There’s a massive battle being waged between coffee, tea, and alt morning beverages. The Indie drink innovators and caffeine traditionalists have been competing for the privilege to fill your mugs for years. But we’re here to end the war in one fell swoop: a coffee-flavored tea with real effects.
Why Try this Coffee-Flavored Tea Instead of Other Coffee Swaps?
Here’s the problem: Regular, caffeinated coffee tastes great but can leave you feeling overly wired and then ragged. Some coffee substitutes provide more balanced effects, but taste like dirt in a cup (no offense). While decaf coffee and caffeine-free coffee-flavored substitutes often taste good, they typically don’t provide any effects—that’s okay if you’ve been avoiding caffeine for a while now, but if the breakup was recent, you might need some support.
So here’s the solution. We’re going to teach you how to make a coffee-flavored tea that can support your motivation and satisfy your taste buds, all in one. It’s called iced kroffee, and it will change your life (or at least, your mornings).
Secret Ingredients You’ll Need for Effective Coffee-Flavored Tea
The main ingredient in our iced kroffee? It’s kratom tea. Kratom + coffee = kroffee. Aha! If you aren’t familiar with kratom, it’s a tree that grows throughout wetland forests in Southeast Asia. You can brew its leaves into a tea that can be both energizing and relaxing.
1. Kratom Tea Bags
Kratom leaves contain alkaloids like mitragynine that can be energizing, just as coffee beans and Camellia sinensis tea leaves contain an energizing alkaloid: caffeine. That’s why making a tea with kratom leaves can be a great coffee substitute if you’re looking to reduce your caffeine consumption or stop drinking caffeine altogether. Here are our favorite kratom tea varieties for making iced kroffee:
- Uplift classic white vein kratom tea: This is a plain white vein kratom tea. It can provide a smooth energizing lift.
- Cacao Uplift kratom blend: This tea has white vein crushed-leaf kratom as well as organic cacao shells. It provides similar effects, and the cacao shells add a hint of chocolatey flavor and richness.
Related:Don’t know much about kratom? Get to know the different types.
2. Decaf Espresso Powder or an Herbal Coffee-Flavored Blend
Kratom leaves don’t taste like coffee. Yet you can still make this incredible functional tea taste like coffee. You just have to combine it with something else. Here are our favorite caffeine-free coffee-flavored options, based on the dozens of cups of iced kroffee we’ve made this year:
- Herbal Coffee Alternative: Our go-to is Dandy, which is a mix of roasted dandelion, chicory, barley and rye. It’s an extract, which means it dissolves easily into your tea and doesn’t make your drink gritty. (By the way, this recommendation is not sponsored.)
- Decaf espresso powder: Decaffeinated coffee products contain trace amounts of caffeine, so if you’re very sensitive to caffeine, choose a different option. You can also use decaf instant coffee, but instant coffee is often more astringent than espresso powder.
You could alternatively add a coffee-flavored tea bag to your kratom tea while it’s steeping. Like herbal coffee extracts, coffee-flavored teas often contain roasted herbs, which gives them a nice nutty flavor. You’ll also come across black and herbal teas that don’t naturally taste like coffee, but are sprayed with a natural or artificial coffee flavoring.
So here’s the full list of ingredients you’ll need to make iced kroffee at home:
- Kratom tea (for energizing effects & balanced mood support)
- Decaf espresso powder or herbal coffee (for flavor and possibly some small effects)
- Vanilla creamer or your favorite milk (for more flavor)
- Ice (for summer survival)
Hot ON the presses: Are you a year-round hot coffee drinker? Or did you arrive at the coffee-flavored tea party during a colder time of year? Head to the regular kroffee recipe to learn to brew the hot version and hear us spill more tea about why we’re disappointed in common coffee alternatives.
Two Ways to Prep Your Iced Kroffee
Making iced kroffee is incredibly easy, but it’s not as convenient as pulling a can of premade iced coffee out of the fridge. If you don’t have a lot of time in the mornings or afternoons, you can still prep your coffee-flavored tea in under 5 minutes. Here’s how.
1. The Overnighter
Toss a tea bag and boiling water into an insulated thermos at night. When it’s done steeping, transfer the tea to a jar, mix in the herbal coffee powder, and put your kroffee in the fridge to chill. The next morning, just add creamer and go! Or transfer your tea back to your thermos to keep it cold while you travel to work, to the gym, to the beach, wherever…
You can also speed things up by making a large batch of concentrated kratom tea that will last a few days. Take out one serving at a time to make kroffee, kratom smoothies, kratom mocktails, and other kratom tea recipes.
2. The Early Morning Brew
If your mornings aren’t insanely busy, you can steep your tea right before you want to drink your iced kroffee. Just use a smaller amount of water than you typically would for one tea bag. That way, you can chill the hot tea using ice without making it overly diluted.
Kratom Tea Iced Coffee Recipe: “Iced Kroffee”
Prep time: 3 minutes
Brew time: 0-20 minutes
Servings: 1
Option 1: Use Pre-Chilled Kratom Tea Concentrate
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup iced kratom tea concentrate made with plain or cacao white vein kratom
- 1/2 cup cold, filtered water
- 1 tbsp decaf espresso powder or 1 tbsp herbal coffee alternative
- 2 tbsp creamer or 1/4-1/2 cup milk of choice, more or less to taste
- 3/4 cup ice
Directions
- Combine water and decaf espresso powder (or herbal coffee) in a glass. Stir with a spoon or handheld frother until completely dissolved.
- Stir in iced tea concentrate and creamer or milk.
- Fill the rest of the glass with ice. Cin cin!
Option 2: Brew Tea & Cool It Quickly
Ingredients
- 1 white vein kratom tea bag
- 2/3 cup cold, filtered water
- 1 tbsp decaf espresso powder or 1 tbsp herbal coffee alternative
- 2 tbsp creamer or 1/4-1/2 cup milk of choice, more or less to taste
- 1-1.5 cups ice
Directions
- Bring water to a boil in an electric kettle, regular kettle, or microwave.
- Add tea bag and boiling water to a thermos or insulated mug.
- Allow to steep for 15-20 minutes, then remove the tea bag.
- Stir in the decaf espresso powder (or herbal coffee) and creamer or milk.
- Lastly, add ice.
Notes
Sweetener: We don’t include any sweetener in the iced kroffee recipe because we use a sweetened vanilla creamer. If you want to add sweetener, we recommend using classic coffee sweeteners like brown sugar or a flavored syrup. If you like to drink your coffee and your coffee alternatives black, that’s great (and please teach us your ways).
Don’t Add Lemon: In a lot of our iced tea recipes, we recommend adding lemon for flavor and for strengthening your brew a bit. Lemon does not play well with milk or creamer, though. Leave it out of any creamy tea recipe so that your milk doesn’t curdle.
The Indie drink innovators and caffeine traditionalists have been competing for the privilege to fill your mugs for years. But we're here to end their battle in one fell swoop: a coffee-flavored tea recipe with real effects. It's called #kroffee pic.twitter.com/hJ5mTqkitd
— Top Tree Herbs (@toptreetea) May 28, 2024
Print the Recipe: The kratom iced coffee recipe was originally featured in our spring 2024 recipe book. Print the recipe to have it the next time a heat wave is rolling through and the wifi goes out!
Better-Than-Coffee Drink Recipes You Should Try Next
If iced kroffee hits the spot, there are a few more kratom tea recipes you’ll certainly love. We’ve got other iced teas as well as more rich chocolate or coffee-flavored tea recipes:
But if you end up just making iced kroffee every morning until summer is over, we wouldn’t blame you. In fact, we’ll probably be doing the same…
Once you finish brewing, check out our guide to caffeine-free teas and our coffee vs. kratom debate.
