Austin is a nice and relaxed city in Texas, where the residents are cool and pretty much tolerant of unique personalities. Austinites also love their coffee as well, and cafes here are great hotspots for cool gatherings.

What they don’t really love here is the heat, and the people of Austin is just like the rest of Texas that way. This is why iced and cold coffee options are so popular here. It can get very hot in the city, and not just during the summer. A nice cold brew is often one great way to sit back and relax, especially in the afternoons. An iced coffee has the caffeine to wake you up and keep you from napping, while the cold drink also refreshes you as well.

But where should you go in Austin, when you’re in dire need of some good iced coffee? While lots of coffee shops here offer iced coffee (this is Texas, after all), here are the cafés that you should visit to get a great iced coffee experience.

Mozart’s Coffee Roasters

There are too many good reasons why Mozart’s in Lake Austin Boulevard makes the list. One of them is the location, as you get a terrific view of Lake Travis as you enjoy your coffee. Then there’s the fact that it’s been around since 1993, so they’ve been here awhile.

Then there’s the iced coffee options. You can go with their special Toddy Brau Original Cold Brew, that’s been perfectly roasted and brewed. It’s so good that you should try buying an entire bottle of the stuff so you can enjoy it at home.

Or you can opt for Vietnamese coffee instead. This type of coffee is generally stronger and bitter, but that means the addition of the ice tones down the bitterness and still leaves you with its distinctive taste.

And to top it all off, the place offers bottomless coffee! So, just drink all you can. That’s certainly a good deal, especially when they have special gatherings of musicians and poets offering live performances, with open seating and free attendance.

The place is open every day, from 7AM to midnight. Visit once, and it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll return.

Bahama Buck’s

This is a popular joint for students, families with kids, and just about anyone trying to escape the heat with some cold and frozen treats. The place is famous for their Shaved Ice concoctions with more than a hundred flavors, and you’re free to mix and match various flavors, too. You also have smoothies, floats, and cold lemonades.

Or you can opt fort their frozen lattes, which are absolutely perfect for hot, muggy afternoons. The Island Mocha is a top favorite, combining coffee and chocolate along with a bit of vanilla to get you going. This is one creamy iced latte that’s a favorite for patrons of all ages.

Caramel fans tend to go with the Playa del Caramel, which is their Crème de la Caramel of their frozen coffee. The Paradise Royale also treats you right with its creamy caramel, but this time you also get some rich chocolate flavor in the mix.

If you’re already abuzz with too much caffeine, then try the Frozen Hot Koko instead. This is their frozen version of hot chocolate.

The place is super cool and relaxing, which isn’t surprising for a place famous for shaved ice concoctions (check out the menu on PriceListo for current prices). Just get your frozen latte, have a seat, and enjoy the coolness of it all.

Mañana

Yes, it means “tomorrow”, but maybe you should just visit it today instead. There’s no point in procrastinating when you can get to Mañana in South Congress Hotel. There, among the usual coffee, tea, and tea latte options, you also have iced coffee (and iced tea too, for that matter).

The usual suspects are here, including iced latte, iced mocha, and nitro cold brew. But you might also want to try the Japanese flash brew, especially if you’ve never tried it before. This is even their most affordable iced coffee item on the menu.

This is a type of flash-chilled brew that requires hot water to extract the coffee, and then the makers bring down the temperature of the batch right away. This is in contrast with the usual type of cold-brewing method, which involves using cold water to extract the coffee over a very long time.

Some say that brewing with hot water is better, since you’re able to extract compounds from the coffee grounds more effectively. While the rich, chocolatey flavor of cold brew is nothing to sneeze at (it’s a popular option, after all), with flash-chilled coffee, you still get the fruitiness along with the chocolatey flavor that you usually only get with hot coffee.