As we get closer to the height of summer, consumer demand for iced coffee drinks will grow.
One of the best ways that coffee shops can differentiate themselves from their competitors over the next few months will be to offer unique iced coffee drinks from around the world.
Here we are going to go through five iced coffee drinks that you will not likely find on the majority of coffee shops’ menus. Hopefully, it can help make your coffee shop stand out from the big chains.
Table of Contents
1. “Es Alpukat Kopi” – Iced Avocado Coffee Smoothie from Indonesia
This drink involves blending together coffee, avocado, milk, and ice to make a thick coffee smoothie.
Since avocados are a good source of healthy fats, protein, and vitamin E, you can easily market this drink as a healthier alternative to an iced frappe.
Some versions of the drink are layered, with the smashed avocado at the bottom and the iced coffee sitting on top of it. While this might look better for social media images, the drink is much nicer if you just blend everything together.
Bear in mind that you are going to need very ripe avocados for this. If your avocado is not ripe enough then the drink will be too thick to pour.
What You’ll Need (One Serving)
- ¼ ripe avocado
- 8 oz of strong drip coffee (or Americano)
- 2 oz vanilla syrup (or sweetened condensed milk)
- 2 oz milk
- 2 handfuls of ice
- Blender
How to Make It
- Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend until it’s a homogeneous mixture.
- Serve in a tall glass with a metal straw
2. Iced Cafe Cubano
A Cafe Cubano is a Cuban variation on an espresso that is wildly popular on Instagram and TikTok at the moment. You add a layer of brown sugar on top of your ground coffee puck before you pull your shot.
As your shot pulls, this brown sugar caramelizes into your coffee, resulting in an extra syrupy drink.
This is perfect for serving over ice as even if some of your ice melts, it won’t become too watery.
We’d recommend using 10 grams of sugar for a double shot of espresso. This should alter the drink’s taste and texture without significantly affecting extraction and flow rate.
Just remember to clean your espresso machine’s brew head thoroughly after pulling these shots to remove any burnt sugar from it.
What You’ll Need (One Serving)
- 19 grams ground coffee (espresso grind)
- 10 grams brown sugar
- A few large ice cubes
How to Make It
- Add the brown sugar on top of the ground coffee in your espresso puck before tamping.
- Pull your shot as normal. The additional sugar should only increase your brew time by 1-2 seconds
- Serve in a tumbler over a few ice cubes
3. Mazagran: Lemon Iced Coffee from Algeria
Mazagran is the first recorded iced coffee recipe, originating from Algeria in North Africa.
The drink combines espresso with lemon, mint and sugar. It’s essentially the coffee equivalent of lemon iced tea.
The drink is also popular in Southern Europe where it’s often mixed with a shot of rum. This could be a fun option for balmy summer nights if you have a liquor licence.
What You’ll Need (One Serving)
- Double shot of espresso
- 4 oz cold water
- Juice of half a lemon
- 2 tablespoons plain syrup
- A few mind leaves
- A handful of ice cubes
- A tall glass
How to Make It
- Add the lemon juice and sugar to the glass and stir until the sugar dissolves.
- Brew your espresso and add it to the lemon juice. Its important to add the espresso after the lemon juice as otherwise the lemon juice will just float on top of the espresso.
- Add your water – 4 oz is a good place to start but you’ll want to experiment with how much you dilute your coffee and lemon
- Add the ice cubes and mint leaves – the lemon juice and cold water means that your ice cubes shouldn’t melt
- If you are making the version of the drink with rum, then add the rum before you add your espresso.
4. Eiskaffee- The Ultimate Coffee Sundae from Germany
Eiskaffee is a coffee and chocolate sundae that absolutely wipes the floor with a standard iced mocha.
The base ingredients of this drink-meets-desert are vanilla ice cream, coffee, chocolate syrup and whipped cream.
The philosophy behind this drink, however, is to be as decadent as possible, so feel free to get creative with additions and toppings. The recipe below is the traditional way of preparing this, but you can change it up to your heart’s content.
Keeping some additional toppings and having customers create their own eiskaffee and posting it on social platforms can be a great marketing idea for your coffee shop.
What You’ll Need (One Serving)
- Two scoops vanilla ice cream
- 8 oz cooled drip coffee (make an extra strong coffee and add some ice cubes to it)
- 1 oz chocolate sauce
- 3 oz whipped cream
- 1 teaspoon chocolate shavings
- 1 stroopwafel
- A sundae glass
How to Make It
- Add the ice cream and coffee to your sundae glass. Mix it a bit, but you still want large chunks of ice cream. Add 1 oz of the chocolate sauce to this mixture.
- Top the coffee and ice cream mixture with whipped cream and then add the rest of the chocolate sauce, chocolate shavings and your stroopwafel on top of that.
5. Lavender Espresso Tonic – Layered Iced Coffee Drink from India
This is another iced coffee that’s becoming popular on Instagram at the moment due to its otherworldly purple color.
The drink uses lavender syrup. While you can buy lavender syrup, lots of people (including myself) really dislike the artificial lavender taste.
It’s far better to just make your own lavender syrup. The recipe below will include instructions for making this syrup.
The syrup can keep up to three weeks in the fridge so it’s well worth making a batch in advance and then just using it in the iced coffees to order.
What You’ll Need for the Lavender Syrup (Enough for Ten Servings)
- 10 oz water
- 20 oz sugar
- 4 tablespoons fresh lavender
- Cheesecloth
How to make the Lavender Syrup
- Simmer the sugar, water and lavender together for 30 minutes
- Use the cheesecloth to strain out the pieces of lavender. The final syrup should have a deep purple color.
What You’ll Need for the Lavender Espresso Tonic
- Double shot of espresso
- 6 oz tonic water
- 1 oz lavender syrup
- A few ice cubes
- A tall glass
How to Make It
- Add the tonic water and lavender syrup and tonic water to the glass and stir.
- Add the ice to the glass
- Add your double shot of espresso – ideally you want your espresso to have cooled a bit before you add it to your drink.
Final Thoughts
New, fun seasonal menu items can be a great way of differentiating your restaurant or coffee shop from your competitors and an excellent excuse to create online marketing content.
Hopefully, these iced coffee recipes have given you some ideas on how you can change up your menu this summer.
