Cold brew coffee is jumping from coffee bars to grocery stores to restaurants. (Photo: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg)
If you follow coffee trends, you first heard about cold brew coffee years ago. But it’s taken forever for cold brew to get traction beyond coffee bars. Now, cold brew is making its move. In 2017, sales of cold brew coffee jumped to $38.1 million, a 370% jump from the $8.1 million in sales the category saw in 2015, according to Statista.
Granted, that’s a fraction of the $5 billion coffee market, but some analysts believe cold brew sales could skyrocket in coming years. Cold brew is already in many grocery stores, especially those that sell craft beer. Now, it is breaking through to restaurant menus. In New York, cold brew made by Joe Coffee Company, based in Manhattan, is now on the menu at the new incarnation of Danny Meyer’s Union Square Cafe.
At the other end of the price range, Eat ‘N Park, the popular Pennsylvania-based fast casual chain, just added cold brew coffee, and is offering it with free refills, and in a mocha java milkshake.
For those who aren’t familiar with it, cold brew coffee is exactly what its name describes. It’s coffee that’s brewed from cold water, often through a special filter device. The process can happen quickly, or take hours, depending on how it’s concocted, and results in a concentrate to which water is added to make an iced coffee.
Cold brew is smoother than regular iced coffee made from conventional brewed coffee. It’s also a stronger coffee taste, and there can be more caffeine in cold brew versus brewed coffee, but that varies by brand.
Allen Leibowitz, a partner in Momentum Coffee in Spring, Texas, outside Houston, sees a series of reasons why cold brew is in the sales spotlight. Leibowitz was the founding partner and roastmaster at Zingerman’s Coffee Company in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and a former chair of the Roaster’s Guild.
Why its moment has arrived: “I think cold brew finally clicked for a number of reasons. One is the broad spread of specialty coffee. Quality coffee has gone mass market. Take a look at any of the mass market retailers and grocers. It (specialty coffee) is also part of every day conversation, so a ‘new’ type of coffee cold brew may be more accepted now as people look to broaden their coffee palate.”
Technology changes: “Also, for what it’s worth, there’s been some new-ish technology in cold brew, like nitrogen infusion, that might make it more familiar and accepted by some people like the beer crowd. The other piece for a ready to drink (RTD) product has to do with distribution and food safety.
A lot of small shops weren’t ready or able to produce shelf stable products and were limited to cold-chain local suppliers. The technology for shelf stable has been well known to the big players for a very long time. UCC Ueshima Coffee Company in Japan developed the aseptic can a long time ago. And as you know, RTD shelf-stable coffee has been huge there for decades.”
The big players are in: “Some of the big JAB Holding Company buyouts have made it sexy, and they’ve committed to a distribution channel. There have been some others for quite a while. England’s Camp Coffee is one, as is New Orleans Coolbrew.
I was just at HEB, a Houston market, that had a whole shelf of RTD coffee products including a private-label, and also La Colombe in the refrigerator section. Funny how distribution changes things.”
The craft beer connection: “If I had to guess, I think we’ll see a bit more of it in restaurants and particularly in places that are selling to people that might order a specific craft beer. The profitability is there in kegs (of cold brew), and there are more suppliers that produce them, including 3rd party cold brew suppliers.”
Where else will we see it? “Convenience stores are ahead of this trend–a great addition to their mediocre brewed coffee. I was at a Pilot (service station) that had two machines that ground the beans and brewed a cup. Each had three different bean types, and could brew hot or iced coffee.”
His favorite cold brews: Starbucks unsweetened; La Colombe Vanilla; Georgia Coffee; UCC Black. In no particular order.