Basics
How to Make an Iced Latte
A double espresso layered over cold milk and a full glass of ice — the summer latte, and the three details that stop it going watery.
Ingredients
- 1 double espresso (about 36 g)
- About 180 ml cold whole milk, or oat milk
- A full glass of ice cubes
- Optional: 1 teaspoon vanilla or caramel syrup
Steps
- Pull a double espresso and let it sit for a minute — hot espresso poured straight onto ice melts it too fast. If you are using syrup, stir it into the espresso now.
- Fill a tall 350 ml glass right to the top with ice.
- Pour in the cold milk until the glass is about three-quarters full.
- Pour the espresso slowly over the milk so it floats and layers on top, then stir before drinking — or leave it layered for the photo.
Tips
- More ice, not less: a full glass melts slower and keeps the drink from turning watery.
- Cold brew concentrate works instead of espresso for a softer, sweeter version.
- Stir before the first sip — the layers look good, but they taste better together.
The iced latte is what most of Istanbul drinks from June to September, and it is one of the few espresso drinks that is genuinely easier to make than its hot version: there is no milk to steam, no foam to judge, no temperature to hit. Espresso, cold milk, a glass full of ice. The only things that separate a good one from a disappointing one are the order you build it in, how much ice you use, and whether the espresso is allowed to melt half the glass before you have taken a sip.
Building it
Start with the ice: a tall glass, filled to the top. This feels like too much, and it is exactly right. Ice cools the drink and, once the drink is cold, stops melting; a glass with three cubes keeps melting until the latte is thin and grey. Then the milk, poured in over the ice until the glass is about three-quarters full. Then the espresso, poured slowly over the back of a spoon or straight down the inside of the glass so that it floats on the milk in a dark layer.
That layered look — pale milk, a band of coffee, crema on top — is the reason iced lattes fill so many photo feeds, and it is worth doing even if you plan to stir it a second later. Which you should: the drink is far better mixed than as a two-tone sculpture.
The espresso
Pull a proper double shot. Because cold dulls flavour, an iced latte needs at least as much coffee as a hot one, and a single shot in 180 ml of cold milk tastes of very little. Give the shot a minute to cool before it meets the ice — pouring it straight from the machine melts more ice than it should. If you have no espresso machine, strong moka-pot coffee works, and so does cold brew concentrate, which makes a rounder, sweeter drink with less bite.
If you take it sweet, stir syrup or sugar into the hot espresso first; neither dissolves well once everything is cold.
Milk
Cold whole milk gives the creamiest result. Oat milk is the best plant option and has a natural sweetness that suits coffee; almond milk is lighter and works well if you like a thinner drink. Whatever you use, it should be fridge-cold — milk at room temperature melts ice faster and makes the drink watery.
When to order it
Any time the square is hot, which in Sultanahmet is most of the afternoon from late spring onwards. We serve ours in a branded cup with a double shot of Calibre Coffee, and it is the drink in the photo above. It is on our menu every day, with oat or almond milk if you prefer, next to the cold brew and the iced americano — see the menu.