With Hot Coffee Falling Out of Fashion Fast, These Are the 6 Best Iced Coffee Makers We’ve Tested and Tried

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Remember when iced coffee was something you only drank on a hot summer afternoon? Ha. It seems like more and more of us are willing to brave chilly fingers no matter the outside temperature nowadays for that sweet sip of a chilled cup of Joe. Iced coffee and cold brew have exploded in popularity in the past few years (especially for younger generations) with no signs of slowing down, with cold drinks accounting for about 75% of Starbucks’ beverage sales in its fiscal 2024 third quarter, up from 37% in 2013. While ten years ago, I used to feel like the Joker swirling around an iced latte deep into December, I no longer feel alone. Chances are some of you are probably even drinking an iced coffee while reading this story – ah, the mortifying ordeal of being known!

At a Glance: The Best Iced Coffee Makers for 2025, Tried and Tested

It’s obvious iced coffee is booming business — 45% of coffee drinkers ages 18 to 24 said their cup of coffee in the past day was a cold one, according to a 2024 survey conducted by the National Coffee Association. Supermarket sales of chilled, canned coffee drinks are through the roof, and not just during the summer. But if you’re someone like me who’s already ready for their next ice coffee as soon as they drain their glass, you know that it’s too easy to are drop way too much coin on something you could easily brew from home. My fellow caffeine fiends, hold my hand when I say this — yes, there are indeed home coffee machines now that can produce a truly great iced brew that are absolutely worth ditching your Starbucks order.

How We Chose the Best Coffee Machines for Making Iced Coffee and Cold Brew

We’ve tested plenty of espresso machines over the years, but nowadays, there are plenty of top coffee makers from brands like Ninja, Breville, De’longhi and more that also serve up a mean chilled brew. The best iced coffee makers won’t sacrifice brew quality for temperature or create a watered down drink, and plenty of them even create an approximation of cold brew (yes, there is a difference between the two, as we’ll explain below). Some even incorporate fancy frothers and digital displays, so you can turn your morning cup into a full-blown, coffee shop-worthy setup for making more complex drinks like iced lattes, macchiatos, and more.

Our highly-caffeinated shopping editors tested out a variety of high tech machines, simple cold brew carafes, and hard-working hot and cold hybrids to give you our top picks for the best machines for making iced coffee. While taste is subjective, we used similar 100% Arabica bean-coffees with each machine, and rated them based on ease-of-use, digital features (if required), brew quality and strength, and extra features for their given price. (Note: while some of these choices produce quality cold brew, cold brew makers tend to refer to a whole other type of device).

The Best Iced Coffee Makers for 2025

Delete your Starbucks app and forget about those star rewards right now — De’Longhi’s Eletta Explore has completely shaken up our coffee routine, offering an impressively expansive amount of cold coffee options in one brilliant, automatic machine.

This is easily one of the best bean-to-cup coffee makers I’ve ever tested, grinding the beans for you and using their proprietary Bean Adapt program (requiring input of information about your coffee bean of choice to adjust the water temperature and brew intensity) to create deliciously smooth and sweet iced espresso and cold brew. And unlike other machines that automate the coffee brewing process, but then require some level of manual milk frothing, I like that Eletta Explore’s Latte Crema tech works with both hot and cold milk to produce drinks that are the closest barista-made beverages I’ve ever gotten out of an automatic machine. While this does require two separate carafes (a little annoying), the LatteCrema Cool System has been the first to let me make real, genuine cold foam to top my brew at home.

That also opens the door for a dizzying amount of drink options, with the sleek digital touch screen providing 50+ hot and cold recipes (yes, you read that right) including iced cappuccinos, lattes, and cold brew extraction in under three minutes — all at the touch of a button. While the machine isn’t much of a looker, and does require some deep counter space, if you want a cafe-worthy iced drinks without having to commit to a full coffee-making ritual, the Eletta Explore is the best in town.

Ninja displayed impressive attention to detail when designing the Luxe Café — the machine has a built-in grinder and steam wand and can pull hot espresso, but also make coffee over ice and even cold brew, all with clever storage compartments keep all your tools in reach.

The fairly compact and reasonably-priced package includes an intuitive display that walks users through the espresso process, automatically fine-tuning and recalibrating based on each brew. Its $499 price tag may not make it budget-friendly per se, but its still a good deal more affordable than similar options that have built-in grinders. The impressive number of accessories also drives up the value proposition, with a kit including a custom milk frothing pitcher, a portafilter with two baskets, a weighted tamper, and a funnel to contain the grounds.

Making espresso (hot or cold) is a game of trial and error involving fine-tuning and a fair amount of guesswork, but for iced coffee enthusiasts looking to be an at-home barista, the work is worth it. The 3-in-1 machine not only offers a temperature-controlled brew over iced, but specifically cold-pressed espresso and cold brew coffee. While the cold brew has a flavor and texture more akin to an iced Americano than the sweet, mild flavor of cold brew, the cold-pressed espresso is rich, with a satisfactory crema. Given how much it does right at a modest price, the Ninja Luxe Café is a triumph for both convenience and quality. Read our full review here. — Jonathan Zavaleta, Commerce Writer

Pulling amazing espresso shots isn’t the only great feature of Breville’s Oracle Jet. This high-end machine also has a “cold” feature that lets you pull cold brew coffee and espresso.

The cold extraction feature is also very fast: Coffee takes three minutes and espresso takes one minute. It’s not exactly cold-brewed coffee (and not quite as good as the real thing, like the hot drinks), but it’s still delicious and convenient to have at home in the same machine. While all of Breville’s espresso machines make great coffee, but I think the key to the brand’s success — the reason it’s all over DesignTok — is the sleek stainless steel build. Like the other machines, the Oracle Jet looks luxurious. It’s not too big (although the hopper might not fit under your cabinets), and the full steel design works with any kitchen decor style.

What’s better, compared to other models, is the Oracle Jet’s level of consistency. Thanks to all the sensors and automation, the machine is able to create the same fantastic drinks, hot or iced, every time. This consistency, in my opinion, is what sets the Jet apart from any other espresso machine I’ve used. If you’re an iced coffee lover who wants barista-level espresso with almost no work, the Oracle Jet will make your life better. Read our full review of the here. — Oscar Hartzog, Senior Commerce Editor

Sometimes the best brewing methods are the simplest, and this Hario cold brew coffee maker proves it. I live in Los Angeles, where it’s usually always cold brew season, and this easy-to-use maker ensures I always have some cold coffee chilling in my fridge at all times.

It doesn’t have any special bells and whistles, which is why I’ve used it now for years: It only has its glass bottle with a handy pouring spout, along with a mesh basket to hold your grounds that’s removable, and a lid to keep things contained. It’s easy to clean in the dishwasher, and it’s easy to brew a small batch of cold brew that lasts for a few days.

My pro tip: Use good coffee beans and let them brew for longer in the Hario before removing the basket for a deliciously smooth cold cup of Joe every time. — John Lonsdale, Commerce Editor

Let’s face it — living in a tight NYC apartment does not make it easy to maintain the type of barista-quality setup I dream of. Sure, I could buy bottled cold brew for the rest of my days, but why would I do that now that I have De’longhi’s fantastic new La Specialista Touch machine?

This espresso maker not only has compact footprint for a semi-automatic machine, it features 10 drink presets, though there’s only one “cold” drink option (besides just brewing a hot shot over ice) — but that being said, the La Specialista Touch‘s cold brew is pretty dang good. The machine runs cold water through its circuit to bring the temperature down, before the water is slowly and steadily dripped through the freshly ground coffee at low pressure. The result is has a thinner mouthfeel than your usual cold brew, but it’s smooth and flavorful enough to get my fix in.

But the true joy of this semi-automatic machine is experimenting with different beans, using their classic Bean Adapt Technology to recommend ideal grinding and dosing settings to suit your chosen coffee (although the grinder settings can be so close together the dial is difficult to adjust sometimes). The La Specialista Touch also goes a step further by giving you a hand with dosing your beans as well, including a “Smart Tamper” to show you when you should top off (or scrape off) your portafilter. This all but makes the brewing process foolproof, and while the La Specialista Touch isn’t exactly meant for iced coffee, I’ve brewed its espresso over iced and had some of the creamiest, most flavorful morning coffees ever.

If Steve Jobs had decided to start a career in coffee rather than computers, he’d have made something like the sleek and innovative Cumulus Cold Brew machine. But spearheaded by Mesh Gelman, former innovation head at Starbucks, and partially funded by Howard Schultz, their former CEO, there’s some real star power behind this brewer nonetheless. Perhaps miraculously, it does deliver on its central promise — making genuine nitro cold brew, not an approximation of a cold americano — and with pods no less. Keurig, whomst?

Cold brew, with its low acidity and smooth mouthfeel, notoriously takes about 24 hours to brew the old-fashioned way, making it sort of like the Ninja Creami of the caffeine world. If you don’t have the patience (or the foresight) to make it at home yourself, the Cumulus has got you covered, starting off with pods of genuine cold brew. The coffee is extracted in cool water over the course of hours and then condensed with a proprietary process of vacuum distillation into a recyclable capsule. When brewed, it won’t taste 100% like cold brew, but it’s leaps and bounds beyond even what the other options on our list can produce. If you’re a real cold brew connoisseur, you’ll enjoy the “tang” of every sip, but might notice that it tastes more like a cold-pressed espresso than true cold brew.

Where the Cumulus really shines is that cold brew quintessential froth and texture. The machine pulls nitrogen from the air, fueling a substantial head of effervescent microbubbles. Every beverage also emerges pre-chilled and ready to drink without the need for ice. The capsules make this brew convenient, but like other pod-based machines, they do cost about $2.50 a pop, so the choice is yours whether you’d rather wait for the carafe in your fridge to finish doing it’s thing. But if you’re looking to make cold brew concoctions at home (extra-foamy espresso martinis, anyone?), no one does it better right now than Cumulus.

What’s the Difference Between Ice Coffee and Cold Brew?

Generally speaking, cold coffee is made in two different ways. Ice coffee is made pour-over style, which means brewing hot coffee the traditional way (but with less water), then pouring over ice. This method risks melting the ice and diluting the flavor, so you often have to wait for the coffee to chill before adding it to ice, or brewing the coffee at a lower temperature.

Cold brew is made by steeping coffee grounds in — what else? — cool water, for up to 24 hours. This creates a coffee concentrate that is stronger and often contains more caffeine, so it requires you to dilute it with a bit of water or milk before pouring the chilled beverage over ice. Cold brew also lasts slightly longer in the fridge than iced coffee due to its concentrated nature, about 5-7 days versus just 3-5 days.

How Do Coffee Machines Make Iced Coffee and Cold Brew?

Automated iced coffee makers (or “ice coffee” settings on an espresso machine) usually start the brewing process with hot water (this is to extract as much flavor as it can), then switch to cooler water so that when the coffee is poured, it minimizing the amount of ice melt in your drink. Usually this takes up to minute.

Automatic and semi-automatic machines that have a “cold brew” setting don’t have the luxury of letting filtered grounds steep for up to 24 hours. Usually cool water is pumped through the system (especially after making hot coffee), and then the water is slowly “pulsed” out or dripped through the fresh grounds at low pressure. The results are less robust in flavor and texture than the real thing, but it still offers a smoother coffee with less acidity than your traditional brew.