One evening, my husband and I were looking through the menu at a local restaurant when I spotted something under the drinks section called Espresso Rock. I’m not a coffee expert, but it immediately caught my attention. My husband could tell I wanted to try it, so he ordered one for us to share.

When it arrived, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. At first, I thought it was some kind of chocolate espresso treat. Then we poured hot milk over the ball and realised it was actually frozen espresso!

As the hot milk melted the espresso, the coffee slowly released into the drink. I thought it was such a clever idea. You know how regular ice melts and waters down an iced coffee? Since the ice itself was made from espresso, that wasn’t an issue. The coffee flavour stayed rich as it melted. It was such a simple idea, but I’d never come across anything quite like it before. Of course, it also got me thinking about whether I could make something similar at home.

From Café Inspiration to Kitchen Creation

My husband enjoyed the drink, but we both thought it was pretty pricey for what it was. On the way home, I started thinking about making it myself. If I could make hot cocoa bombs at home, why not try making frozen espresso balls, too? I was curious to see if I could get the same result without paying café prices every time we wanted one. I went online to look for a mold and found a Tovolo sphere ice mold on Amazon. Once it arrived, I was ready to give it a try. I also thought it would be fun to film the process, so I spent some time figuring out how to set up my camera in the kitchen.

For this little experiment, I borrowed my husband’s Nespresso machine and started making espresso shots to fill the mold. It took more coffee than I’d expected, but the process itself was pretty straightforward. The best part was that my kitchen smelled like fresh espresso the whole time. I was curious to see how the frozen coffee would turn out, and whether pouring hot milk over it at home would give us the same experience we’d had at the restaurant.

When I finally took the espresso balls out of the mold, I was pretty happy with how they turned out. They held their shape nicely, although they were a bit bigger than I expected for our glasses. Still, it was a good first try!

I made a few extra and popped them in the freezer so we’d have some ready for another day. It’s nice knowing that when my husband feels like having one, all we have to do is grab an espresso ball, pour some hot milk over it, and watch it melt into a drink. No need to head out to a café!