How to Make an Iced Latte That Is Not Watery

An iced latte is espresso and cold milk poured over ice. There is no steaming and usually no foam. It is one of the simplest drinks to make at home, and one of the easiest to get slightly wrong, because ice and hot coffee do not agree with each other.

The ratio

• Coffee. A double shot, around 36 to 40ml. A single disappears once the ice melts. See what a doppio is.
• Milk. 150 to 200ml, cold from the fridge.
• Ice. Fill the glass. More ice melts more slowly, because the cubes chill each other.

That gives a drink of about 300 to 350ml once poured, with the coffee still clearly present. It is the cold relative of a latte, with the same idea of a lot of milk and a little coffee.

The pour order

There are two ways to build it, and each fixes a different problem.

• Ice, milk, then espresso. The milk cushions the hot shot, so less ice melts, and the coffee settles in a dark band on top that you can stir in. This is the usual cafe method and the one that looks best.
• Ice, espresso, then milk. The shot hits the ice directly and chills at once, which some people find brings out more of the coffee's sweetness. It dilutes a little more, so use plenty of ice.

Stopping it going watery

This is the complaint almost everyone has. Hot espresso at around 70 degrees melts ice the moment it lands, and every gram of melted ice is water in the drink. Three fixes, in order of effort:

• Use more ice, and large cubes rather than crushed ice, which melts fastest.
• Cool the shot first. Pull it into a small cold jug and let it sit for a minute, or stir it with a single ice cube you then discard.
• Freeze coffee ice cubes. Pour leftover coffee into an ice tray. As they melt they add coffee, not water.

Sweetening it

Sugar barely dissolves in cold milk. It sinks and the last mouthful is sweet while the rest is not. The fix is simple syrup: dissolve sugar in an equal weight of hot water, cool it, and keep it in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Flavoured syrups work the same way. Add the syrup to the espresso while it is still hot, before it meets the milk, so it mixes in evenly.

Which milk

Whole milk gives the most body and holds up best against the ice. Oat milk is the most popular plant option for iced drinks, because it is creamy and does not split in cold coffee the way some soy milks can in hot. Thin milks such as skimmed or almond make a lighter, more watery drink. Milk alternatives in coffee compares them.

Without an espresso machine

You need something concentrated. A moka pot makes a strong, espresso-like coffee that works well over ice. An AeroPress brewed as a concentrate, with less water than usual, does the same. Normal filter coffee is too weak once the milk and melting ice are in, unless you brew it at double strength.

Its iced relatives

• Freddo cappuccino. The Greek version: espresso shaken with ice and topped with cold, frothed milk.
• Caffe shakerato. Espresso shaken hard with ice and sugar, no milk, served foamy.
• Iced coffee and cold brew. Made from brewed coffee rather than espresso. The difference is in cold brew vs iced coffee.

Caffeine

A double shot carries roughly 120 to 150mg, the same as a hot latte made the same way. Ice and milk change the volume, not the caffeine. The figures for other drinks are in how much caffeine is in coffee.