When the days are extra long, caffeination is so very important. In honor of today’s solstice, we thought we’d round-up our very favorite summer coffee and tea recipes.

For Coffee Lovers:

No-Churn Coffee Fudge Ice Cream

Vietnamese Coffee Popsicles

Dark Moon Cocktail

Cold Fashioned Cocktail

Affogato

For Tea Fans:

Iced Chai Bubble Tea

Watermelon Mimosa Green Tea Popsicles

Homemade Kombucha

Jasmine Honey Tea Granita

Tea Sangria

Margaritas are great and all, but this tequila cocktail involves ice cream, coffee, and fire. Considered an after dinner drink, the Cinco de Pyro (aka “Mexican coffee”) is more conducive to starting the party than winding things down. For a less sweet version, substitute whipped cream for ice cream.

Ingredients (per drink)

1 ½ oz. reposado tequila (high proof)
½ oz. Kahlua coffee liqueur
Hot coffee, we used our Mexican Altura
Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream

Instructions

Add the Kahlua to your mug and top with hot coffee, leaving room at the top for the tequila and ice cream. Add the tequila to a heat-proof pitcher or sauce boat, and light. Carefully pour the flaming tequila into your glass and top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

It’s called an affogato and it’s perfect in its simplicity. All you need is a scoop or two of vanilla gelato and a single shot of freshly brewed espresso. While it’s pretty simple to make (pour the hot espresso over gelato), there are a few tricks to making an affogato great:

1. Don’t skimp on the ingredients. The gelato (or ice cream if you prefer) should be good quality and the espresso fresh. Experiment with different flavors if you like. Caramel is delicious and a flavor with a little texture like chocolate chip would work well too.
2. Make sure your gelato is very cold and scoop generously. Otherwise you will have a delicious bowl of cool soup. Chilling the bowl also helps.
3. Make the espresso immediately before serving. Part of the fun of this dessert is the contrast between textures and temperatures. The espresso should be hot and served in something easy to pour.
4. Optional: serve with a straw, unless you’re dining alone, in which case just put the bowl up to your face and drink all that melted deliciousness at the bottom. Waste nothing.

Having mastered super-simple Vietnamese Iced Coffee Pops, we decided to try another lazy, low-tech frozen dessert: no-churn ice cream. This one might be slightly more lazy, given that an appliance does most of the work and the freezing happens in one step, not two.

Inspired by The Kitchn’s easy recipe for no-churn, 2-ingredient vanilla, we decided to try a coffee version, swirling fudge into the mixture before letting it set. It took minutes to make the ice cream base and the possible variations are endless. Tea, spices, or even herbs would make interesting flavoring alternatives, and mix in anything you like for texture.

Ingredients

• ½ cup cold, dark roast brewed coffee (we used Medium Roast Espresso)
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 cups cold heavy cream
• Hot fudge (well, warm fudge)

Instructions

1. Pour the sweetened condensed milk into a large bowl and whisk in the cold coffee (or other flavoring), set aside.
2. Whip the heavy cream until peaks form. We used a hand mixer on medium-high.
3. Add whipped cream to the condensed milk mixture and blend by hand or on the low setting until combined.
4. Blend again on medium until the mixture is just thickened.
5. Pour mixture into a freezer-safe container (we used a standard size loaf pan) and cover with wax paper.
6. Freeze overnight or until firm and enjoy!