The 'Boichik' Malted Iced Coffee
Chapter 5 — Sides, Sweets & Drinks
If you have spent enough Saturday mornings standing in line at a great bagel shop, you know the dense, deeply savory pull of a bagel boiled in barley malt syrup. At Boichik Bagels in Berkeley, they realized that unapologetic, old-world flavor shouldn't stay confined to the kettle. This signature iced beverage uses the exact same organic malt syrup that gives their bagels that iconic crust, cut with heavy-hitting dark roast coffee and rich chocolate. It tastes like the glorious intersection of a Brooklyn deli and a retro diner malted milkshake.
Ingredients
- organic barley malt syrup20 g
- Ghirardelli chocolate sauce20 g
- hot coffee60 g
- ice150 g
- cold dark roast coffee180 g
- half-and-half60 g
Method
- 01
Place a heat-proof sixteen-ounce glass on a tared digital kitchen scale and pour in the barley malt syrup and chocolate sauce.
Pour the malt directly from the jar to save yourself a sticky cleanup. If your malt syrup is too stiff to pour, microwave the jar for ten seconds to loosen it.
- 02
Pour the hot coffee over the syrups and immediately stir vigorously with a long spoon for twenty seconds.
Do not rush or skip this step. The heat is required to melt the stubborn maltose sugars and thick chocolate into a smooth slurry that won't seize into a bulletproof lump when you add the ice.
- 03
Fill the glass to the brim with ice cubes.
- 04
Pour the cold dark roast coffee over the ice and top with the half-and-half.
Watch the heavy cream cascade and marble through the dark coffee, then give it one final, deep stir from the bottom up to pull the heavy malt syrup into the dairy.
Notes
Keep the coffee dark.
A modern, third-wave light roast will be entirely overpowered here. You need the deep, caramelized, low-acidity notes of a heavy dark roast to punch through the sticky sweetness of the malt and the fat of the dairy.
Going caffeine-free is historically accurate.
In a delightful nod to old-world deli culture, you can utilize instant decaf (like Sanka). Dissolve a double-strength dose directly into the hot malt and chocolate slurry.