Hello friend!
Would you like an iced coffee?
If we were hanging out today, I'd ask if I could make one for you.
Not because I’m amazing at making iced coffee, but because #1 I love taking care of moms and #2 Sometimes it's nice to have someone think about YOU for a change!
Such was the case when the kids and I were meeting friends for a playdate the other day...
Trouble is, I was rushed, the coffee was hot, and my “I’ll just add a little hot fudge to make it a fancy mocha” idea was a terrible one.
As I instructa-yelled the kids into the car, I furiously stirred at the gooey lump of undissolving hot fudge in my far-from-iced coffee.
After swirling the unrelenting blob around, I gave up, scooped it out, and filled the rest of the cup with ice as I flew to the car.
This coffee would be cold and refreshing if it was the last thing I did.
*Pause* If you’ve known me for a second, you would know my pet peeve of making something when the end product doesn't taste good. Call me weird, but WHY waste my life on something if it doesn’t taste good?! (Even if it is healthy food! If you think healthy food tastes boring, we need to talk!)
*Back to Coffee* I pulled up at the park, immediately forgot my coffee-capades in the blur of mom-life and proceeded to leave our beloved iced coffee in the hot car.
Yep. You caught it. Iced coffee in the hot car. Good job blog lady. Way to ruin a good thing.
20 minutes later, my brain woke up and I remembered my pre-park battle.
Though it *was* cold, I now had some embarrassingly coffee flavored water to offer my friend.
*NOT* what I had envisioned.
All that is to say - mom-life is too busy to have coffee fails. Not only that, Mom life is too busy to have treat fails. If you get time for a treat, let’s make sure it’s a good one :)
Que the Googling. My other favorite thing to do is find simple solutions to solvable problems that feel like big problems and, yes…. mom treats are big problems. I’ve suffered from solvable problems as a mom for way-to-long. So when I find a solution, I’m all about sharing with my mom tribe.
Introducing: The coffee cube
If ice is going to make my coffee watery, why not make my ice out of something else?!
Better yet, why not FLAVOR my ice cubes so that as it melts, my coffee just becomes an explosion of goodness that knocks my mommy socks off?
Too dramatic? I think not. Life is too short and too hard to not have your socks knocked off at least once in a while. If we’re going to pause for a treat, let’s at least enjoy it :).
Here’s the gist; It’s pretty simple.
Decide what flavor of coffee you want to end up with in the end.
Freeze THAT
5 NOT-Watery Iced Coffee Hacks You Need This Summer
1. Coffee Cubes: Keep it simple. Keep it black. Just freeze COFFEE for your cube! I did this last week for Jonathan during a 15 hour field-work day and it worked great! I froze a tray of cubes the night before, threw them in some milky coffee the next morning with a little sugar and viola. NOT watery coffee
2. Latte Cubes: Iced Latte anyone? **This was voted by our weekend company as the favorite out of all 5 kinds!!** You can’t get much more simple than this: I took fresh milk from the farm and froze it in cubes. Almost too simple; I know. But think about it. As it melts, you get your latte. *Obviously* you may need to add a little sugar… whatever sounds like a treat to you. However - let me just say: fresh, creamy milk is a total win.
3. Caramel Cubes: Buy the caramel, mix the caramel with coffee, freeze the caramel, feel awesome and delicious eating the caramel. *Hot tip* caramel doesn’t freeze unless you mix it with the coffee first. I learned this the sticky way so you don’t have to. Be sure that you mix it into your coffee thoroughly before you freeze it. These pictures show me pouring caramel into the bottom of my cube tray but it didn’t exactly freeze the best in the bottom of the tray.
4. Sweet & Condensed Milk Cubes: Apparently this is a Vietnamese Coffee trick. I just call it pure genius. It’s easy. It’s sweet. It’s creamy and wow. I’m all about testing things for my people and you’re my people…. So make sure you mix your sweetened condensed milk into your coffee before freezing because I tried being straight up lazy by freezing plain cubes of sweetened condensed milk and it didn't work. They never froze. Google says you can freeze it, but maybe my brand of sweetened milk was too... sweet?
5. Raspberry Syrup Cubes: This one is a *little* harder fought but well worth it if you like raspberry. I didn’t even know raspberry coffee syrup was a thing until a few weeks ago when I ordered it from a local coffee shop. I’m here to tell you. It’s a thing. Apparently raspberry coffee syrup can be hard to find, so I just made my own. In the grand scheme of treat-world, it was a pretty easy recipe - AND can be frozen for later so you can make a bunch and have the treat tomorrow :)
There you have it! The moral of this mommy tale: Let’s practice ENJOYING mom life this summer.
Ain’t no momma got time for coffee flavored water. Don’t do that to yourself.
(-Mom… if you’re reading this, I know ain’t isn’t a word and I know double negatives are bad...it’s ok)
Tips:
1. *Maybe* don’t try making all 5 cubes at once unless you have more cube trays than I do :). My freezer and I have been on a first name basis this week. You don’t need to be talking to your freezer.
2. Plan ahead to don your cape. If you are seeing a friend or want to surprise your spouse, just think ahead a *little* and chuck some coffee cubes in the freezer tonight! You won’t regret those rockstar-feels when you whip out iced coffees from thin air like the Martha Stewart you are.
3. Do the sitter-vise. The Busy Toddler blog challenges moms to practice sittervising - It’s the art of putting your feet up and watching your kids play. Personally, I run around like a headless chicken *most* of the time my kids are playing… but how about a cup of iced mommy juice while you put your feet up? It’s ok. It’s good for everyone involved. :)
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