Cold Brew Trends

By: Jamie Hooker

Coffee is a staple in most people’s lives, and coffee-giant, Starbucks, serves about four million of those cups of coffee every day. A trend that has emerged in the coffee world in the last couple of years is cold brew coffee.  Cold brew is different from regular coffee because the coffee grounds are steeped in room temperature or cold water for a long period of time, about 15 hours.  This process makes the beans have a sweeter flavor, rather than a bitter flavor, since they wont come into contact with any hot water.

Starbucks has entered the cold brew game and is already expanding its iced coffee options. In select stores, they offer a nitro cold brew, which is made by infusing nitrogen into a small keg of Starbucks Cold Brew coffee. The nitrogen gives the coffee a smooth, natural sweetness with a velvety texture.

With Starbucks dominating the coffee market already, local coffee shops that serve cold brew (some of which served it before Starbucks started to) and companies who specialize in cold brew coffee (like Austin, Texas-based High Brew Coffee) are challenged to keep up.  Starbucks is famous for crafting specialty coffee drinks, and people have no problem paying the extra $1.50 for the brand’s coffee over a local coffee shop’s.

The cold brew category is about to be more competitive and popular, which might be good for die-hard coffee drinkers who want something new. If you want to know more about Starbucks Cold Brew coffee, go here!