There can be little doubt that in countries with warm climates, coffee is best served chilled. While northerners call for sugar, vanilla ice cream, cream and milk in iced coffee recipes, those in the south stick to a more purist approach. The Spanish coffee specialty café con hielo takes the cake.
In Spain, the waiter brings you a hot espresso, a glass of ice cubes and then leaves you to your fate. So, is this an actual coffee recipe or just a collection of ingredients? Let’s take a closer look.
Coffeeness Medium Roast Espresso
Well-balanced with chocolate & hazelnut notes
Freshly roasted in Brooklyn
Very low acidity
Table of Contents
What Is Café Con Hielo?
Café con hielo is espresso served with ice cubes. And as I mentioned above, the ice is served on the side, so you can adjust the temperature to your liking at the table. For an extra touch of freshness, the cup or glass is usually garnished with a lemon peel. As for sugar, you can add it to taste.
Spanish coffee culture emerged around the early 18th century, when Venetian merchants brought their own traditions to the Iberian Peninsula. They likely brought their recipe for café freddo – or iced coffee – with them as well.
In the traditional version, sugar is first added to hot espresso, stirred and then poured into a whiskey glass filled with ice cubes. There’s no set rule for the amount of ice; it’s up to each person to decide how strong they like their coffee.
Simple, strong and effective: Spanish iced coffee does exactly what it was made for. It refreshes and invigorates without masking the flavor with whole milk, cream and the like.
Café helado is more in line with what we think of as iced coffee – that is, coffee with ice cream. But even here, it remains a purist’s choice. A scoop of vanilla ice cream is paired with a shot of espresso. This makes café helado the Spanish counterpart to the Italian affogato al caffe.
Café Con Hielo Recipe
Making café con hielo is easy. To get a sufficiently strong espresso, you really need an espresso machine. However, Spaniards most often use a moka pot when they’re making the drink at home. And of course, there’s nothing wrong with using a fully automatic coffee machine either.
Ingredients
1.4 ounces (40 milliliters) espresso
A few ice cubes
Lemon peel
Method
To be honest, I’d just skip the whole separate glass thing and brew your espresso directly over the ice cubes. Whether or not you add sugar to the glass is up to you. To make sure the lemon zest does more than just look pretty, rub it around the rim of the glass. This infuses the coffee with essential oils.
Café Con Hielo Variations: How About Con Leche?
Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re only allowed to put coffee and ice in your glass. Turn it into a cold cappuccino, an iced latte, top it with a dollop of whipped cream or transform it into a café con leche or a café cortado served on the rocks.
Since the Spanish (sensibly) prefer descriptive names, café con leche is exactly what it sounds like: coffee with whole milk. If you use condensed milk instead, you get a variation of the café bombón recipe.
If you want something really exciting, try an ice-cold Barraquito. It combines espresso with liqueur, sweetened condensed milk, milk foam, lemon and cinnamon.
On the other hand, if you want to turn your iced coffee into a cocktail, follow the carajillo recipe. The Spanish love to drink this espresso with a shot of liquor cold in the summer. They use either brandy or Fernet-Branca.
The Best Coffee Beans for Iced Espresso
Strong coffee is the foundation of all Spanish coffee specialties. That’s why many baristas use a blend of Arabica and Robusta beans. This ensures that every espresso-based drink can hold its own against ice, milk, alcohol, cream and other ingredients.
Torrefacto coffee is also commonly used in Spain. This blend, which contains a proportion of caramelized beans, adds a sweet note and pairs well with café con hielo.
However, you should never use the sugary Torrefacto coffee beans in your fully automatic coffee machine, as they can clog the pipes, grinder and other components.
As an alternative, I recommend my Coffeeness Espresso Blend. Displaying notes of chocolate, caramel and hazelnut, it’s been specially crafted for semi-automatic and super-automatic machines. Trust me, it more than holds its own when prepared as an iced espresso.
Coffeeness Medium Roast Espresso
Well-balanced with chocolate & hazelnut notes
Freshly roasted in Brooklyn
Very low acidity
My Verdict: Café Con hielo Is Right up My Alley
For me, as a purist, café con hielo is just the thing. After all, this iced coffee contains nothing more than espresso. If you make it with high-quality beans, you’ve got the perfect summer drink – and you even skip the sugar in the glass.
I wouldn’t exactly call it a Spanish coffee specialty – in the sense of a traditional recipe. But I definitely prefer this two-ingredient blend from Spain to a sugary monster like a homemade iced caramel macchiato, which we get in equally unhealthy versions at Starbucks and other chains.
And what about you? Are you also coffee purists or does your iced coffee need at least milk? Feel free to leave me a comment!
