Trend Insights: Cold Coffee

Espresso martinis are back with a vengeance, crafted with unique ingredients like house-infused espresso-bean vodka, amaro and flavors like salted caramel. The coffee culture just keeps growing, as many new products and techniques make it easier for operators to produce flavorful and unique
cold-coffee drinks.

KATHY CASEY

Bring in international flavors from the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific Islands, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. For this last location, consider a nitro cold brew featuring Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee with coconut ‘milk’ foam and brown sugar-vanilla syrup.

DONNELL JONES-CRAVEN

Explore concentrated forms of cold coffee, like the Vietnamese Café Sua Da, where deep, dark, roasted, syrup-like coffee is sweetened with condensed milk and served over ice. It takes only one try for most diners to come back for more. Another opportunity is found in swapping salt for the sugar that is usually the flavor driver in cold coffee beverages. It’s an under-appreciated technique that leads to balanced, craveable chilled drinks.

ROBERT DANHI