Iced Cafe au Lait
Half dark, slightly bitter chicory coffee and half cold milk, lightly sweetened, poured over ice. It is the drink New Orleans reaches for in August, and the chicory is what gives it a body plain coffee lacks.
At a glance
- Coffee : milk
- 1:1
- Active time
- 10 min
- Total time
- 970 min
- Makes
- 6 glasses
- Serve
- Over ice
- Kit
- Cold brew jar
Ingredients
Note: Without a chicory blend, add 20 g of roasted chicory to 80 g of dark roast coffee.
Method
-
Cold brew the chicory coffee
Stir the coffee and cold water together in the jar, cover and steep for 12 hours at room temperature or 18 in the fridge.
Steep 12 to 18 hours -
Strain twice
Strain out the grounds, then filter through paper. Chicory makes a thick, dark concentrate and the paper pass removes its fine sediment.
-
Equal coffee and milk over ice
Fill a glass with ice. Add the syrup, then 100 ml of concentrate and 100 ml of cold milk. Stir.
Why this works
Chicory is a root, Cichorium intybus, roasted and ground like coffee. It contains no caffeine. What it brings is inulin and other carbohydrates that break down in roasting and dissolve into a dark, thick, slightly sweet and pleasantly bitter liquid. That gives chicory coffee more body and a deeper colour than coffee alone, which matters in an iced drink diluted with milk and melting ice. Plain cold brew diluted half and half can taste thin. Chicory cold brew still tastes full.
New Orleans adopted chicory from the French, who used it as a coffee extender during shortages in the early nineteenth century. It became a necessity during the American Civil War, when Union blockades cut the port off from coffee, and it stayed because people liked it. Café du Monde's café au lait, coffee and chicory with hot milk, is one of the city's best-known drinks.
Cold brewing suits it particularly well. Chicory's bitterness and coffee's harsher compounds both extract more slowly in cold water, so the result is smooth and rounded, and chicory's body comes through without its sharper edges. Equal milk keeps it in the café au lait tradition: half and half, nothing fancy.
The hot version, with scalded milk and dark coffee, is on the café au lait page.
Variations
- Hot café au lait: equal strong chicory coffee and hot scalded milk. See café au lait.
- With condensed milk: 20 ml condensed milk in place of syrup, for a richer, sweeter drink.
- Frozen: blend the concentrate, milk, syrup and ice for a New Orleans style frozen coffee.
- Without chicory: plain dark cold brew works, with less body.
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Questions
What is iced café au lait?
Equal parts coffee and cold milk over ice, usually lightly sweetened. In New Orleans the coffee is blended with chicory.
Why is chicory added to New Orleans coffee?
It began as a coffee extender during shortages, most famously during the Civil War, and stayed for its body and pleasant bitterness. Chicory has no caffeine.
Does chicory coffee have less caffeine?
Yes, in proportion to how much chicory is in the blend, since chicory itself contains no caffeine.
Is iced café au lait the same as an iced latte?
Close, but an iced latte uses espresso and more milk. Café au lait uses brewed coffee, often with chicory, and equal milk.