How To Make An Iced Latte At Home (Recipe + VIDEO!)

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Want to make the perfect iced latte at home? You’ll save a ton of money and all that time it takes to get to the coffee shop. With my tips and tricks, I’ll have you drinking the best iced latte recipe in your slippers in under 2 minutes at home!

Table of Contents:

1. What is an Iced Latte?
2. Iced Latte Recipe Ingredients
3. How to Make an Iced Latte
4. What Kind of Milk Should You Use?
5. Frothed Milk for An Iced Latte?
6. Do Iced Caffe Lattes Have Caffeine?
7. Which is Stronger Iced Coffee or Iced Latte?
8. Ways to Brew Espresso
9. Ice Latte Flavor Inspiration
10. More Iced Latte Drinks You’ll Love to Make
11. How to Make an Iced Latte at Home

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With the weather warming up, we’re coming into cold latte season! If I had my choice and an unlimited amount of funds, I’d be rolling through the Starbucks drive-through every morning for an iced vanilla latte.

Buuuut man are they expensive! Almost $6 for a grande (medium) at Starbucks now? Sheesh!! It costs me less than $2 to make the same size iced vanilla latte at home.

This is why I’m sharing my best tips and tricks to make the absolute best iced latte at home!

What is an Iced Latte?

You see latte drinks and iced lattes everywhere these days, don’t you? If you’re wondering what the heck an iced latte is, I’m here to tell you!

An iced latte is simply milk mixed into espresso in an ice-filled glass.

Yes! It’s that simple!

Iced Latte Recipe Ingredients

Here is what you’ll need to make your iced latte at home:

PRO TIP: Remember: the larger the glass, the more ice you’ll need to fill it!

• 12 oz iced latte (tall or small size drink from a coffee shop): 1 shot espresso, 1 ounce liquid sweetener, 8 ounces milk
• 16 oz iced latte (grande or medium size drink from a coffee shop): 2 shots espresso, 2 ounces liquid sweetener, 8 ounces milk
• 20 oz iced latte (venti or large size drink from a coffee shop): 3 shots espresso, 4 ounces liquid sweetener, 8 ounces milk

How to Make an Iced Latte

Here are the quick and super easy steps for how make the best iced latte at home:

STEP 1: Once you have your espresso brewed and your milk and sweetener ready, fill a glass with ice.

STEP 2: Pour espresso over the ice.

STEP 3: Add the sweetener to the glass.

STEP 4: Pour in the milk to fill up the glass.

Like I said, it’s so simple to make this latte drink at home!

What Kind of Milk Should You Use?

You can use any kind of milk you want from whole to skim cow’s milk to almond, soy, or coconut milk. Or any kind of milk in between as long as you love it!

Heavy cream and half-and-half aren’t really recommended for lattes. You’ll be adding 8 ounces of milk to your iced latte and the higher fat content in heavy cream and half-and-half doesn’t make them a great option for this drink.

Frothed Milk for An Iced Latte?

If you’ve ordered a hot latte from a coffee shop, then you know that hot, frothy milk is poured into a cup with espresso.

But for an ice latte, there’s no need for frothed milk. You want cold milk for your cold drink, right?

Using cold milk means that making iced lattes is much faster than making hot lattes since you don’t have take the time to steam the milk. Plus! There’s no extra clean up of the milk steamer.

Do Iced Caffe Lattes Have Caffeine?

Yes iced lattes – or iced caffe lattes, as they’re sometimes called – do have caffeine. That’s because the espresso used to make the drink has a high concentration of caffeine.

And it’s important to pay attention if you’re trying to watch your caffeine intake: even decaf espresso has a little bit of caffeine in it.

To cut down on my caffeine intake, I mix a shot of decaf espresso with a shot of regular espresso. And if I want to make an iced latte later in the day, I make it with 2 shots of decaf espresso.

Otherwise, I would never sleep at night!

Which is Stronger: Iced Coffee or Iced Latte?

Ounce for ounce, espresso contains more caffeine than coffee. One ounce of espresso contains about 63 mg caffeine. One ounce of coffee contains about 14 mg caffeine.

However, since a medium iced coffee contains about 12 ounces of coffee (about 168 mg caffeine) and a medium iced latte contains 2 shots of espresso (about 126 mg caffeine), a medium iced coffee is actually stronger than an iced latte (source). Who would have thought!!

Ways to Brew Espresso

I brew espresso for my iced latte recipe with a Nespresso machine. My goodness do I loooooove this machine!

It’s fast and there’s no guessing game about how much water is needed because the pods have a barcode on them. The machine reads the barcode and adds only the exact amount of water that each pod requires for the espresso or coffee you choose.

It’s SO SIMPLE to make espresso this way!

You could also brew the espresso in advance, like the night before, and let it cool. This way works just fine.

When I brew espresso to drink straight away or to make it in advance and chill, I like to use small double-walled (insulated) espresso glasses. They keep the espresso hot longer when I want to drink it hot, and colder longer when I refrigerate it. They’re just like Tervis tumblers but made of glass instead of plastic.

There are also other ways to make espresso:

• An old-fashioned but still really cool stove top espresso maker works great too! I have used a stove top maker in the past but switched over to the Nespresso as my go-to when we purchased it over 7 years ago.
• My mom uses still makes espresso (or demitasse, as the Italians in my family call it) on the stove top and it’s really easy to use! You just need to grind your espresso beans, add the ground espresso to the pot, add water, and brew.
• If you have an actual espresso machine in your kitchen, this is going to be how you make your espresso. That’s a luxury item for us since we don’t drink espresso too often and I don’t want to sacrifice counter space for one either.
• And of course, you can definitely stop by a coffee shop and order a shot or 2 (or however many shots you need) to bring home to make your iced latte. Before we had the Nespresso machine, I did this on a few occasions.

Ice Latte Flavor Inspiration

The ways you can sweeten an ice latte are almost endless with 1 caveat. I don’t sweeten any of my cold coffee drinks with granulated sugar because it doesn’t dissolve properly.

Liquid sweeteners, however, mix easily with the cold milk and espresso and dissolve seamlessly. Here are some flavoring suggestions for an ice latte drink:

Flavored coffee syrup. Here are some of my favorites:

• My toasted coconut coffee syrup is always a winner.
• And so is my cinnamon brown sugar coffee syrup, which is a copycat recipe of the Starbucks cinnamon dolce syrup.
• Raspberry vanilla syrup will give you a sweet and fruity iced vanilla raspberry latte.

• Then there’s the classic vanilla syrup to make iced vanilla lattes.
• And my blackberry vanilla syrup will just slightly tint your drink a light purple while giving it a boost of fruity deliciousness.
• OH! And how could I forget my almond toasted coconut variety with real toasted coconut that you’ll steep in a 5-minute simple syrup.

They’re all SO GOOD!

Flavored Coffee Creamer: My pumpkin spice creamer is a copycat recipe of the coffee creamers you find in the grocery store. Combined with some milk, this is a great way to flavor your iced pumpkin spice lattes.

Maple syrup: This natural sweetener is a delicious way to sweeten your coffee, whether it’s hot or cold. Look at that! Now you’ve made an iced maple latte!

Simple syrup: This just a simple mix of equal parts water and sugar that you boil for 5 minutes. When the liquid is cool, it’s a basic syrup to sweeten your coffee with. This is known at Starbucks as the “classic syrup.”

Caramel sauce: Caramel sauce is an excellent way to sweeten your iced latte! My vanilla bean caramel sauce will give an iced latte a sweet toasty flavor. My 3 ingredient salted caramel sauce will give an iced latte a sweet, deeply toasty, and slightly salty flavor. You can’t go wrong with either recipe but be sure you warm the caramel sauce a little to loosen it up before you add it to the iced latte.

Honey: This is also a great natural sweetener for hot and cold drinks. Honey will give your iced latte some floral flavor notes and it will enhance any naturally sweet flavors your espresso already has.

Eggnog: I make an outstanding hot eggnog latte for the Christmas season but if you want to make an iced eggnog latte, simply add the eggnog to the iced espresso without heating and frothing it first.

Flavored milk: You can find some milk varieties that are sweetened these days. Vanilla almond and soy milk are both fairly common in grocery stores.

I hope you’ll start making your own iced latte at home now! It’s a delicious drink, however you decide to make it, and it will cost you pennies on the dollar to make at home compared to buying it at a coffee shop!

More Iced Latte Drinks You’ll Love to Make

Looking for iced latte recipes? Be sure to check out the other popular drinks with Smells Like Home readers:

• Iced Vanilla Lattes
• Iced Pumpkin Spice Lattes
• Iced Mocha Lattes
• Iced Raspberry Vanilla Lattes

RELATED: 19 Different Espresso Drinks to Make or Order

Continue to Content Prep Time 1 minute Cook Time 1 minute Total Time 2 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 shots of brewed hot or cold espresso (approximately 2 oz)
• 8 oz milk (any variety)
• 2 oz liquid sweetener, such as a coffee syrup, maple syrup, caramel sauce, honey, or simple syrup

Instructions

1. Pour the espresso into a 16 oz glass filled with ice. (see note below)
2. Add the liquid sweetener to the glass.
3. Pour milk into the glass and stir until the milk, sweetener, and espresso are combined.

Notes

You can either brew the espresso directly over the ice if you have an espresso machine or make the espresso on the stove top and pour it over the ice. The espresso can be hot or cold when you pour it over the ice.

Recommended Products

As a member of the Amazon Associate affiliate program, I earn a small percentage from your qualifying Amazon purchases when you click the Amazon links on this page. I'm not informed of who purchases what, just of what products are purchased.

• Nespresso Vertuo Coffee and Espresso Machine
• Nespresso Capsules VertuoLine, Espresso, Bold Variety Pack, Medium and Dark Roast Espresso Coffee, 40 Count Coffee Pods, Brews (VERTUOLINE ONLY), 1.35 Ounce , 10 Count (Pack of 4)
• De'Longhi 15 BAR Pump Espresso and Cappuccino Maker
• Bialetti Moka Stove Top Coffee Maker
• illy Classico Espresso Ground Coffee, Medium Roast
• Bodum Pavina 2.5-Ounce Double-Wall Thermo Glasses
• Ball Pint Mason Jar, Regular Mouth, 16 oz (2 Count)
• Hiware 12-Pack Stainless Steel Metal Straws Curved with 2 Cleaning Brush - Reusable Drinking Straws For 30oz / 20oz Tumblers Yeti, Dishwasher Safe
• Farmhouse Pottery Small Silo Pitcher

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