Commercial Cold Brew

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By Dan Bolton

Heartland Food Group chairman and c.e.o. Ted Gelov and innovation director Ricardo Reyes knew they were onto something when their recipe for cold brew concentrate revealed the distinctive flavor notes of a good kitchen table batch brew.

Cold brew is low in acid, naturally sweet and smooth without sweetener. Instead of binding with the citric, malic, acetic, and 25 other organic acids prominent in iced coffee, consumers adding dairy products find the taste full and rich. Hot coffee is volatile, changing flavor at different temperatures. Cold brew is stable. This makes it a perfect beverage concentrate that can be reconstituted to a full-flavored drink, ideal for cafés and foodservice.

“Java House is authentic coffee brewed in small (less than 1,000 gallon) batches like craft brew,” explains Gelov.

“We hold true to the authentic process and make it like you would in your kitchen with a generous amount of coffee at ambient temperature,” adds Reyes, v.p. global quality, research, and innovation. The 4:1 concentrate yields 20 servings per 32-oz bottle. The new brand comes in four flavors, Colombian black, frappe, vanilla frappe, and mocha frappe in either concentrate or ready-to-drink. Reyes says “establishing a close relationship with an outstanding specialty coffee roaster is key to making authentic cold brew coffee but it’s just one part of the extensive process we follow when creating each batch. We slowly steep the coffee to perfection and do not use coffee additives or preservatives.”

Cold brew is one of those overnight success stories 50 years in the making.

National Coffee Association (NCA) spokesman Joe De Rupo says “cold brew could be the biggest new product since single-serve in terms of its transformative impact on the industry.” He explained that while NCA’s data is not extensive “we only started tracking two years ago, penetration has grown from 8% the general public to 11% in 2017.” Respondents were asked to recall what they drank in the previous week.

There is a visible generational effect, he observes: “Penetration among adults aged 18-24 and those 25-39 is 16%. This falls to 8% among those aged 40-49 and is under 5% for those who are 60+” he said, citing results from the annual National Coffee Drinking Trends (NCDT) survey.

The beginning of commercial cold brew in the US can be traced to the 1960s when chemist Todd Simpson invented the toddy cold brew system still in wide use. Popular in the southern U.S., it has been a regional favorite for decades but consumer acceptance never accelerated like in Japan where Ueshima Coffee Co., Ltd. has profited since the 1970s selling canned cold brew.

The fact that cold brew coffee has grown by triple digits in the past five years is certainly worthy of note, but capital-intensive bottling for major supermarkets and the restaurant segment is a significant investment. Cold brew could still fizzle like Fizzio, a healthy handcrafted soda introduced by Starbucks in 2014. Sales went flat following a national promotion and Fizzio was discontinued two years later. Heartland, which acquired the Splenda brand in 2015, also owns Go Splash, Enfuse, and the Skinny Girl beverage brands. The company is a pioneer in the emerging portable liquid beverage mix category. Following a $26 million manufacturing expansion, Gelov knew that Heartland could offer convenience, alleviate food safety concerns, and generate large volumes required by grocers and chain operators. But it first had to replicate the artisanal taste of 10 pounds of aged roasted beans, soaked 12 hours and then hand filtered.

Beginning in 2010 Stumptown’s stubbies became the talk of the coffee community but multi-million grossing conglomerates can’t afford to handcraft tiny overnight batches with a messy Filtron brewer ― and neither could Stumptown.

The breakthrough came when Stumptown owner Duane Sorenson worked out a deal to use the backroom of the Woodsman Tavern in Portland as a bottling plant. At first the roaster could only manage 100 bottles a day – which quickly sold out. Selling double, triple, quadruple that number daily over the counter convinced Stumptown to introduce cold brew at its Brooklyn, NY, shop. A process to brew larger quantities at a nearby warehouse taught Stumptown how to scale up production. In 2012 an order for 1,512 bottles from Whole Foods triggered a surge in sales that ultimately led to the company’s sale to German-based JAB Holding Company, owners of Peet’s Coffee & Tea and Caribou Coffee. These chains all offer cold brew nationally.

The transition from trend to mainstream came quickly. Dunkin’ Donuts calls cold brew its most successful product launch in the past 16 years. Starbucks introduced cold brew in 2015. Sales of Starbucks cold brew have increased 25% in each of the two years since. It is now available at 13,000 locations, 1,000 of which offer nitro coffee with 1,500 promised by year-end. In September Starbucks produced the first-ever cold-pressed espresso shot with patented cold extraction process.

“From cold brew to Starbucks draft, we have been building a cold coffee platform that not only appeals to our customers but acknowledges that cold beverages are no longer just seasonal,” said Starbucks c.e.o. Kevin Johnson. “This new technique, which produces a dense shot of cold-pressed espresso, is the next step in our cold coffee journey and the perfect ingredient to design a menu of cold espresso or coffee options,” he said.

At Peet’s Coffee & Tea, 400 stores replaced traditional iced coffee with cold brew in 2015, charging $2.45 for a small (12-oz) compared to the $2 iced coffee. Sales increased 70%. Family run Raleigh, N.C.-based Slingshot cold brew is now sold in 250 Target stores. Grocers cannot get enough to fill shelves.

Mintel International reported sales grew 115% from 2014-15 reaching $7.9 million, which is up 339% since 2010. In contrast, the total coffee market was estimated at $74.2 billion in 2015 and has been growing by 2%.

John Buckner, senior v.p. national accounts at S&D Coffee & Tea, recently presented “Cold Brew: Why is it Hot?” a webinar hosted by NCA.

Is cold brew going mainstream? he asked. Evidence suggests the answer is yes. Some of the first chains to test it have rolled out cold brew nationally, he said, and menu penetration is up 300% with 26,682 independent and chain restaurants serving cold brew. “We owe a debt to the RTD (ready-to-drink) people for the role played in creating awareness leading to trial of cold brew,” he said, citing package design and a strong commitment to the integrity of method and taste. “Cold brew is the craft beer of the coffee industry. It is even sold on tap.” he said.

Buckner cited consumer research conducted by BUZZ for S&D that found 68% of consumers consider cold brew and iced coffee to be different, with 54% saying cold brew is better tasting, less bitter, higher quality, and more appealing.

Only 1 in 10 cold brew drinkers drink it black. Milk, flavoring, and sugar are the most common additives followed by non-dairy and non-sugar sweeteners.

Buckner said that additives make cold brew indulgent and more of a treat, according to consumers. Customization is important with 87% of those surveyed indicating an interest in adding flavors. Few desire a pre-sweetened cold brew but they like flavors.

The most popular are caramel, vanilla, mocha, hazelnut, dark chocolate, vanilla bourbon, toasted almond, and pumpkin spice.

Millennials lead the way

Experimentation runs higher among the young. Mintel reports that 37% of consumers overall say they like trying new styles of coffee preparation.

Millennials lead the way on awareness, says Buckner. “They drink it regularly for several reasons: ‘I want to be seen drinking it.’ ‘Cold brew reflects positively on me.’ ‘Energy drinks and soda are not as good for me.’ ”

You can’t chug a hot coffee before a run or paddle boarding, observes Buckner. This is a whole new category, a legal performance enhancer with a healthy carrier of caffeine, he says excitedly.