Coffee Classics: Japanese Iced Coffee (Japan)
Japanese Iced Coffee is a study in clarity — a drink born from a culture that finds beauty in precision and simplicity. Its origins trace back to post-war kissaten cafés, where baristas quietly perfected a method of brewing hot coffee directly over ice. Unlike cold brew, this technique preserves every bright, fleeting aromatic note, capturing the coffee’s character with remarkable purity.
In Japan, this drink mirrors the rhythm of its cities: fast, clean, deliberate. It is the taste of summer mornings in Shibuya, of quiet afternoons in Kyoto tea houses, of train windows rattling past fields and rooftops. Flash-chilled, fragrant, and refreshing, Japanese Iced Coffee celebrates the moment coffee meets ice — a brief dramatic collision that creates something impossibly smooth.
It is coffee at its most honest: bright, balanced, and awake.
Ingredients
20 g medium-light roast coffee
150 ml hot water (93–95°C)
100 g ice in the server
Additional ice for serving
Equipment Needed
V60 or similar pour-over dripper
Filter paper
Scale
Server or carafe filled with ice
Tall glass
Method
Rinse the filter and discard the water.
Add 100 g of ice to your server.
Add coffee grounds to the dripper.
Begin with a 30 g bloom for 30 seconds.
Continue pouring in slow circles until you reach 150 ml of hot water.
Swirl the server to melt the remaining ice and cool the brew.
Pour over fresh ice in a tall glass.
Notes
Use lighter roasts for maximum clarity and fruit notes.
The coffee should chill instantly; if it melts too slowly, grind slightly finer.
Japanese Iced Coffee shines with floral, citrus, or tea-like beans.
