Spring is in the air with the call of summer not far behind. For those of you who have spent a lifetime cultivating your coffee palates to enjoy strong, hot, freshly brewed coffee it is time to take another approach to drinking coffee all together. Iced coffee is the word of the day and new recipes, combinations, and drink sensations are being created almost every day.

There is a funny television commercial at the moment that talks about being able to make a cup of gourmet coffee from home in about the same amount of time you can order one in your local coffee shop. They left out the fact that you could make them at home for a mere fraction of the price as well, even with quality gourmet coffee beans. More importantly, when you make your very own coffee drinks at home, you control the blend, the roast, the mix, and the additives that make your coffee drink worthwhile.

There are many great iced coffee drinks that can be had for the enterprising and inquisitive coffee drinker among us. One of my personal favorites is a 'Coffee Coke Float'. I can't remember where I found the original recipe but it combines a few of my favorite things into a delightful midsummer treat. Ice cream, Coca Cola (tm) and coffee. Who can go wrong with this combination?

If it is five o'clock or later (of course it's always five o'clock somewhere) you might want to make a mudslide that would make those calorie rich concoctions at Applebee's seem slight by comparison. Be sure however to begin and end with chocolate syrup for the absolute best flavor. You'll want to spread chocolate syrup on the inside of your cup and drizzle some on top as well so keep it handy. You take ice cream, your favorite coffee, a little coffee flavored liqueur, a little Irish cream, and a little more chocolate syrup blend it in a blender until it reaches the consistency you desire and voila, perfection in your cup (the bigger the better in this case). Top it off with a little whipped cream and drizzle with chocolate syrup-delicious.

While these recipes both include ice cream there are a few recipes for iced coffee drinks that are not quite so calorie intense. Those above just happen to be two personal favorites and I couldn't pass up the opportunities to share them with the world.

If calorie counting is more to your liking but you still wish to enjoy the chill of iced cold coffee then try this: combine a couple of teaspoons of instant coffee (more or less according to your liking), a couple of teaspoons of Splenda (or your favorite brand of sweetener), 1/4 cup of water, a third of a cup of milk, and about 3 or 4 ice cubes in a shaker and shake away for about thirty seconds. If you get your entire body into the act of shaking you'll quite possibly burn all the calories you are preparing to consume!

Hopefully, the coffee drinks above will help get your summer off to a glorious start or finish it up with quite a bang. At any rate, my sincerest hope is that they will get you thinking about coffee in an entirely new temperature setting.