There’s nowhere like Dublin when the sun shines. Everyone in the city is instantly in good spirits, gravitating to the parks, riversides and outdoor tables to soak up every last ray.

But when you’re in need of a pick me up in warmer weather, sometimes a regular coffee doesn’t fit the bill. If you want a caffeine hit that also keeps you cool, and iced coffee is the only way to go.

At The Croke Park, they know how to cater to the summer crowd. Last week, the team whipped up a bath of creamy, refreshing iced lattes, finished with a shard of chocolate, to keep visiting patrons happy in the meeting rooms.

We spoke to Peter O’Curry to find out how to make the perfect iced coffee of your own, and to see what else is on offer when the sun is shining.

“In terms of what special cold drinks we offer to our guests, we do try and meet all their requests where possible. If a guests asks for something we traditionally wouldn’t sell we will try our best to meet the guests request to our best ability.

“The most popular at this time of the year is without doubt the “Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri”. The fresh Strawberries blended with the ice served in our tall hurricane glasses is a real winner with our guests on the a sunny day. At this time of year I do enjoy a cocktail myself and this would be my cocktail of choice, for sure.

“Believe it or not, we don’t get a huge amount of requests for iced coffees - we would get more orders for iced tea then coffee. A small trick we would use would be to use sugar syrup as opposed to actual sugar, as the actual sugar won’t dissolve in the cold water. This way, there aren’t clumps of sugar in the coffee (sugar syrup is just made up of caster sugar and boiling water). To make an iced coffee, we have two different methods, depending on what the guest would like. 

Method 1

• Add 2 shots of freshly brewed coffee into a blender, add some crushed ice and a 20ml shot of milk.
• Blend the ice and coffee for about 10-15 seconds, then add 20mls of sugar syrup for a sweet taste to the coffee.
• Pour the blend into a Hurricane glass and enjoy the coffee! 

Method 2

This would be if the guest doesn’t want the crushed ice taste and more of a liquid like coffee.

• Use 2 shots of freshly brewed coffee
• Add 20mls of sugar syrup, 20mls of boiling water (stir until the sugar syrup is fully dissolved).
• Pour the mixture into a shaker, add ice, 20mls of milk and top up with cold water.
• Shake the mixture as if you were shaking a cocktail and pour over a glass of ice.

We do tend to make up some mocktails, but these would mainly be for the children when they stay with us. These are mostly in demand over the Easter holidays and midterm breaks.

To make these, we simply mix some strawberry and banana puree with ice and 50mls of milk, drop it all into a blender and blend the ingredients. After blended it looks like a slush puppy. It is poured into a glass and garnished with a full circle of a fresh orange. They are very simple to make and the children love them.