The New Brew
If New York has influenced me in anyway, it would be safe to say its my love for coffee. Starting off with Starbucks and then moving onto NYC coffee boutiques, slowly i have become a classic New Yorker coffee addict. Yes, i’m also that coffee snob that has a long list of requests for the barista- Large unsweetened ice coffee, light on the ice, with a touch of skim milk.
So when i heard of cold brew coffee, i was intrigued to see what was so special?
Cold Brew is not to be confused with ice coffee. It is created by steeping ground coffee in room temperature water for at least 12 hours and then filtering out the grounds to get rid of the sediment. Unlike regular coffee, cold brew is never exposed to heat. Cold brew uses time, rather than heat to extract the coffee’s sugars, oils and caffeine. While iced coffee is created just like any regular hot coffee brew method. It is simply hot coffee that has been cooled down to be poured over ice.
I know it sounds just like a fancier version of ice coffee, but the smooth, less bitter, more chocolatey taste justifies the higher pricing at $3.25 for a grande Starbucks cold brew vs. regular ice coffee at $2.65.
Lets not forget cold brew has nearly double caffeine content, giving you the extra boost to take on the bustling New York City streets. With Starbucks now selling it in all 2,800 stores, i no longer need to hunt down every Birch, Joe and Blue Bottle coffee shops in the area. I guess its time to download the Starbucks App..