Is there a specific time to have an iced coffee? Yeah, when you’re awake. It doesn’t have to be 100º out, or summer, or hyper-humid or any of that. Fact: you can have iced coffee whenver you want to. There ain’t no rules when it comes to coffee. Oh, except Keurig machines are tools of the devil.

So, yeah, iced coffee is great. Always. Refreshing. Cooling. A change-up to your regular coffee if you don’t have ’em often, and a delightful re-discovery that’ll make you want to have another. And then another. Delicious! Seriously, there is always room for an iced coffee.

I am specifically speaking of the method of: approach your espresso machine. Give it the standard greeting. What? You don’t talk to your espresso machine upon first contact everyday? What’s wrong with you? So you’re in front of your machine, looking at it longingly, speaking softly, and you decide on an iced coffee. That doesn’t mean it’s the ONLY coffee you’re going to have, just the one you’re going to make at this moment.

Grab a glass that is not your standard coffee cup. Definitely not a demitasse. A glass you like, that also fits under the portafilter. This is paramount. Go to your freezer, push aside the 3 pints of Ben & Jerry’s, the frozen veg, the ice cube tray that is totally empty, yet still in the freezer cubeless (what’s wrong with you!?), and grab a few cubes from the other tray. Good. Place a couple cubes into the glass you decided on, and put it under your portafilter like you ordinarily would a coffee cup.

The secret here, a Japanese Technique I’ve been using for decades, is to have the espresso straight-up hit the ice, get it all melty, and boom! instant iced espresso! Delicious! This technique results in a clean, less bitter, very tasty coffee that doesn’t taste like just watered-down coffee. Upon completion there should still be enough space in the glass to add another cube or so. It’s awesome.

Recently I gotta wild hair and tried something totally nutzo which worked out spectacularly. Snow coffee!

Yes, you read that right. Received about 10″ of snow overnight, and when it came time to have my morning coffee…well…I just got the inspiration to use some of nature’s cooling agent.

Of course, if you were going to try this yourself I would highly suggest getting snow from a clean source. No trampling, doggos, or colored snow. That will just end in tears. Tasty? Yes. Is snow harder to come by than your icecube tray? Most likely.

So grab some ice cubes, give your espresso machine the standard greeting, and get to making a coffee. There’s another one to make when you’ve finished that one…