Outside on a hot day, bare feet in the grass, cold brown bottle in hand has always been the way I’ve most enjoyed summer. Each summer is different, but that simple pleasure is always there, albeit with a few changes. For instance, the contents of the bottle. As a kid I remember the treat of enjoying a Hank’s Vanilla Cream Soda. In recent years, wheat beer has been my refreshment of choice. But for this year, I’m looking forward to kicking back in my back yard with a cold brew coffee.
Cold brew coffee is nothing new, it has been available at coffee shops for years but the home market has until recently been barren. Answering the market’s call, some of America’s premier coffee houses are now churning out bottles for the at-home market. Cold brew differs from iced coffee in that it is brewed over the course of anywhere between sixteen and twenty hours, using cold water. The end product is generally much stronger and more syrupy then traditional iced coffee.
Seeing cold brew popping up everywhere from corner stores to my favorite coffee shops, I decided to give it a try. I wound up with four offerings: Philadelphia’s La Colombe Pure Black, North Philly’s Green Street Coffee Roasters Cold Brew Coffee, Portland’s Stumptown Cold Brew Stubbies, and Austin’s Chameleon Cold Brew.
As has come to be expected from the company, the packaging and brand identity of La Colombe’s Pure Black is simply fantastic. They also have created a great in-store experience with their beautiful cold brew machines, reminiscent of Coca-Cola’s vending machines of the 1950s, with a working door and a stationary bottle opener. This cold brew is their classic Corsica steeped for 16 hours, and then pressed and filtered. Despite the filtering process, it still has a relatively murky, though not unattractive appearance when poured into a glass. The fragrance of pure black is a rich chocolate syrup-like cocoa smell. The taste of this product left me dumbfounded. With a smooth, robust flavor of smoky chocolate, it tastes very different from iced Corsica. Pure black comes in a twelve ounce bottle, and can be purchased at either of their flagship stores in Philadelphia, or via their website.
Chameleon Cold Brew was the most unique of the group. This Austin, TX cold brew comes in a four serving bottle that looks more like it belongs in a chemist’s laboratory than in your local coffee shop. This coffee comes with four servings of four ounces. Chameleon recommends diluting one part coffee to either one part water or milk. I take my coffee black, and when combined with water, it had the clearest appearance of all the cold brews I tried. Chameleon has strong Smells of nutty chocolate and milk, similar to chocolate milk. The taste definitely left something to be desired. The water and coffee mixture were never completely harmonious, and therefore caused it to be wildly inconsistent. Some sips tasted great and boasted slight caramel notes with a cocoa aftertaste, while others were watery and tasteless. Chameleon Cold Brew can be purchased at One Shot Coffee, in Philadelphia area Whole Foods, as well as through their online shop.
Portland’s Stumptown Cold Brew Stubbies takes the cake for best packaging. This offering comes in a rustic 10.5 ounce bottle. This cold brew was practically odorless, but I did notice some fruit fragrance. It was relatively clear in appearance. The tastes were sweet and clean, with vibrant fruit and caramel notes. Stumptown Cold Brew Stubbies are available at Bodhi Coffee, Supper, and Green Aisle Grocery.
Green Street’s Cold Brew Coffee is a fair trade Ethiopian Sidamo that is steeped for twenty hours. The North Philly cold brew comes in a ‘longneck’ beer bottle.
In my mind, the labeling contributes to this brand’s superior identity. The coffee itself is murky and unfiltered, like that of a Belgian wheat beer. The fragrance is a rich nutty chocolate, with a tone of earthiness and intense full-bodied Ethiopian coffee smell. This was the most intense flavor scenario I encountered in my tasting: very earthy, intense, full-bodied bitter chocolate. Green Street Cold Brew Coffee is available in a 12-ounce bottle and can be found at Sook Hee’s Produce, Essene Natural Food Markets, and Flying Saucer Café.
With all of this good craft coffee, cold brew is flourishing. It seems like the perfect summer time treat, and is a clever idea to use it in lieu of or in addition to traditional bottled beverages at outdoor events. Despite this, cold brew coffee is not for everyone. The average coffee drinker may be scared off by the intense flavors, and the dramatic price point at which most of these cold brews are sold, but for those who appreciate strong, cold coffee, one of these brews may become a new summer favorite.
