6 Refreshing Cold Coffee Drinks With Less Sugar Than Your Usual Order

Ditch the sugar-loaded iced lattes and make your own cold brew, iced coffee, and even chilled pumpkin spice latte at home!

Although coffee is typically thought of as a hot beverage, the growing popularity of cold brew and iced lattes have been upending that reputation — and not just during the summer. Starbucks reported that at least three-quarters of its U.S. sales in 2022 came from iced drinks even during the winter months, according to one industry report.

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While chilled coffee drinks are certainly refreshing, pre-made lattes and other coffee drinks are often loaded with dairy fat and sugar, regardless of their temperature. A 16-ounce (oz) Cinnamon Caramel Cream Cold Brew from the coffee chain contains 250 calories, 12 grams (g) of fat, 8 g of saturated fat, and 32 g of sugar. That’s more than half the saturated fat the American Heart Association (AHA) recommends for an entire day, all from a single drink!

Whipped cream, toppings, and flavored sugar syrups can also add calories, unhealthy fat, and sugar to a drink. Each pump of syrup contains approximately 20 calories and 5 g of sugar, according to Starbucks, and a 12-oz drink typically starts with three pumps of flavor. That’s 15 g, or about three-and-a-half teaspoons, of added sugar — again just more than half what the AHA recommends for an entire day.

Making your own cool coffee drinks at home allows you to keep these nutrients in check and costs a fraction of what you’d pay when ordering out. DIY-ing your brew is not difficult, but there are some things to keep in mind.

There are two basic ways to make coffee below room temperature: You can use hot water and then cool the resulting brew for an iced coffee or latte. Or you can use cold water to gradually extract flavor from the beans; the result is known as cold brew. The two processes result in vastly different products, says Maryna Gray, director of coffee at Bean Box. “The taste of cold brew coffee can range from rich and creamy to fruity or nutty,” she says, while iced coffee tends to be crisper and lighter tasting. This may be because the cold brew process extracts different compounds from coffee beans, making the resulting coffee less acidic and lower in antioxidants than hot brewed coffee, research shows.

Whichever method you prefer, here is how to make your coffee taste great.

How to Make Cold Brew

To make basic cold brew, Gray recommends using a medium to medium-dark roast or even an espresso blend. Coffees from South America, like Colombian or Brazilian varieties, or blends that list "chocolate," “cocoa," or “nutty” in their tasting notes, are ideal for cold brews, she says. Use a coarse grind and mix however much coffee you’re using with cold water in a 1 to 8 ratio (for example, 2 oz of coffee grounds with 16 oz of water). Mix the ingredients together in a glass jar with a lid and let it sit in the refrigerator for 10 to 14 hours.

“It's important to keep the coffee cold during this process to limit the potential for bacteria growth,” Gray says. And letting it steep much longer can lead to bitter notes. When you’re ready to drink it, strain out the coffee grounds using a filter or cheese cloth and dilute with water or milk. Cold brew is concentrated, and will keep for up to two weeks in the fridge.

How to Flash Brew Iced Coffee

While there are several ways to make iced coffee, one that has been in favor lately, according to Gray, is flash brewing. This method essentially replaces part of the water you’d normally use to brew your coffee with ice. Gray uses a ratio of 1 part coarsely ground coffee to 10 parts hot water to 6 parts ice. She recommends using an Ethiopian or Kenyan roast for a refreshing tea-like iced coffee with fruit notes. “The fruit flavors will shine through when poured over ice,” she says.

To flash brew coffee, you can use a pour-over dripper or an automatic drip coffee machine. Position the coffee grounds over a carafe filled with the ice, and pour hot water over them. The hot coffee will melt the ice and instantly cool off the coffee (it should melt completely in the carafe). Serve over more ice or add your milk or nondairy milk alternative of choice.

If you want to branch out from black coffee or just a splash of milk, the following recipes are easy, satisfying, and contain less sugar than most coffee house drinks.

Iced Dirty Chai Latte