Iced Vanilla Coffee

An iced vanilla latte, made properly, is a very good drink. Made with cheap syrup it is sugar water with a coffee accent. The difference is almost entirely in the syrup, which takes five minutes to make.

Vanilla syrup, first

1. Combine 100 g caster sugar and 100 ml water in a small pan.
2. Split half a vanilla pod, scrape the seeds in, and drop the pod in too. No pod? Use 1 teaspoon of real vanilla extract, added off the heat.
3. Warm gently until the sugar dissolves. Do not boil.
4. Cool completely, then strain into a clean jar. It keeps two to three weeks in the fridge.

What you need

• A double shot of espresso — 18 g of coffee in, 36 g in the cup
• 15–20 ml of vanilla syrup
• 150–180 ml of cold full-fat milk
• A tall glass, filled with ice

How to make it

1. Put the vanilla syrup in the glass.
2. Fill the glass to the top with ice. More ice, not less — a full glass melts more slowly than a half-empty one and dilutes the drink less.
3. Pour the cold milk over the ice.
4. Pull the espresso and pour it over the top, so it falls through the milk in a layer.
5. Stir before drinking, or hand it over layered and let them do it.

The ratio

15–20 ml of syrup to a double shot is enough to taste clearly without burying the coffee. Most café versions use two or three times that.

Common mistakes

• Pouring hot espresso onto too little ice. It melts through, and you get warm milky coffee.
• Brewing the shot ahead and refrigerating it. Espresso oxidises fast and turns flat and sour. Pull it fresh over the ice.
• Skimmed milk. There is not enough fat to carry the vanilla.

Make it stronger

Freeze coffee into ice cubes and use those instead of water ice. The drink gets more coffee-forward as it melts rather than less.

Which coffee to use

Anything on our shelf works, but milk drinks reward a coffee with body and sweetness over one built for delicate florals — the milk will bury the top notes either way. Check the tasting notes and the process on each product page; a natural or a honey-processed lot usually cuts through milk better than a light washed one.