As summer approaches, chances are you’re making the switch to cold coffee for your daily caffeine fix in the office. When it comes to cold coffee beverages, however, there’s no longer one type to choose from! Now that it’s 2018, we’re sure you’ve overheard co-workers, friends or strangers in the coffee shop throwing around terms like “nitro” and “cold brew.” In addition to terms like macchiato, cappuccino, latte or espresso, coffee orders are now starting to get as complicated as the metric system.
Iced coffee is no longer just regular coffee with ice in it. The iced variety of coffee now has a couple more of its own complicated terms. If you’re a coffee connoisseur, you might be familiar with the meaning of cold brew, iced coffee or nitro brew. If not, we’re happy to explain.
Cold Brew
Cold brew gets its distinct flavor from never being heated, as opposed to traditional iced coffee. Over a process of 12-24 hours, cold brew develops its flavor by coffee grounds being steeped in cold water at room temperature. Instead of the heat extracting the flavor from the coffee grounds, the flavor gets extracted by the amount of time it steeps. As a result, it tastes less acidic then traditional iced coffee.
Nitro Brew
Nitro brew is made the same way as cold brew, with the exception of one step. After the cold brew is made, the nitro brew coffee gets poured into a keg and infused with nitrogen gas. It then gets served like a beer would – on draft. When the coffee gets routed through the keg tap, it develops the distinct flavor unique to nitro brew. It has a foamy top and smoother, richer taste than the other cold coffee varieties.
Iced Coffee
While cold brew and nitro brew are similar methods of cold coffee, iced coffee is much different. Traditional iced coffee is the least expensive of these three cold coffee brewing methods because it’s much less time intensive to make. Iced coffee is basically regular coffee poured over ice but made with twice as much coffee grounds so that when the ice melts, the coffee doesn’t get watery.
There you have it. All three cold coffee options are a viable option for summertime caffeination. Interested in becoming the office rock star and supplying iced coffee to your employees? Sign up for a free cold brew tasting today!
