How to Make Iced Coffee with Keurig Coffee Maker

Keurig is famous for their single-serve coffee machines. It is a cheap, quick way to get your daily caffeine fix. Despite the high speed, Keurig’s machines can produce some pretty tasty brews.

But here’s the thing: Keurig coffee machines aren’t like the typical ones that can be found in most kitchens and coffee shops. A Keurig machine doesn’t accept coffee grounds. Instead, it uses special coffee pods called K-Cups to give you your tasty brew.

This new form of coffee-brewing could confuse a lot of people. To give you a hands-on introduction, we’ll show you how to make iced coffee with Keurig in today’s article. Brewing coffee Keurig-style really isn’t as complicated as it seems!

How to Make Iced Coffee with Keurig

What You’ll Need

You don’t need many things to get started. Here is the full list:

A Keurig machine
K-Cups or My K-Cups
Water and ice

Step 1: “Preheat” the Keurig

This step is highly recommended as it ensures that the Keurig’s internal parts are hot and ready by the time you’re ready to brew. The machine will generate a hotter brewing temperature, resulting in better extraction and thus better flavor.

Power on the Keurig and pour water into the machine. There will be a MIN and a MAX line. Do not fill below the MIN line and do not exceed the MAX line.

You can use either bottled water or filtered water. Avoid using tap water, if possible.

Don’t add the K-Cup coffee pod in yet. Instead, push the brew button right away.

Position a cup at the dispensing nozzle. When the Keurig is “finished”, plain hot water will come out of the nozzle and into the cup. Just throw that water away.

Step 2: Insert the K-Cup/My K-Cup

With that finished, insert either your K-Cup or My K-Cup into the machine’s receptacle.

An ordinary K-Cup is a one-time use, so add it right in. Do not remove the lid from the pod.

However, if you have a reusable My K-Cup, you have to add coffee grounds into the filter before putting it into the machine.

Depending on the model, a small light will flash at this point to tell you that the machine is ready to be used. More advanced models with an LCD screen will tell you on the display.

Step 3: Make Your Ice Cup

There are two approaches that you can take. Either one is fine.

How to Make Iced Coffee with Keurig Step — (By USA Today)

The first involves filling your favorite coffee cup or mug with ice. Later, you can pour the just-brewed coffee directly on top of the ice. This method is quite popular since it is far less messy.

A different approach is to put the ice separately in another cup, leaving your coffee cup empty. Pour the hot drink into the empty cup, then add the ice. Be careful while you’re adding the ice, though. If you add too much, the coffee may overflow.

Step 4: Brew

Press the cup size on the machine and wait as it brews up the coffee. After a few short minutes, the coffee will begin to flow from the dispenser.

Enjoy!

How Does a Keurig Coffee Maker Work?

If you’re wondering how coffee can be made from such a tiny package, the answer is quite simple.

K-Cup coffee pods are made from plastic and are filled with around 0.3 ounces of coffee ground. The ground is protected by a foil lid.

When you put the pod into the machine, a needle punctures the top foil lid. Pressurized hot water is pumped into the pod, transforming the coffee grounds into piping hot coffee.

Once the coffee is ready, another hollow needle punctures the bottom of the pod, draws out the coffee, and dispenses it into your cup.

How Good Is the Brew?

If you’re either the new owner of a Keurig or are on the fence about buying one,most people consider the quality of Keurig’s K-Cups to be great. The secret is in the paper filter that it uses instead of just a plastic cup. The filter extracts more of the coffee’s essence from the grounds, giving the final brew a superior aroma and flavor to generic coffee pods on the market.

Other Keurig’s Iced Coffee Recipes to Try Out

Basic iced coffee isn’t all that you can do with a Keurig. If you would like to make your morning routine a bit more exciting with new recipes, here are a few simple ones to try.

Vietnamese Iced Coffee

Vietnamese iced coffee is typically made from a special drip tool called “phin”. It is basically a hybrid between a French press and a pour-over. Thanks to its special design, the coffee can come out extra strong with a distinctive dense flavor.

Obviously, trying to brew Vietnamese iced coffee with a Keurig is a drastic departure from tradition. But, if you don’t have anything else in your kitchen and want a cuppa, it’s alright to try.

This recipe is best done with a Keurig that gives you the “strong” or “shot” function. The flavor will become much bolder and have a more similar profile to phin-brewed coffee.

Dispense the coffee into an empty cup, free of ice.

At this stage, if you prefer your coffee black and unsweetened (“Cà phê đá”, lit. “iced coffee”), just add ice directly to the coffee.

If you want to drink the sweetened version (“Cà phê sữa đá”, lit.“milky ice coffee”), then you need to follow some extra steps.

Add a hearty amount ofcondensed milkto the bottom of a separate, empty cup. If you prefer it only lightly sweetened, add a tablespoon. If you want it sweeter, you can go for two or three tablespoons.

Then, pour the coffee on top of the milk layer. Follow it up with ice immediately after. Stir to mix up the milk with the coffee andvoilà!

Vietnamese Iced Coffee sweetened version — (By Juicetin)

Coffee Ice

If you dislike the watered-down taste of the coffee when you add ice cubes to it, try out this method. It’s quite simple: brew the coffee as you normally would, let it cool, then pour it into an ice tray.

Throw the ice tray into the freezer. Over the course of a couple of hours, the coffee will solidify into ice cubes.

The next time you brew your iced coffee, use these cubes instead of adding plain water cubes. They will make your coffee stronger while simultaneously chilling it down.