Cold Brew Coffee Comes of Age

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the iced coffee beverages market was already worth £395m in the UK, with 14% YOY growth and a staggering 6.4m drinks sold every week.* And we believe cold coffee drinks sales will pass £500m per annum by 2023.

And cold brew is also a great solution for people who like the taste of coffee but find it too bitter. Many coffees made with hot water will be bitter to some degree, because some bitter components are a by-product of hot water extraction. Hot water is effective at extracting all the elements in coffee: the ‘primary extract’, such as flavours, sugars, aromas, and caffeine, as well as the ‘secondary extract’, which tends to be bitter, or sour and acidic. When a traditionally made coffee is well brewed, the interplay and balance between all of these components makes for a delicious beverage.

Cold water draws out coffee’s constituents more slowly. It takes 8–12 hours for ground coffee soaked, or steeped, in cold water to be extracted, and most of the secondary extract is left behind. The result is a complete revelation, especially for people with an aversion to bitterness. Cold brew coffee is sweeter, and has an ultra-smooth, creamy taste that is extremely palatable and refreshing.

These characteristics make cold brew a great choice for younger adults, who tend to have a lower tolerance for bitterness, and introduce coffee as a true alternative to soft drinks. What could be better on a hot afternoon than a naturally sweet, smooth and refreshing beverage without any calories? That’s the appeal and the beauty of cold brew in a nutshell but the challenge is how to deliver all of this easily.

Keen to try this super-cool trend? Not so fast! Remember, it takes 8–12 hours to make cold brew, and this long timeframe has meant that it’s been expensive and inefficient to make until now. The inconvenience has meant that cold brew has remained the preserve of the artisanal coffee sector. Retail cold brew products are available, but they carry a big price premium, putting them out of reach for many people.

A Faster Route to Great Cold Brew

To make our new Cold Brew Instant Coffee, we steep roasted ground coffee in cold water, so you don’t have to. We extract the natural sweetness and the smooth, creamy texture as primary extract using a cold-water process, before expertly drying it. The end result is pure cold brew in an instant powder format, which is designed to be cold-water-soluble, so it dissolves into cold water in seconds.  

Our cold brew is already proving popular, with one US writer asking, ‘what kind of sorcery did they use to make instant coffee taste this amazing?’ The truth is, our cold brew coffee solution contains nothing but steeped roasted coffee; there is nothing added and nothing taken away. It’s a fraction of the price of other cold brew products on sale, which makes it a great option to fill UK shelves and e-commerce platforms like Amazon this year. It’s also the perfect solution for coffee shops, who can make cold brew to order within seconds, rather than having to brew it hours in advance, in case someone orders it. 

Available now, with a limited stock of bulk 20kg lots our instant cold brew is suitable for packing into sachets, sticks, bottles, drums, and tins, and it’s perfect as a coffee baking ingredient. Looking for retail finished products? We can help. Want a one-shot quick service solution for foodservice, get in touch.

At Complete Coffee, we know a thing or two about coffee. We’ve been selling green and soluble coffee since 1929. Now part of the Sucafina Group, we offer an unparalleled range of sustainably sourced green coffee, soluble coffee, and finished products with a wide array of jars, sachets, pouches, boxes, and tins. We offer everything conceivable for roasters, brands, and retailers – just ask! 

*Allegra Strategies, Project Iced 2019