Coffee Granizado: Colombian Shaved Ice with Coffee

Name: Coffee Granizado (Colombian Shaved Ice)
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 7 min
Total time: 37 min
Ingredients: 3 glasses water (for the syrup); Coffee (to taste); 150 g sugar (or more); 500 ml water (the recipe never says what this is for: see the notes)

A sugar syrup mixed with coffee, frozen, and raked with a fork every time it starts to set until it turns to loose crystals. Two ingredients and a freezer, and the raking is the whole recipe.

Total: 37

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A sugar syrup mixed with coffee, frozen, and raked with a fork every time it starts to set until it turns to loose crystals. Two ingredients and a freezer.

The raking is the recipe

A granizado is not something you freeze and then crush. It is built in stages, and the fork is what builds it.

Every time the mixture starts to set at the edges, it gets broken up. The crystals that have already formed are scraped loose, the remaining liquid refreezes around them, and the process repeats. What you end up with is a mass of separate ice crystals rather than a single block.

Miss a round and the whole thing sets solid. At that point the only fix is to let it soften and start again.

Expect several hours

The card says 37 minutes, which covers the syrup and nothing else. The freezing cycle in steps three to five has no number in the recipe and cannot really have one, because it depends on the freezer and the depth of the dish.

In practice: a shallow dish, checked about every forty minutes, raked three or four times. Started in the morning it is ready by mid-afternoon. Started in the evening it is ready the next day.

Make the coffee strong

The coffee goes into a cooled syrup and the whole thing then gets frozen, and freezing flattens flavour considerably. What tastes right at room temperature tastes of very little as ice.

There is no quantity in the recipe, only coffee to taste, so err towards strong. A hundred and fifty grams of sugar is also doing a lot of talking, and coffee has to stand up to it.

What it is and is not

This is a granizado: coffee and sugar syrup turned to ice crystals, which is the same technique as an Italian granita.

It is not a cholado, the Valle del Cauca dessert of shaved ice loaded with chopped fruit, condensed milk and coloured syrups, even though a great many people searching for one end up here. And it is not a North American snow cone, where flavoured syrup is poured over ice that was already made.

More cold drinks

How to make coffee — for the coffee that goes in.
Coconut lemonade — the other Colombian cold one.
Strawberry milkshake — blended rather than frozen.
Chocolate pudding — if the freezer is full.

Coffee Granizado FAQ

How long does it take?

Several hours, and the card cannot tell you exactly. The syrup takes seven minutes and then it is a cycle of freezing and raking, roughly every forty minutes, three or four times over. Overnight is easiest.

Why rake it with a fork instead of freezing it solid?

Because that is what makes it a granizado. Scraping every time a layer starts to set grows the ice as separate crystals instead of one block. Freeze it and forget it and you get a slab you cannot get a spoon into.

What kind of dish should I freeze it in?

A shallow one. It freezes faster and more evenly than a deep container, and there is more surface for the fork to work on.

How much coffee?

The recipe says to taste and leaves it there. It is added to a cooled syrup, so make it strong: freezing mutes flavour noticeably and a mild coffee disappears entirely once it is ice.

What is the 500 ml of water for?

Nothing that any step mentions. The syrup uses the three glasses of water and the 500 ml never appears again. The likeliest explanation is that it is the water for brewing the coffee, since the coffee arrives without any, but the recipe does not say.

Is this the same as a cholado?

No. A cholado is the shaved ice dessert from the Valle del Cauca, piled with chopped fruit, condensed milk and syrups. This is a coffee granita: coffee and sugar syrup, frozen and scraped.

Can I use another flavour?

Yes. The method works with any sweetened liquid. Fruit juice, lulo, tamarind or a strong tea all freeze and rake the same way.

📖 Recipe

Coffee Granizado (Colombian Shaved Ice)

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Prep Time: 30

Cook Time: 7

Total Time: 37

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Colombian

Keyword: scraping, slush

Servings: 4

Calories: 145kcal

Author: Angela Giraldo

Ingredients

▢ 3 glasses water (for the syrup)
▢ Coffee (to taste)
▢ 150 g sugar (or more)
▢ 500 ml water (the recipe never says what this is for: see the notes)

Notas

The raking is the recipe. A granizado is not frozen and then crushed: it is scraped with a fork every time a layer starts to set, so the ice grows as separate crystals instead of a solid block. Skip a round and you get a slab you cannot get a spoon into. Expect to do it three or four times over several hours, roughly every forty minutes, and to leave it overnight if you want it ready in the morning. A shallow dish freezes faster and more evenly than a deep one. The ingredient list has two quantities of water and only the three glasses are used in any step, for the syrup. The 500 ml never appears again, and the likeliest explanation is that it is the water for brewing the coffee, since the coffee arrives in the second step without any. The recipe does not say, so it has been left in the list as it was.

Instructions

Heat the three glasses of water with the sugar in a small pot for about 7 minutes over medium heat, until the mixture has turned to syrup.
Take it off the heat, let it cool and add the coffee.
Mix well, pour the mixture into a shallow dish and put it in the freezer.
When it starts to freeze, break up the crystals that have formed with a fork.
Freeze it again and repeat, until it has the loose, icy texture of a granizado.

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