Brew Over Ice Hacks for The Best K Cup Flavors Ever!

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If you’ve been to my blog for more than 5 seconds, then you probably know that I love my coffee, and I love it brewed over ice. All the time. Always. And preferably in my Keurig. I’ve even shown you how my iced coffee keeps me company throughout the day.

Well friends, it’s been almost a year, now, since Keurig came into my life. We’ve logged a lot of hours, turned A LOT of water into delicious iced coffee, and we’ve even picked up a few tricks along the way to maximize the Brew Over Ice experience. Today I’m going to show you two hacks for AMAZING drinks, and one is even NOT coffee, so if you don’t drink coffee, I may not understand you on a fundamental level, but I still have something yummy in store for you!

#BrewItUp All Fancy!

Did you know that your Keurig is for SO much more than coffee? And I’m not even talking about all of the hot beverage options (though there are a gazillion of those). I’m talking about iced cold delicious drinks made right there, on the spot. If you are confused, that’s understandable! After all, the Keurig keeps a supply of hot water at the ready for you, and does make use of that hot water any time it is making a drink with a K cup. But there are specially designed Brew Over Ice K cups that will give you then end result you seek: a delicious drink that is cold! The ice cubes actually are intended to largely melt as part of the process, and they have perfected this system so that your drink does not taste watered down, but instead, just right. I still get excited about this concept when I talk or write about it, and I’ve been using it for a year now! I found my Brew Over Ice K cups at Walmart. They had some in the aisles, but they had a bigger selection in their specialty display area.

 Ok, so on to the hack. I’ve got two recipes for making Brew Over Ice cubes that will add some seriously flavor to your next drink. Let’s start with the Tropical Strawberry Burst you see pictured above. To make the ice cubes, start with a Vitamin Burst in Strawberrry Pomegranate and brew on the next to smallest setting with maybe 2/3 of the amount of ice cubes that you would usually use if you were going to drink this right away (so fill your 16 oz cup 2/3 full of ice instead of totally full). Important safety reminder: please do not brew your cold drinks in a glass container, as it is hot water coming into the cup. Get yourself a cute plastic tumbler (I found the ones pictured in this post at Walmart, and I love them because they have the look of  mason jars but they aren’t made of glass).

Ok, so after your drink is brewed, the vast majority of your ice cubes will be melted. Just give the drink a little stir to help remaining ice cubes melt.

Next, chop about 4 strawberries. The size I went for was small enough to get lots of flavor, but big enough to not get stuck in my straw. You can do whatever you like best, from large slices all the way down to teeny tiny pieces. Totally up to you!

Place your strawberries in your ice cube tray. I elected to squeeze them all into 9 sections, but you can space yours out more than that if you like. The other half of my ice cube trays were left sans-strawberry, just for the sake of variety.

Now it’s time to add that tropical flavor that really will give your drink a kick: coconut water! Add 1/2 cup of coconut water to your Vitamin Burst drink. Stir to combine.

Now carefully pour your drink into your ice cube trays. You should have enough liquid to make two trays of tropical strawberry burst ice cubes. Place them in your freezer until they have frozen, which will take anywhere from 6 to 18 hours (sorry…I don’t have any hacks for getting them to freeze faster).

Once they are ready, get your ice cubes out and decide how many you want to fill your glass with for making your drink. You could go totally nuts and exclusively use tropical strawberry burst ice cubes, or you might prefer a more measured approach, like me, and do half standard ice cubes, and half specialty ice cubes.

Now have the Keurig make your drink for you! If you use all specialty ice cubes, you might want to go for the second to smallest or even the middle setting on the Keurig, and if you go half and half, then you might go for the smallest setting. Play around with it and see what you like the best, flavor-wise!

As your speciality cubes melt, your drink will have beautiful strawberries floating around in it, and a coconut infused flavor that will take your brew over ice beverage to the next level. I’m actually working on making a month’s supply of these ice cubes for Tim to have on hand, as he really enjoys the Vitamin Burst drink (he’s not a coffee guy…more proof that opposites really do attract!). He’s also not much of a present guy, but he really appreciates acts of service like this. So one of his Father’s Day gifts will be specialty ice cubes at the ready for his drinks! And just FYI, you can also find Vitamin Burst K Cups in Acai Berry. I haven’t tried it yet, but it’s on my list for my next Walmart trip and I’ll be making similar specialty ice cubes for those!

For the Iced Coffee Fans

Now, you really didn’t think I’d use up all of my creativity on a NON coffee drink hack, did you? Heck no! I want something yummy for my favorite drink, too! So here’s my iced coffee drink enhancement.

Ok, this really is a similar process to the Vitamin Burst ice cubes, but the ingredients are obviously different. Start by making your Brew Over Ice coffee but only fill your 16 oz cup 2/3 of the way with ice instead of the whole way.

Give it a good stir after it is finished to help melt the ice. Now it’s time to add some major flavor!

To this cup of coffee I added 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (I know…that’s totally insane…and I’m not sorry about it) and I added 2 Tbsp of agave nectar (that’s my sweetener of choice). Remember, this is going to make your specialty ice cubes, so you want it to be creamier and sweeter than how you would normally make your iced coffee.

Ok, once everything is blended, carefully pour your beverage into two ice cube trays. Place back in the freezer and allow to freeze.

Once they are ready, it’s time to brew more iced coffee! Once again, you need to decide if you are going gangbusters on your drink and exclusively using your specialty ice cubes, of if you are going to use half regular ice, and half specialty ice (that’s what I do). Either way, totally fill up your glass, and then brew your cup. I opt for the second to smallest cup setting, but play around with this and see what you prefer. With my specialty ice cubes, your drink has the sweetness and the cream already added in from the start, AND it is stronger, as some of the ice cubes were actually coffee! Talk about a great way to get moving quick in the morning, friends!

 The K Cup Aftermath

Do any of you suffer from K Cup guilt due to tossing those little suckers every time you make a drink? Well good news! Keurig has its own recycling program called Grounds to Grow. Take a moment to learn more about it and be sure to spread the word so we can stop putting these K cups in the landfills!

Let me know if you try either of my Brew Over Ice hacks. I think they take your cold drinks from super yummy to OUT. OF. CONTROL. 🙂