The one good thing about hot and humid DC weather: iced coffee. It’s cold, refreshing, and best of all, it’s loaded with caffeine. The downside: buying one or two iced coffees a day adds up.
Say you buy a venti iced coffee at Starbucks. That’s around $3 with tax. If you do this every day for six months, that’s $546 down the drain. By going somewhere cheaper, and employing some serious food hacks, you could save $186, which could go toward other fun things like a camping trip in the Shenandoahs or a really nice meal at one of Washington’s very best restaurants.
However, price was not the determining factor when I walked into a 7-Eleven one Saturday afternoon for iced coffee. I wasn’t concerned about price or quality. I just needed icy, cold caffeine, stat, and while driving up to Chesapeake Bay Beach from Arlington, all I could find were 7-Elevens.
I expected 7-Eleven’s pre-made iced coffee to taste similar to Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffee: weak with a high cream-to-coffee ratio, and sweet enough to make your teeth hurt. I knew I needed to MacGyver an iced coffee to make this work. I filled up a large iced coffee cup to the brim with ice, then filled the cup three-quarters of way up with 7-Eleven’s machine-mixed Vanilla iced coffee. Next, I filled the rest of the cup with hot dark roast coffee (very important step), topped it off with more ice, and stirred. I handed over $2.19 to the cashier, and took my first sip.
And it. Was. Good.
At first I was confused at how such a cheap coffee concoction could be so satisfying. But my confusion quickly transformed into delight as I sucked down the rest of the cold, creamy goodness that is a 7-Eleven Chiller (with dark roast coffee). I will admit, the cream-to-sugar-to-coffee flavor proportions could be better (it needed more coffee, obviously), but in a pinch, and for a little over a $2, the 7-Eleven iced coffee was pretty damn good.
Want to try this iced coffee hack for yourself? See how you can make it (in just five steps):
As Washingtonian’s UX designer, Ryan works with Washingtonian’s editorial and digital teams to design digital products that address reader’s needs online. Her background in interactive journalism and web production influence design strategies that ensure users have the best possible experience–on any platform.
Ryan enjoys running, trying new restaurants in DC, and Instagramming her favorite places around DC. You can follow her on Instagram (@ryan_weisser) and on Twitter (@Ryan_Weisser).
