Starbucks plans to start testing Cold-Pressed Espresso in some cafes by the end of the year as there is a constantly growing demand for cold beverages in the coffee chain.
Cold beverages are favoured by younger consumers, and in the last 3 years, Starbucks recorded $1 billion in cold drink sales.
During its 2016 Investor Conference, Starbucks had stated it expects to quadruple the Cold Brew business by 2021 and its overall cold beverage mix to move from over 35% in 2013 to nearly 50% by 2021.
U.S. iced coffee consumption has grown by 75% in the past decade and cold brew sales grew 338.9% between 2010 and 2015, according to industry experts.
Kevin Johnson, CEO of Starbucks said:
More than 50% of the beverages that we sell at Starbucks are cold.
WHAT IS COLD PRESSED ESPRESSO?
Cold pressed espresso is a combination of a traditional espresso and a cold brew coffee. Starbucks actually announced this back in 2017, but perhaps they felt the market was not ready at the time.
Espresso is a concentrated shot of 30-40ml 1-1.5 oz hot coffee made typically in 22-32 seconds under high-pressure, whereas cold brew coffee extracts flavour slowly on a course grounded coffee that is steeped in cool water for several hours.
The company will make their cold-pressed espresso, using the heroic sounding and patent-pending, ‘Aqua Tamp Technology’ espresso machine.
The coffee beans used in this machine are coarsely ground and relatively loosely packed and use an “ascending flow filtration system that is pressurised by cold water.”
Besides the temperature, Starbucks’ says its cold-pressed espresso is sweeter and smoother than a shot of hot espresso, which can be more bitter and acidic – some espresso lovers might point out this is a trait of Starbucks rather than the method itself?
The company says for best results, cold-pressed espresso takes about an hour to brew in comparison to only 25 seconds but presumably, they’re making them in larger batches. Traditional cold brew takes around 10 hours to steep, so this is significant time-saving. It will be interesting to understand the science behind its molecular extraction – something coffee geeks love to analyse.
The Starbucks Reserve Roastery, Seattle is already serving up beverages made with the cold-pressed espresso and the company wishes to scale up and test the product further in the market.
**Although Starbucks has a patent pending on their new cold-press espresso technology, the technique isn’t exactly new. Third-wave coffee shops have been making cold-press espresso for a while now.