Animal Crossing New Horizons: Isabelle’s Coffee

I have been playing a lot of Animal Crossing: New Horizons these past few weeks. It has really been helping my mental health during these dire times. I’ve spent a bit of time each day playing since the game was released and have been thoroughly enjoying it. I saw the credits and was told to continue living my best island life. I’ve had a lot of lucky things happen with my time playing. I’ve been on tarantula island, got Meringue and Chadder to move in, and I have most of my house paid off. One thing I’ve been having some difficulty with is getting my kitchen equipment. My wonderful friends have helped me out in slowly expanding my kitchen. The biggest thing I’ve had a hard time finding is counter space. Most of my equipment is sitting on top of cardboard boxes. Well, here is hoping by the next time I do another post I’ll have a much cooler kitchen to show you all. For now, you can see this wonderful image of Meringue’s kitchen.

I have a large list of recipes I’m already looking forward to making from Animal Crossing. I had to pick a place to start and decided the drink that Isabelle has during her announcements would be perfect. I did a lot of back and forth on this one but decided it had to be coffee related. Isabelle is up all hours of the day and needs a caffeine boost to keep her going strong. At this point, I turned to Jeff and asked what he thought would work best. His favorite cold brew coffee recipe is a method developed by Alton Brown which we used as a starting point. From there, we knew we wanted to make a sweet component to it. Since you can gather tons of coconuts in the game, we decided that a nice spiced coconut milk would work wonderfully. The end result is a decently spiced and sweet way to start the day. Isabelle would be proud of this drink.

Spiced Coconut Milk
½ cup coconut milk
½ vanilla bean, halved and beans scrapped loose
¼ cup light brown sugar
½ tsp cardamom, ground
¼ tsp cinnamon, ground
pinch of salt

Spiced Cold Brewed Coffee (Adapted from Alton Brown’s Recipe from EverydayCook)
25 g coffee, ground coarse
80 g water, just off boiling 205°F
Pinch of salt
150 g ice
100 g water, cold
1 cinnamon stick
3 cardamom pods

Per Serving
⅔ – ¾ cup of coffee
½ – 1 tbsp of flavored coconut milk

Combine the coconut milk, vanilla bean and seeds, and brown sugar in a saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat. Add the cardamom, cinnamon, and salt. Allow to cool completely and place in an airtight container. Store in the refrigerator overnight. Can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Add coffee grounds to an airtight container along with the cinnamon stick and cardamom pods. Pour in the water, swirl to evenly wet all the grounds, and loosely cover for 3 minutes.

Take the lid off, add the ice and salt, and swirl. Pour in the cold water and stir to evenly spread everything, then cover tightly and place in the fridge for 8-12 hours.

Remove from the fridge and filter out the coffee from the rest of the ingredients, makes about 1 ¼ cup. Coffee filters work well, but any method to remove most of the grounds from the coffee is fine. Mix a ½ cup of the coffee with ½ – 1 tbsp of spiced coconut milk.

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Isabelle’s Iced Coffee

Ingredients

Spiced Coconut Milk

• ½ cup coconut milk
• ½ vanilla bean halved and beans scrapped loose
• ¼ cup light brown sugar
• ½ tsp cardamom ground
• ¼ tsp cinnamon ground
• pinch of salt

Spiced Cold Brewed Coffee (Adapted from Alton Brown’s Recipe)

• 25 g coffee ground coarse
• 80 g water just off boiling 205°F
• Pinch of salt
• 150 g ice
• 100 g water cold
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 cardamom pods

Per Serving

• ⅔ – ¾ cup of coffee
• ½ – 1 tbsp of flavored coconut milk

Instructions

• Combine the coconut milk, vanilla bean and seeds, and brown sugar in a saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat. Add the cardamom, cinnamon, and salt. Allow to cool completely and place in an airtight container. Store in the refrigerator overnight. Can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
• Add coffee grounds to an airtight container along with the cinnamon stick and cardamom pods. Pour in the water, swirl to evenly wet all the grounds, and loosely cover for 3 minutes.
• Take the lid off, add the ice and salt, and swirl. Pour in the cold water and stir to evenly spread everything, then cover tightly and place in the fridge for 8-12 hours.
• Remove from the fridge and filter out the coffee from the rest of the ingredients, makes about 1 ¼ cup. Coffee filters work well, but any method to remove most of the grounds from the coffee is fine. Mix a ½ cup of the coffee with ½ – 1 tbsp of spiced coconut milk.