International Coffee Day 2026: A No-Churn

Filter Coffee Ice Cream

International Coffee Day 2026 falls on October 1, and this filter coffee ice cream is perfect for exactly that kind of occasion, given the country’s obsession with the beverage. This dessert is simple enough to make the night before without needing an ice cream machine, ready to scoop by the time anyone's actually celebrating the occasion. It starts with whipped cream folded with condensed milk and a strong coffee flavouring, poured into a mould, and left in the freezer overnight. It just needs a lot of patience from there. A bit about filter coffee, before adapting it into a dessert: traditionally, a blend of coffee (commonly around 70-80%) and chicory (the remaining 20-30%) is ground and packed into the upper chamber of a metal filter, with hot water poured over it and left to slowly percolate through a perforated disc into the lower chamber over 20-30 minutes. What comes out is a concentrated decoction, mixed with hot milk and sugar and poured back and forth between the dabarah and tumbler to froth it before serving. This ice cream recipe for International Coffee Day 2026 borrows that same concentrated decoction rather than using instant coffee, which is what gives it a more wholesome flavour and less bitterness than a dessert made with instant coffee granules. Because this recipe skips a cooked custard base entirely, it's also one of the easier ice cream recipe options for a first attempt at homemade ice cream.