Iced Long Black: A Quick and Easy 5 Minute Recipe

Expert Consulted: Carl. Utilizing my 6 years of experience in the coffee industry, I’m able to provide accurate and concise information, helping you make informed choices about beans, brewing methods, and equipment, thereby elevating your coffee experience. In this article, I’ll share my knowledge and experience to help you understand how to make an iced long black and what it actually is.

Whether it’s the middle of the summer or the start of the winter, you can always enjoy an iced long black.

But what if you don’t know how to make this delightful drink? Well, that’s what I’m here to talk about today.

In this article, I will tell you everything you need to know about the iced long black and how to make it, so stay tuned!

How To Make an Iced Long Black: Ingredients and Recipe

When you want to go about making an iced long black, you’re going to need a couple of things.

Ingredients

The first thing is going to be espresso, you can make it however you would like just as long as it’s espresso.

Next, you’ll need some cold water, preferably from the tap or filtered, but it doesn’t matter too much as long as it’s cold.

Obviously, you’ll also need some ice, and you can choose to put as much ice as you prefer, just be aware the more you put, the more diluted your coffee will be once the ice starts to melt.

However, there is a method to counteract this dilution. If you brew some coffee (it does not have to be espresso) then pour it into an ice tray and leave that to sit overnight, you’ll be left with coffee ice cubes.

This means that once your ice cubes start to melt, there will be no watered-down taste, just coffee flavor!

Milk Lover? Don’t Fret!

If you would like to transform this drink into an iced latte, you can simply add some milk to it.

However, for an optional but worthy choice, you could get yourself a nano-foamer to get that delightful creamy texture in your milk.

These cheap but cheerful little milk frothers can easily up your iced coffee game in just a minute or less.

These are particularly great because the drink will be cold, so you won’t need to steam the milk with a mega-powerful milk steamer, you just need to froth it.

An even cheaper alternative to one of these is using a French press, just fill it up with milk and plunge it up and down a bit until it’s nice and frothed up.

Just remember this will no longer be called an iced long black anymore.

Iced Long Black Recipe

Quick Tips

If you’re able to have the ice below the water line when you pour and mix the espresso, this will help avoid the extreme bitterness that comes from the espresso cooling down too fast.

It’s not absolutely necessary to use espresso, you can also make an iced long black using your traditional Aeropress, drip brewer, pour over, Moka pot, or anything else that makes great coffee.

I should mention that a traditional iced long black is made with espresso, so if you make this with something that isn’t espresso, it will no longer be a proper iced long black.

What Is An Iced Long Black?

First, I think I should clear up any confusion surrounding the iced long black and the iced americano.

Both of these drinks are comprised of the exact same things; cold water, ice, and espresso. That’s it.

The only difference would be based on how you mix it.

So, an iced long black/iced americano is exactly that, cold water with ice and espresso.

How Many Calories Are in an Iced Long Black?

Just like the hot long black, the iced long black has next to no calories. However, if you plan on adding some sweeteners or any type of milk, those will add some calories.

If you happen to be one of those people who prefer a sweeter cup, don’t worry, because I will cover a few options you can add to your iced long black below.

Best Sweeteners to add to an Iced Long Black

An iced long black doesn’t have to be super strong and/or bitter, for those who dislike that, I’ve listed a few add-ins below that don’t change the drink too much but will surely improve it.

This is just a short list of a few add-ins you could try, there are plenty more out there that I haven’t listed so if I didn’t list something that you personally love, that doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Make sure to get out and try anything that sounds appealing to you, there’s no such thing as right or wrong, this is just a little guide! For some alternatives to sugar, you could take a look at this article here!

Summary

I hope this article helped you understand more about the iced long black and also how to make it. Below I will just list a quick summary of the important bits.

So, which ingredients will you need for this?

Ice, cold water, and freshly brewed espresso. As mentioned earlier, you could also pour some espresso or brewed coffee into an ice cube tray to make some coffee-flavored ice cubes in order to prevent dilution.

Let’s go over the recipe once more, I will shorten it for those who like to skim-read.

1. Fill your cup with ice, either halfway or one-quarter.
2. Now, start brewing your double shot of espresso.
3. While it’s brewing, fill your cup with as much cold water as you like.
4. Last but not least, pour in the espresso and stir.

Quick Tips

If you can have the ice below the water when you pour in the espresso and stir, this should help avoid the bitterness that comes when the espresso is cooled too fast.

Also, although it’s not going to be a proper iced long black anymore, you could use other coffee methods that aren’t espresso.

What is an iced long black?

Just cold water, ice, and espresso.

An iced long black will also have virtually zero calories.

Image Attributions and Licensing

Main Image: Custom by me.

#1: ‘Iced black coffee’ by Phanuphong. (Canva Pro)

#2: DALL-E 3.