Right now at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room, you’ll find a new kind of cold brew on the menu – it’s Nitro Cold Brew. That’s literally cold brew that has been infused with nitrogen:

2 - 1 - Nitro Cold Brew 19March2016 at the RoasteryAt the Roastery, they’re using an East Timor Peaberry coffee for the cold brew, and then infusing it with nitrogen. The addition of nitrogen gives the cold brew a unique malty, creaminess to it. The cold brew ends up both looking and tasting a little bit like beer! It naturally develops a foamy head to it, like a beer.

However there’s more! Starbucks is working on testing their Nitro Cold Brew in select Arizona locations. It’s my understanding that Nitro Cold Brew is currently a single-store test at the Ellsworth and Baseline store, in Mesa, Arizona. The Nitro Cold Brew in Arizona, uses the standard Starbucks Cold Brew Blend, which is a blend of Latin American and African coffee components. Unofficially, I’ve been told that in the coming weeks there are plans to expand the test to about 8 Starbucks locations in the Phoenix area.

Here’s what the Nitro Cold Brew looks like in the store:

1 - 1 - image-2 marketing poster from Nitro Cold Brew

1 - 1 - Nitro Cold brew - Arizona

1 - 1 - image89 Nitro Cold BrewPretty exciting and innovative test!

If you like reading about test products that Starbucks has tried out over the years, scroll through the Starbucks test products articles here – you’ll read about things like the French Vanilla Custard Latte or the Copacabana Beach Frappuccino or the Melted Truffle Mocha.