Starbucks Introduces Nitrogen Infused Coffee Just In Time For Summer
Starbucks officially added the cold brew to its menu last year, so naturally this summer the Seattle-based coffee giant has decided to up its cold-coffee game with two new cold brew options.
The first option, a creamy vanilla flavored afternoon pick-me-up, is the Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew. Handcrafted with extreme care in small batches each morning, like any other Starbucks’ standard cold brew, the Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew is slow-steeped for 20 hours sans heat and finished off with a house-made vanilla sweet cream.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BGE1V-gRc2Y/?tagged=vanillasweetcreamcoldbrew
Fortunately for cold brew lovers everywhere, the Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew is not a limited edition offering. Starting May 31, the delicious, mystic swirls of this Instagram-worthy vanilla cold brew dream will be officially added as a permanent part of the new Starbucks Cold Bar menu.
Starbucks launches Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew today https://t.co/8ZkNqdvh5p pic.twitter.com/OoawwPVqTq
— Starbucks News (@StarbucksNews) May 31, 2016
The second, slightly fancier option, is the new Nitro Cold Brew – which, as the name suggests, is a cold brew coffee infused with nitrogen.
Starbucks referred to the new nitro-infused beverage as the drink that “will redefine the way you think about cold coffee,” in a press release.
According to Starbucks, the nitrogen is infused into the coffee much like carbonation in soda and other carbonated drinks. However, the nitrogen bubbles are smaller than carbonation, which gives the cold brew its smooth texture and creamy sweetness – something Starbucks describes as having the “texture and body you’d expect from a draught beer.”
“What makes nitrogen so different than CO2 is that the bubbles are so small,” Starbucks’ coffee education specialist Mackenzie Karr told Business Insider. “It’s kind of this foamy, creamy flavor without adding anything to it — it’s super textural.”
Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz told CNN Money, that the drink “Almost comes out like a Guinness beer. These are craft products, not dissimilar to the trend of craft beer.”
Although, this new beverage sounds pretty awesome, nitrogen-infused coffee isn’t exactly a new trend. In June, 2013, Portland-based Stumptown Coffee Roasters installed nitrogen taps in its cafes. Due to popular demand, Stumptown began canning its nitro in 2015.
Caribou Coffee, which is based in Minnesota, also introduced nitro coffee on tap at the tail end of 2015. According to Eater, by Feb. 25, Caribou offered the drink in more than 600 locations.
This July, Starbucks will become the third – not to mention the largest – coffee chain to serve nitro.
“Nitro coffee has been under development at Starbucks for about a year,” Karr told Eater, “and cold brew was a natural choice given the blend of beans and quality of roast.”
In terms of price, a grande (medium, 16 fl. Oz.) nitro will range in price from $3.25 to $3.95, depending on the market.
Coffee consumers can plan on the nitro-infused brew to come to various locations in waves – four Seattle-area locations already serve the beverage. By the end of summer, the new drink will be served at locations in Chicago, New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
“For over 40 years we have perfected the craft of roasting and brewing the finest hot coffee and while we have always offered our customers new options in cold coffee, nothing will compare to the pace of flavor, craft and brewing innovation we will see in the next few years,” Schultz said in a press release.
[Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]
