Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
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freshcup.com | May 2014 53 "We noticed aging flavors after a twenty-four hour steeping," says Jesse. "That made us go, 'We can't just brew this in a typical, standard way and stand behind this product.'" Seeking the atypical, he and co-owner Ryan O'Donovan took to the lab and eventually came up with a proprietary cold-brewing process to ensure a consis- tently delicious product. What's more, they kegged the coffee, keeping flavors intact post-distribution, and once the cold brew reached the baristas, they nitrogenated it, like a Guinness. Dark and dense, Verve's answer to the summer months has a creamy edge regular iced coffees can't hope to compete with. The inventive brew is not only a huge hit with Santa Cruz regulars, it's a drink with clout across the industry. A recent Instagram plug for their Streetman Espresso cold brew received more than 800 likes in a day, with dozens of comments on the drink's presentation. The photo of a fresh-poured tulip glass of the coffee, nitrogen half-dispersed, had mouths watering on the other side of the country. What's more, the new cold brew is weather-resistant. "Sales of beers like stouts and porters do really well in cold weather, and the texture of this is so similar to that," says Brit McCorquodale, head of mar- keting at Verve. "There's a weightiness to this that makes it an appropriate cold-weather drink, and a lightness to it that makes it a really great warm- weather drink." Verve isn't the first company to take the industry's hottest menu item— cold-brewed coffee—and make it their own. Something in this drink is turning heads, sending baristas and roasters on a mission to cold brew with identity and style. Their experimentation comes with a bevy of rewards, from increased sales, to craft coffee cred, to a better- tasting summer beverage. old brew, often called toddy, is coffee brewed in cold water for half a day or longer. It's by no means a recent addition to the specialty coffee scene, but it's a category that is steadily replacing old- school iced coffee. Cold brew is rapidly becoming a beverage staple for most third-wave shops, and as coffee retail- ers and roasters work to keep up with high demand, they're finding new ways to highlight this drink's characteristic flavor and massive third-wave appeal. There are a number of reasons for cold brew's spike in popularity, but for most consumers it seems to boil down to taste. The argument for cold brew begins with the assertion that hot coffee should not be poured over ice (with the widely approved exception of the Japanese iced coffee method), nor brewed hot, then chilled for cold con- sumption. The reason being that when recycled in this way, hot coffee just doesn't taste as good. With the loss of steam and aromatics, and the addition of ice, a great coffee quickly becomes watery and unremarkable. In contrast, a slow, patient extrac- tion gives cold brew enviable flavor and body. Typically sweeter than hot- brewed coffee, cold brew is also usually smoother, thicker, and less acidic. There tends to be less caffeine intensity with cold brew, so you can drink more of it, but not feel overly buzzed. And today's craft cold brews, many made with spe- cially roasted, single-origin beans, are charged with flavor complexity to rival the best Chemex or espresso. That's a lot of pluses for a distinct menu item, and cold brew is quickly forging a sub- category all it's own. "Notes of chocolate, a lack of bit- terness, fewer tannins, acidity which doesn't translate to the palate but brings in that rounded richness . . ." These are attributes the brewers at Chameleon Cold Brew in Austin, Texas, look for in a coffee before craft- ing it into their signature cold-brew concentrate, according to president and CEO Chris Campbell. "We believe that, for a variety of reasons, it makes a better cup of coffee," says Chris, who in the mornings prefers to heat up smooth-drinking Chameleon, rather than brew hot coffee. Unlike roasters who have designated this drink as a side venture, Chameleon is all about the cold brew. Born in a land where cool drinks are mandatory on hot, dry days, bottled cold-brew is all they do. The company began out of co-founder Steve Williams' passion for fresh-brewed toddy. A longtime member of Austin's coffee scene, for ten years Williams brewed and slowly perfected his cold-brew recipe. When he and Campbell set out to bottle that recipe for mass consumption, the slow- brewing process inherent in the drink weaved its way into the company's phi- losophy of taking its time and "doing things right," as Campbell puts it. "A lot of people can make a hot cup of coffee in a matter of minutes," he says, "but with cold brew you just can't. We thought, let's do that work for our customers." s cold brew grows up and out of the café, into prod- ucts like Chameleon's three-flavor ready-to- drink line, that "slow beverage, fast" mentality is becoming a model for the drink's next phase. CAFÉ AU LAIT Jazz up your cold brew and highlight its sweeter side by blending it into a New Orleans-style iced coffee. A rich concoction melding smooth cold brew, roasted chicory, whole milk, and sugar will transport your customers to the French Quarter. Blue Bottle had so much success with their New Orleans blend that the company is now packaging the customer favorite in milk cartons, as a ready-to-drink option. C A O P P O S I T E P H O T O B Y C O R Y E L D R I D G E ; T H I S PA G E , C O U R T E S Y O F B L U E B O T T L E C O F F E E May14_magazine.indd 53 4/18/14 10:45 AM