I’m really excited to share this recipe with you. In this article, you will find everything you need to know to make yourself caramel iced coffee at home. This includes a separate recipe to make caramel sauce at home, and it will blow your mind.
To get things started, I will give you some information about the differences between iced coffee and cold brew coffee, which coffee beans to use, and how to make that delicious caramel sauce at home!
What is iced coffee?
Iced coffee is chilled coffee mixed with ice cubes, coffee syrup, and milk (or milk substitute). You can make iced coffee with numerous coffee variants. Most of the time, a good quality espresso is used, but strong filter coffee is something that many people enjoy, too (myself included).
Iced coffee is straightforward to make and comes with a ton of different recipes. The caramel iced coffee that I’m going to share with you today is one of my favorite iced coffee recipes.
Just remember, this iced coffee recipe is nothing fancy. It’s just coffee, ice cubes, milk (or milk substitute), and a good amount of homemade caramel sauce. Don’t worry; I will guide you through the whole recipe so you can make Your Dream Coffee at home!
What is the difference between iced coffee and cold brew coffee?
As I have mentioned above, iced coffee is made by brewing a good quality cup of coffee and chilling it in the freezer or refrigerator, depending on the time you want to spend on it.
Using the freezer to chill your hot brewed coffee quickly is a good way to get that iced coffee quickly. Just freeze your coffee for about 30 minutes until it has cooled down completely.
If you’ve got a bit more time to spare or you want to make this iced coffee in advance, brew some coffee and pop it into the refrigerator. You can leave the coffee in there for as long as you need. Just make sure to drink it within 2 days as it will start to lose some good flavors after that.
Cold brew coffee is made by pouring cold water onto coarsely ground coffee beans and letting this steep for 12 to 24 hours in the refrigerator. Leaving this coffee too steep for this amount of time will create a unique flavor profile that is very different from the iced coffee method.
Brewing hot coffee and chilling it to make iced coffee will give you slightly less flavor in comparison to the cold brew coffee that has steeped for 12 hours. Cold brew coffee tastes full-bodied and has more punchy flavors to it. Iced coffee will give you a flatter-tasting coffee with a good amount of sweetness to it.
Related article: Iced Coffee vs. Cold Brew: Which Coffee Is Better for You?
Which coffee beans should I use?
To make sure you get a good amount of coffee taste in your iced coffee, you want to use either a medium or dark roasted coffee bean. Are you going to use espresso as the coffee base? Make that espresso using a good quality dark roast coffee.
If you plan on using filter coffee for this recipe, either use medium or dark roasted coffee beans to make your coffee.
You want to steer away from anything lighter roasted as the flavor of these coffee beans is not strong enough to punch through the sweetness of this iced coffee recipe.
Caramel Iced Coffee Recipe
The prep time includes the time to make the caramel sauce.
Ingredients
- An espresso or a good amount of filter coffee
- 1 cup (0.24 l) of milk or milk substitute
- Homemade caramel sauce
- Ice cubes
Instructions
- To get this recipe started, brew a nice batch of coffee. This can be either an espresso or a good amount of your favorite filter coffee.
- Once you have brewed your coffee, stir through some caramel sauce and cool it down completely using the refrigerator or freezer.
- Next up is getting a big cup or mason jar and add ice cubes till half full.
- Pour your cold coffee on top of the ice cubes.
- Now, add your cold caramel coffee mixture to your chilled cup or mason jar.
- Add the milk or your favorite milk substitute.
- Top this off with a generous amount of your home-made caramel sauce, add a straw and enjoy!
Notes
A few good milk alternatives are soy milk, oat milk, and coconut milk. These are my personal favorite for this recipe as they are most versatile but feel free to use any milk substitute you like.
I have not set an amount of caramel sauce you need to use so you can make this coffee as sweet as you like.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Nutrition Information:
Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 170
How to build up the iced caramel coffee
I like to see some photos when I am following a recipe so, down below you can see how I build up the iced caramel coffee:
Adding caramel to the hot coffee before cooling down 
Adding ice cubes to the cooled down coffee
Adding milk to the caramel iced coffee 
Topping it all off with a drizzle of homemade caramel sauce
How to make the best caramel sauce
For this caramel sauce recipe you are going to need 3 things:
- Sugar (200g)
- Heavy cream (120ml)
- Butter (80g)
- A good quality heat-proof spatula and a whisk
You can also add some additional vanilla syrup to this recipe to create a caramel/ vanilla sauce. If you like salted caramel, you can whisk in some flaky salt when the caramel is cooling down.
To get things started, make sure you are using a heavy-bottomed pan to make this caramel. Heavy-bottomed pans distribute the heat more equally, so you will reduce the chance of burning your caramel.
Start by adding the sugar into your pan and letting it melt on low heat. Keep stirring throughout this process, but don’t go too fast. When stirring too much, you upset the caramel, and clumps will form.
Once the sugar is completely melted, add the heavy cream. Be careful as the heavy cream will make the hot caramel sizzle, and you don’t want the caramel to bubble out of the pan and onto your clothes. To be safe, you can always wear kitchen gloves.
Stir the sugar mixture until the cream is fully dissolved and the mixture has turned to a golden/ brown stage.
Now, add the butter into your (very hot!) caramel while stirring and allow the mixture to boil for a minute. The mixture will rise to the top of the pan. As this happens, remove from the heat and allow to cool completely.
You want the caramel to be quite thick. If you feel like it’s still a bit too thin, leave it to boil for a few additional minutes. Keep stirring throughout this process; otherwise, the bottom of your pan will be burned by the end of it.
Pour the cooled down caramel sauce into a nice jar or cup and place it in the refrigerator. The caramel sauce will keep well in the fridge for up to 3 weeks. Is your caramel sauce too hard to handle? Place it in the microwave for a few seconds, and you are good to go!
Conclusion
In this article, I have given you my best iced coffee recipe to date. The home-made caramel sauce is one of the best tasting out there, if you ask me. You can use this caramel sauce for many things, so feel free to add this to desserts and, of course, a lot more iced coffees!
If you want to try some more delicious recipes, you can check out the articles I’ve listed below. These recipes might be of interest to you.
Are you going to give this recipe a try? Let me know by leaving a comment down below. If you have any other questions regarding coffee, you can also contact me directly by pressing the “Contact Me” button at the top!
