How to: Make Your Own Iced Coffee Soda

Now that the days are warming up the thought of a hot latte with milk and cinnamon sure adds a drop of sweat to my brow. It’s usually this time of year, I swap my typical addiction to hot coffee to sweet, syrupy iced coffee. I just can’t get enough of the stuff!

Recently I had a fantastic, refreshing spin on iced coffee when a local shop added a splash of sparkling water and orange peel. If that shop was any closer to me, they’d put me out of a home with this drink!

In order to save time and money, I tinkered around with my own recipe and thought I’d share it with you!

It starts with a batch of homemade cold brew coffee. I made mine in a growler, you can use a mason jar or a cold brewing system if you have one.

Here’s what you’ll need

• 6 ounces of coffee
• 5 cups of filtered water
• a growler or large glass container
• paper coffee filter
• filter holder
• funnel

The process couldn’t be easier. Set your coffee grinder to coarse and grind all 5 ounces of coffee.

Note: We’ve had many readers reach out to us for our opinion on low acid coffee brands, BrewSmartly has a helpful guide on some of the top brands.

with a funnel, spoon all the grounds into the growler.

Next, add filtered water.

Once you’ve added all the ingredients to your growler, put the lid on, give it a light shake and let sit out for at least 12 hours.

Once your coffee has been brewing for at least 12 hours, you need to filter out the grounds. I used my Chemex system to pour the water and separate out the grounds. You can certainly use any other clever method to separate the grounds and coffee.

At this point, you can use this concentrated brew to mix up several glasses of iced coffee and milk, add it to ice cream, mixed drinks and more.

But for now, we’re going to make a tasty cold brew soda with a hint of orange zest!

What you’ll need

• a bottle of sparkling water
• your fresh batch of cold brew concentrate
• an orange
• a veggie peeler
• a tumbler glass
• ice

Now it’s time to make the soda! Pour yourself a serving of concentrated cold brew coffee, about half a cup, into a short glass. Your ratios here will be determined by your preference.

I added about 1/4 a cup of sparkling water. Mountain Valley is my absolute favorite—if it’s possible to have a favorite water, I find this brand is less bitter.

Using a vegetable peeler, peel a nice long piece of orange zest. You’ll be adding it to the soda.

For the final touch, squeeze the peel above your drink, rub the rim and drop it into the mix, like you’re making an old fashioned. That’s it! The tastiest summer drink this side of lemonade!