Starbucks will be launching cold brew coffee in about 2,800 stores in the North East, beginning March 31st. You may remember, a little less than one year ago, this was a test item in a small number of Boston stores. Both company-operated and licensed Starbucks will be getting cold brew – the North East region includes Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and surrounding regions.
I got an early sneak peek of Starbucks Cold Brew blend on March 6th, at the corporate headquarters. Thank you to Starbucks for inviting me to a lovely cold brew coffee tasting! It’s delicious! I tried it side by side with the traditional iced coffee. The Starbucks Cold Brew is a Latin American / African blend of beans, developed by Leslie W., at the headquarters. She was there to help answer my questions: I joked that it should be called the Leslie Blend.
The Starbucks Cold Brew is made via a commercial Toddy brew system. Cold brewing coffee is an ambient brew method, meaning that there’s no heat involved. For typical cold brewing, a brew time of anywhere from 12 to 24 hours is normal. Starbucks went through 50 different coffee bean recipe blends before settling on their Cold Brew Blend, and then tested it by preparing it over and over again in half hour increments to decide upon the perfect brew time length. Starbucks settled on 20 hours as the perfect brew time for the Starbucks Cold Brew Blend.
Since it takes a long time to prepare the new cold brew iced coffee, it is possible that a store will run out and not easily be able to re-make more. For some stores, this may mean that you’ll find cold brew available on early in the day and by afternoon, it’s gone. It’s likely to be a limited supply item.
I asked if the new Cold Brew Blend will be available in the whole bean lineup. It won’t be available in one-pound whole bean packaging, but if customers really want to buy a pound, they should ask their baristas to scoop out a pound from the larger packages of it, which the store receives to make their cold brew.
The new Iced Cold Brew is deliciously sweet, with a little chocolate notes, and a refreshing crisp citrus note to it. It is a medium roast profile coffee, akin to House or Pike Place Roast, in terms of the roast profile. Very little roastiness comes through in the actual coffee, and it’s very aromatic!
My only complaint is that this will be a New England /North East regional item and that I won’t be able to get it here in Seattle!
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This sounds amazing! Cold brew ice coffee is the best. I wish this was being tested on the West Coast too. I hope this makes it nation wide, as the current ice coffee isn’t all that great and lacks in consistent taste from day to day/ location to location, but it’s still my go-to drink every day.
One more reason to visit the grandkids in Boston.
I echo the sentiments that this sounds amazing. Kind of sad that this is NE only but hopefully will make it to the west coast soon. 🙂
I tried this coffee when it was tested in Boston and really liked it. For once there is something that I can get in my area and I am glad they have expanded it.
I make my own cold brew at home and now I’m spoiled. I no longer settle for ice coffee at starbuck. Don’t get me wrong I love starbucks! I’m in florida so we need cold brew coffee. Please starbuck keep up with the competitive cold brew market in florida! !
Hi Melody – I love your blog, and as a Starbucks fan, enjoy hearing about anything Starbucks. I live in Southern California and could sure use some of the new cold brew iced coffee. How come it is being tested in New England? Isn’t it still snowing there? Lol. Starbucks iced coffee is my favorite and although I have their iced coffee brewer, I miss the iced coffee ground coffee from their stores. Any chance it might be available again? Looking forward to more iced coffee news. Keep up the good work.
Sandy
I agree, it sounds perfect. I’m an iced drink girl. I never order hot beverages. I’m excited for it to debut in Florida. Whenever that is I’ll be impatiently waiting. Thanks for updating us!
Cold brew has ruined me. I can’t drink any other sort of.coffee anymore. Really should be on the west coast, considering we would be drinking it year around here in SoCal. I figured Starbucks would bottle it to keep up with the demand issues. Not sure how a Toddy system is going to work.
This is very exciting. I am going to be visiting Boston and Cape Cod in June so this year I’m looking forward to trying this.
Yay! Now that we’re finally starting to warm up here I’m switching to iced coffee. I’m excited to try the Cold Brew!
At some point this was being tested in the city of San Francisco last year (but not surrounding areas such as Oakland, San Mateo county, etc). Hopefully they roll it out nationwide soon.
Seems like southwest would have been a great market for it too. But it’s good to know when I visit the east coast I can try it! I’ve never been a huge iced coffee fan, but maybe this would change my mind
I am so jealous of this! I love iced coffee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ve got a Toddy and I’m about to finish my 3rd batch — I love it.
It’s odd that the custom blend they’re going to be using in stores is more similar to Pike Place or House. When they did the tests last year, they were using Ethiopia (Boston) and Guatemala Antigua (San Fran). Both of those beans have citrus and chocolate notes, where Pike Place and House do not.
Anybody have any recommendations? I’ve tried Espresso, Italian, and Willow so far — I’ve liked Espresso the best.
@MJM – Starbucks Cold brew blend is NOT similar to Breakfast Blend or House. It may have a lighter roast profile akin to those two blends, but that is all! It’s a perfect blend for cold brew but definitely not an all-Latin American blend like BB or House.
A roast profile is NOT a flavor profile.
A roast profile is how light or dark the beans are roasted.
A flavor profile is how it actually tastes, which depends on everything from the growing region of the beans, how they were processed and more.
I tried it today for the first time here in Ottawa. My first instinct was Guatemala but while I was sipping it reminded me a bit of Rift Valley. I would say that that’s a blend you could do to effectively mimic this at home.
@Akarisame It make smile and jump a little to see you here. I believe you were the very first commenter on this site when it was was brand new in 2009.
Hello Melody,
In the article you said Starbucks ok’s scooping out a fund of cold brew beans to sell to customers.
That has not been my experience. They just say there isn’t a button so they couldn’t sell me any.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can buy a pound of beans?