Iced coffee is an easy beverage of choice whenever summer rolls around. It is simple, tastes incredible, and rejuvenates your body and awakens your mind. While iced coffee is an amazing, cooling drink to sip on under the heat of the warm sun, it’s not your only option of coffee for the warmer months of the year. In fact, iced coffee might just be the least exciting drink for the summer. There are so many other drinks to try, so if you are feeling adventurous, keep reading for five of the top summer coffee trends of 2019 that go beyond basic ice coffee.
Nitro Cold Brew
Cold brew is very similar to iced coffee in the sense that it is a chilled, coffee-based beverage that usually comes without added sugars, syrups, or milks. In fact, cold brew results from nearly the same process that ensues when brewing batches of ice coffee. The only real difference between making cold brew and preparing iced coffee is that cold brew is never exposed to heat. So if you are looking for a more potent and richer-tasting version of ice coffee this summer, cold brew is the one for you.
However, iced coffee and regular cold brew can be a bit bland for some people, especially when taken black.
That is where nitro cold brew comes into the picture. While cold brew is very similar in taste to ice coffee, nitro cold brew takes a spin on iced coffee and enhances it.
This type of cold brew is nitrogen-infused, and the nitrogen is what gives it a bubbly effect. This gives it a refreshing fizz perfect for any summer’s day.
Nitro cold brew is delicious on its own, but the option to add flavored syrups or cold milk to your nitro cold brew is available to you, too! A couple of variations of black nitro cold brew that you can explore include nitro mint lattes with oat milk and fresh mint syrup, or honey lavender soy milk nitro cold brew lattes, which contain a combination of lavender syrup and organic honey, with a splash of soy milk.
Caramel Vanilla Iced Americano
An espresso-based beverage that is most similar to iced coffee is the iced americano. Iced americanos are made with espresso shots, whereas ice coffee is made from brewed coffee. Espresso and drip coffee have different brewing methods, and therefore, they have different caffeine levels. Many people opt for americanos over brewed coffee in the afternoon, and this is primarily because espresso shots contain far less caffeine than your average cup of coffee, no matter if it is iced or hot.
On average, an espresso shot has somewhere between thirty-eight and forty-two milligrams of caffeine per shot. In comparison, brewed coffee has an estimated two hundred forty milligrams of caffeine. To put this into perspective, an iced coffee has about six times more caffeine than an espresso-based drink. For the best tasting iced americano that you can possibly make, invest in coffee beans with unforgettable flavor.
If you want to keep your caramel vanilla iced americano as strong as possible, consider eliminating actual ice cubes and replacing them with reusable ice cubes instead! Reusable ice cubes are an amazing invention because they prevent your iced beverages from becoming diluted and watered down.
Affogato
Summer is the one season during the year when eating an ice cream cone for breakfast, lunch, or dinner is socially acceptable. But the one downside of consuming so much sugar in one sitting is that you are doomed to crash when the rush wears off later on in the day. In order to combat the side effects of a drop in blood pressure, consider reducing your sugar intake by dismissing the waffle cone and opting for a shot of espresso instead!
Known as an affogato, pairing ice cream with an espresso shot poured on top of the ice cream scoop is a crowd favorite. Believe it or not, espresso tastes spectacular with just about every ice cream flavor that exists. We would not necessarily recommend pairing espresso with rainbow sherbert but to each their own! If that’s your favorite, give it a try (and let us know how it tastes). You might just uncover a hidden truth and find that the two actually go hand-in-hand. Who knows?
Blended Espresso Milkshake
Going off the topic of ice cream and espresso, let us introduce to you the concept of an espresso-based milkshake! There are so many directions you could go in when it comes to coffee milkshakes. From coffee ice cream blended with an added shot of espresso and mocha sauce to a caramel ice cream base blended with a splash of cold brew and almond milk, the milkshake combinations are endless!
Add a swirl of whipped cream from a can, or take the coffee theme up a notch by infusing your own homemade whipped cream with espresso for a milkshake that is coffee-inspired from head to toe. Place a chocolate-covered espresso bean on top to complete the look, and head outside to enjoy the most caffeinated milkshake you’ve ever had!
Horchata Iced Latte
Yet another specialty coffee drink that is perfect for the summertime is a horchata iced latte. Horchata, on its own, is rice milk that contains almonds and cinnamon, though sometimes the almonds are exchanged for another type of nut, and other times, nuts are excluded altogether. Added sugar is usually part of the horchata recipe as well to add the desired sweetness that horchata lovers enjoy most. Horchata lattes are incredibly simple to make. The process entails adding a shot of espresso to a glass of horchata with ice, and just like that, you have yourself a chilled beverage to enjoy on your patio, by the swimming pool, or wherever else your summer adventures take you!
Perfect for drinking under the warm sunshine, horchata lattes make great pick-me-up drinks in the afternoon, but you can certainly drink them at any time of day. If you have a lower tolerance for caffeine, or sugar affects you pretty easily, it might be best to avoid horchata iced lattes a few hours before bedtime. But then again, it’s the summer, and summer is all about enjoying yourself and living life to the fullest, so the choice is entirely yours!
Final Thoughts
As the summer heats up, these icy beverages are the perfect go-to drinks. Stay caffeinated and cool ‘til September hits with Eldorado Coffee products!