Shaken iced coffee is an easy to make cold coffee beverage with a creamy mouthfeel. In this guide, we’ll tell you everything you need to know to impress your friends with this ice cold coffee beverage on a hot weekend.
What is Shaken Iced Coffee
A shaken iced coffee brews a hot concentrated pour over that gets shaken in a cocktail shaker with ice. The shaking introduces micro bubbles into the coffee that gives it the appearance and mouthfeel of an ice cold beer.
How Does Shaken Iced Coffee Work?
A pour over brew basket containing a filter and ground coffee sits above a carafe. Hot water is poured over the ground coffee and brews as it passes through the coffee. The freshly brewed coffee concentrate exits the brew basket into your carafe. The hot coffee is poured into a cocktail shaker full of ice and immediately shaken just like your favorite cocktail. The mixture is strained into a cup with a cocktail strainer and best enjoyed immediately.
Shaken Iced Coffee Ratio
Because the ice in the cocktail shaker will dilute the coffee, we’re brewing a coffee concentrate. We recommend a water to coffee ratio of 10:1. This means 1 gram of coffee to 10 grams of water. After brewed, we’ll shake the coffee with ice but we’re not measuring the ice in the shaker.
Learn more about water to coffee ratios.
Shaken Iced Coffee Grind
You will want to grind your coffee with enough coarseness that the water passes through the grounds within your desired brew time. To achieve this, we recommend a medium grind consistency which feels similar to table salt. Most pour overs use a paper filter. Paper filters produce a very clean cup of coffee because of how well they capture small particles of coffee.
Learn more about coffee grinding on our How to Grind Coffee guide.
Shaken Iced Coffee Recipe
- Water to coffee ratio: 10:1
- Water: 280g
- Coffee: 28g
- Grind: Medium (table salt)
How to Make Shaken Iced Coffee
This method brews a coffee concentrate. When we add the coffee to a cocktail shaker filled with ice, the heat will melt the ice creating a proper dilution. To start, pre-rinse your coffee filter and dump the water out. Add your ground coffee, tare your scale, and start your timer.
- Step 1 - 0:00 Add 50g of water to allow freshly roasted coffee to degas
- Step 2 - 0:30 Slowly add 100g of water using circular motions
- Step 3 - 2:00 Add the remaining water again with circular motions
- Step 4 - Prepare your cocktail shaker by filling it with ice
- Step 5 - After your coffee is done brewing, pour the coffee into the shaker filled with ice, immediately add the top and shake vigorously for 30 seconds
- Step 6 - Immediately strain into a glass and enjoy
