with vanilla.

For a less dessert-y vegan frappe, make an iced latte and put it in the blender until the ice breaks down leaving you with a thick frosty drink.

What are the benefits of making vegan iced coffee at home?

I’m not saying you can’t go out and treat yourself to vegan iced coffee in Starbucks. I do a considerable amount of work in this blog with vegan iced coffee from Starbucks in hand! However, you might have any places that do vegan iced coffee, may want to cut back on plastic pollution while cafes can’t accept reusable cups, or just don’t like what’s out there. I drink a lot of vegan iced coffee in Starbucks, but

Making coffee at home for on-the-go is a great way to encourage getting a reusable coffee cup. Getting a cup specifically for iced coffee and other cold beverages was a great investment and I’d suggest everyone to do it. I’d also suggest getting reusable straws if you’re just going to drink these at home. If you’re looking for some zero-waste essentials to enjoy your homemade vegan iced coffee in, I’m a big fan of WakeCup, who donate 10% of their profits to the Marine Life Conservation. What’s not to love, zero-waste coffee AND the planet benefits too?

These ideas are so simple, and now you know how to make vegan iced coffee at home!

What’s your favourite kind of iced coffee? Have you tried any of these vegan iced coffee drinks?