Chilling Out

Younger consumers are enthusiastically embracing cold-coffee innovation. A quick study of national menus, scouring them for inspiration, reveals a few important trend patterns. Each provides an opportunity to develop new drinks that attract cold-coffee devotees.

1. Coffee is being boosted with enhanced complements and flavorful wellness attributes
2. Unique textures and heightened mouthfeel have become new standards in cold-coffee beverage builds
3. New flavors go beyond sweetness, as next-gen chilled coffee drinks have a focused sophistication and depth of flavor

Within each of these three, there is an overarching theme of fun flavor adventure. Let’s dive in.

BOOSTED JAVA

• Black Splash Nitro: Nitro draft, served without ice—rotating selection of spirit- and/or barrel-manipulated coffees
  Dark Matter Coffee, Chicago
• Power Plant: Glow Worm: Sparkling energy drink caffeinated by plants! Green coffee and lotus flower extracts. Fizzy, citrusy and tart with sweet white peach, garnished with a gummy worm
  Java House, Iowa City, Iowa
• Cold Brew Power PB Banana Smoothie: Peanut butter powder, banana, cocoa, Session cold brew, hemp protein powder, collagen
  Colectivo, Milwaukee
• Charged Lemonade: Mango Yuzu Citrus: Craft agave lemonade, caffeine, coffee extract, guarana extract, mango, yuzu and citrus flavors
  Panera, based in St. Louis

TEXTURE THRILLERS

• Brown Sugar Cold Brew Oat Latte with Jelly: Brown sugar with a layer of creamy oat milk and a float of our signature bold, juicy Baridi cold brew; served with brown sugar jelly over ice
  Peet’s, based in Emeryville, Calif.
• Pralines & Cream Granita: Frozen crystals of cold-brew espresso, milk and the flavors of pleasantly sweetened pralines
  PJ’s Coffee of New Orleans, based in Mandeville, La.
• Banana Cold Brew Latte: Ripe bananas and warm spices, topped with house cream, banana crisps and cocoa
  Bad Owl Cafe, Henderson, Nev.
• Nitro Campfire Mocha: Real chocolate combined with nitro cold press, milk and marshmallow flavor; topped with espresso whipped cream
  Caribou Coffee, based in Minneapolis

NEXT GEN CHILLERS

• Honey Rose: Iced espresso-based latte sweetened with honey and rose-infused syrup, finished with organic dry rose petals on top
  S3 Coffee Bar, San Diego
• Salted Strawberry Cold Brew: Cold brew, housemade strawberry-honey syrup, splash of oat milk, dash of sea salt and Aleppo pepper
  Joe Coffee, Brooklyn, N.Y.
• Pontaluma Punch: On tap seasonal—cherry flavored cold brew made with real cherry juice
  La Colombe, Austin, Texas
• Gyoto: Kyoto brewed with juniper berries, lavender, lemon, lime, elderflower, angelica root, rosehips, grapefruit oleo and bitters
  Misfit Coffee Co., Minneapolis