As Vancouver continues to go through a heatwave this summer with record-breaking temperatures, Starbucks couldn’t have picked a better time to introduce their new Cold Brew Coffee beverage.
You may be wondering: what’s the difference between the existing Iced Coffee at Starbucks versus this new Cold Brew Coffee?
The Starbucks Cold Brew Blend is a coffee blend specifically designed to be served cold and to heighten the rich, naturally sweet flavour created during the cold brewing process. The carefully roasted and full-flavoured blend incorporates African and Latin American beans, which deliver a flavour profile of light chocolate balanced by citrus notes for a smooth, full-bodied taste experience.
The ground Cold Brew Blend coffee beans are also filtered and brewed, and steeped overnight for 20 hours to bring out the flavour. Unlike traditional coffee, time replaces heat to extract the coffee and the result is a cold coffee concentrate that, when combined with water and ice, creates a smooth and cold coffee, served unsweetened to highlight a naturally rich flavour. Meanwhile, Iced Coffee from Starbucks is brewed hot, and shaken with ice to cool the beverage down.
To really taste the difference between Starbucks Cold Brew and the regular Iced Coffee Beverage, order them both and compare the flavour and texture – that’s what we did! There is actually a noticeable difference in texture – the Cold Brew beverage has a more silky smooth texture with a full-bodied taste whereas the Iced Coffee has a more diluted, watery taste in comparison.
Starbucks Cold Brew will be available as a permanent menu item at stores across Canada beginning July 7, 2015. The price for a Grande (16 fl oz) will be $3.45.
