Life Hack: Save yourself a small fortune by making your iced coffees at home

Name: Iced macchiato
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Ingredients: 80ml Barista Creations Leggero; 100ml semi-skimmed milk; 4 ice cubes; 1tsp saffron syrup (optional)

Keep cool in the heat with this budget-friendly drink

Life Hack: Save yourself a small fortune by making your iced coffees at home — You don't have to break the bank to enjoy a regular iced coffee

Mon, 19 Jul, 2021 - 06:00

Denise O’Donoghue

The weather last week was amazing. With the mercury tipping 25 degrees it has finally started to feel like summer. Of course, with hotter days more of us are reaching for colder drinks, and if you find yourself buying lots of what seems to be the drink of summer 2021, then your iced coffee habit could be causing a dip in your bank balance.

It’s a financial issue many are aware of and earlier this year searches on Google for ‘how to make iced coffee’ skyrocketed, with ‘oat milk’ and ‘cold brew’ also climbing in the search engine’s rankings.

While it’s hard to beat a proper iced coffee served to you from a professional barista, you can save a few euro by making your own. And don’t worry about complicated techniques, such is the popularity of iced coffees that making your own is as easy as popping a pod in a Nespresso machine at this stage.

I was lucky enough to attend a virtual masterclass with Nespresso recently where I learned how to make a range of iced coffees with their Vertuo machine and I found out the difference between normal Nespresso coffee pods and the ones made especially for iced coffees. Knowing the iced coffee will be further watered down by melting ice, their iced pods have a stronger concentration so you don’t lose any flavour with each sip of your drink.

The iced macchiato recipe is one I’ve been turning to a lot since that masterclass, along with a tropical coconut flavour iced coffee, so today we’ll keep it simple with the classic iced coffee. Of course, you can replace the milk with plant-based drinks if you’d prefer. I’ve tried it with coconut milk too and it is delightful. I’d also recommend you play with syrups if you can get your hand on some, I’ve suggested saffron in the below recipe from Nespresso but I tried it with vanilla too to make an iced vanilla macchiato and it was delicious.

And if you don’t own a Nespresso machine, follow the first three steps and then add any coffee whatever way you choose to brew it.

Iced macchiato

A classic iced coffee to keep you cool on hotter days. If you don't have a newspresso, follow the first three staps and pour over any coffee whatever way you choose to brew it.