What to Know About Cold Brew Coffee This Summer
Cold brew coffee is trending in 2023, and the menu item seems like it’s here to stay. The National Coffee Association found that 17% of coffee consumers drank a cold brew in the past week. Gen Z, in particular, is keen on the beverage. And even though iced coffee is selling year round, the summertime is sure to keep your baristas busy pouring cold brew.
Coffee shop owners who embrace new cold brew drink recipes, brewing methods, and serving technology can stay ahead of the curve. Read on to learn about our favorite cold brew equipment and what the popular drink might mean for your coffee business.
Technology that Makes Serving Cold Brew Easier
The original method of making cold brew—often called the Toddy method—can take anywhere from 12 to 24 hours. That’s a long process for a coffee shop. Do you start a batch at 3:00 PM and return at 3:00 AM? Probably not. That means, the results can be less than optimal, and often inconsistent.
That’s why the team at Texas Coffee School is a fan of these two new pieces of technology for coffee shops. We’ve put them both in our coffee eduction classroom and love the work flow, efficiency, ease, and consistency of the final product.
Game-Changing Technology: Brew Bomb “Ace” + Marco “Pour’d”
Brew Bomb’s ACE Brewer is a revolutionary brewer that produces cold brew concentrate in two to three hours. Tom, Texas Coffee School founder, explains that the concentrate offers 20% better extract yields and a cleaner cup quality/better taste than other brew methods. It separates the grounds from the extracts, which means no suspended fine sediment. And it even seems to stay fresher tasting for longer.
We’ve actually written all about the Brew Bomb before. Check out that article here.
Not only is brewing with the ACE Brewer quicker and tastier than traditional cold brewing methods, it can also save you money. That’s not to say the device is inexpensive– it’s an investment–but the speedy brew time cuts down on costs of goods sold and labor.
Once you’ve got your concentrate, you can dilute it so that it’s ready to drink or keep it as is. That’s where the second device, Marco’s POUR’D, comes in.
The POUR’D cold brew coffee dispenser can be connected to a batch of cold brew concentrate. It precisely dispenses ready to drink (RTD) cold brew in any portion/size you program it to, or as straight shots of the concentrate in whatever portion you choose. By dispensing the concentrate, you no longer have to pull a shot using the espresso machine—which saves 40-50 seconds per transaction. In three seconds, you can precisely dispense a measured double shot from this device. Plus, it’s already cold or room temperature, so you don’t have to pour a hot shot into a plastic cup or over ice.
Source: Marco Beverage Systems Instagram
How Cold Brew Coffee Technology Can Benefit Your Coffee Shop
This combination of the ACE Brewer and POUR’D technology makes perfect sense from a workflow standpoint. It’s great for signature drinks and even coffee cocktails, like an espresso martini.
Think about it from a practical standpoint. To make an iced drink the traditional way, using espresso. The barista has to pull a shot from an espresso machine through grinding, distribution, tamping, pulling the shot for 20-30 seconds, dumping the hot shot over ice, and mixing in milks.
Now, you can eliminate most of those steps and get straight to mixing the drink. The barista would use the POUR’D device to get a shot of cold brew, replacing the shot of espresso, in just a couple of seconds. (Plus no bending down, or retrieving a pitcher of cold brew from the fridge, or over/under portioning.)
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been this excited about a new piece of equipment,” says Tom. “This is one thing that every coffee shop needs to be ready for 2023 and beyond.”
The Future Of Cold Brew Coffee
This trend—cold brew coffee—is continuing to grow year-after-year. Consumer behaviors are evolving. It will likely have significant implications for the future of coffee shops. Here are a few ideas to consider. How could you make cold brew coffee work for your coffee business?
Changing the Business Plan
The rise of cold beverages has led to another trend: the year-round popularity of coffee. Coffee shops (especially in the U.S. South) used to experience seasonality, making most of their revenue between October and January. Now, it’s possible to have more consistent revenue all year long. Hot coffee is by no means dead, but cold brew has extended the coffee-sipping season (and hours of the day).
The new cold brew technology also opens up possibilities in terms of menu items and counter space. You can do more with less. And for mobile coffee businesses like coffee trucks, you can get around what’s typically the biggest cost of entry—an espresso machine. Focusing on cold beverages and using cold brew concentrate is a whole new way to think about starting a coffee business.
Cold Brew Coffee Shop Example
Everglazed Donuts & Cold Brew in Florida is so focused on cold brew coffee that it’s in the name. They’re catering to what Gen Z and millennials want—iced beverages and Instagrammable snacks. Their menu offers simple cold brew and nitro coffee as well as specialty drinks like Salted Caramel, Cinnamon Bun, and Cookies & Cream cold brew. (And if you’ve ever visited Florida in the summer, you’ll understand why iced drinks make sense.) Their close-to-34,000 Instagram followers speak to the coffee shop’s popularity!
Source: Everglazed Donuts & Cold Brew Instagram
Stay Ahead of the Industry at Texas Coffee School
One of the things we teach students in our 3-Day Coffee Business Master Class is how to stay ahead of the industry curve. The curriculum is always evolving to match the speed and direction at which things are moving. In the last few years, our material has become almost totally new, because coffee is always changing. But one thing stays the same—coffee shop owners who build a strong business plan and continue to innovate can and will succeed.
Why not take the first step toward investing in your new or current coffee business? Sign up for an upcoming class today!
