To make a pistachio iced latte at home, stir a heaped tablespoon of pistachio cream into a hot double espresso until it melts, pour it over a glass full of ice, and top it with about 200 ml cold milk. That is the whole iced pistachio latte recipe, and it takes five minutes. Swap the espresso for cold brew concentrate and you have the cold brew version this page started as. Both drinks are alcohol-free.
Instead of a pistachio sauce or pistachio syrup, this recipe uses a pistachio cream spread, our Pistachio Crème: 40% pistachios, palm oil-free, from a small producer on the western slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily. It is thick, so the one trick that matters is melting it in hot coffee first, or giving it 10 seconds in the microwave. Stirred straight into cold milk, it sits in lumps at the bottom.
Ingredients for one iced pistachio latte
These ingredients make one serving; double them for two.
- 20 g pistachio cream, about one heaped tablespoon of Pistachio Crème. Add half a teaspoon more if you want a nutty latte that tastes of pistachio first.
- 60 ml espresso, a double shot. No espresso machine? Use 60 ml strong coffee from a cafetière, or 100 ml cold brew concentrate.
- 200 ml cold milk. Whole milk makes the creamiest drink. Oat milk or almond milk work too.
- Ice, enough ice cubes to fill a tall 350 to 400 ml glass.
- To finish: chopped or ground pistachios, and whipped cream if you like it topped.
How to make it
- Melt the pistachio cream. Spoon 20 g Pistachio Crème into a mug and pour a hot double espresso over it. Stir until smooth; it takes about 20 seconds.
- Fill the glass with ice. Use a tall glass and fill it to the top, because a few cubes melt fast and water the latte down.
- Add the milk. 200 ml cold milk.
- Pour the pistachio espresso over the milk. Slowly, so it partly layers, then stir before drinking.
- Finish with pistachios. Chopped pistachios on top, or on whipped cream.
The cold brew version
For a cold brew pistachio iced coffee, make concentrate at home a day ahead. Put 100 g coarsely ground coffee in a jar or cafetière, add 700 ml cold filtered water, stir until every ground is wet, cover, and leave it in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours. Strain through a fine sieve or press the plunger, then once more through a paper filter. That makes about five servings of this recipe.
Use a medium roast: very light roasts can taste sour brewed cold, and very dark ones can turn ashy. Grind it coarse, like sea salt, because fine grounds over-extract in that time and taste bitter and muddy. Any good coffee shop will grind beans for cold brew if you ask.
Cold brew will not melt the spread, so loosen 20 g Pistachio Crème in a splash of hot water, then combine it with 100 ml concentrate and build the glass the same way: ice, milk, then the pistachio coffee.
Is cold brew really less acidic?
Cold brew is often sold as the low-acid choice. The best-known study on the question found something more modest. In a 2018 paper in Scientific Reports, researchers Rao and Fuller brewed six light roast coffees both ways and found the pH of hot and cold brew "comparable, ranging from 4.85 to 5.13". The hot brews had more total titratable acids and higher antioxidant activity. So cold brew is not low in acid in the pH sense, although it does carry fewer titratable acids. The real reason to drink it is the taste: softer and rounder than hot coffee poured over ice.
Make it your own
Hot pistachio latte
For a hot pistachio latte, melt the pistachio cream into the espresso the same way, then add 200 ml steamed milk instead of cold milk and ice.
Pistachio cold foam
Combine 100 ml cold milk with a teaspoon of pistachio cream, froth it, and add the foam to an iced latte made with plain milk, topped with ground pistachios.
Oat milk or pistachio milk
Both make a lighter, nutty latte. Pistachio Crème contains skimmed milk powder and whey, though, so the drink is not dairy-free.
Sweeter
The spread is already sweet. For more, add 10 ml vanilla syrup, or a little brown sugar, into the hot espresso with the pistachio, because sugar dissolves slowly in a cold glass.
With alcohol
For a boozy glass, our pistachio cold brew cocktail adds 50 ml of our Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur, and our Pistachio Cream Liqueur can stand in for the spread.
Pistachio latte questions
How do I make a pistachio latte at home?
Follow the easy recipe above with the same ingredients: melt about 20 g of pistachio cream into a double espresso, then add 200 ml milk: cold milk over ice for an iced pistachio latte, steamed milk for a hot pistachio latte.
What is the difference between an iced pistachio latte and a pistachio cold brew?
The base. An iced latte uses hot espresso, which also melts the spread. A cold brew uses coffee steeped cold for many hours, usually overnight, so the spread needs a splash of hot water first.
Can I make the cold brew without a cafetière?
Yes. Any large jar works. Strain the coffee through a fine sieve lined with a paper filter or a clean muslin cloth.
Serving this recipe with something sweet? Our pistachio truffles keep the theme going. Shop Pistachio Crème for the latte, and for another coffee drink, try our Baby Guinness recipe.
