I’ve written about some of the delicious coffees from King’s Row Coffee in the past, so when they announced they were going to be moving into the cold brew space and were going to be shipping cans of cold brew coffee that was nitrogen infused, well, I wanted to try it! They shipped a sample box my way and upon receipt I promptly tossed it into the back of the fridge for a day: it’s best served between 32F and 35F, so you’ll want a cold spot in your fridge too.
The packaging inevitably includes a royal crown, given the name: King’s Brew. It’s nice:
If you’re thinking that you’d never want to drink coffee out of a metal can, you’re going to be quite surprised. Modern canning technology and materials mean that there’s no metallic flavor, it’s just a good, air-tight and light-free storage device. But that nitrogen! I had visions of it being a capsule included in the can a la Guinness (note: Guinness uses a 1″ plastic widget in its cans, a nitrogen-filled sphere with a tiny hole in it that activates and produces a foamy head upon shaking). I asked King’s Row Coffee CEO Sam Sabky if they used something similar and he said they didn’t, but that the nitrogen was already in the coffee. “Shaking jostles the nitrogen particles around, which are sealed in the can, and they collide with each other generating the creamy texture.”
Hmm… okay. I enthusiastically shook a can of King’s Brew for 30 seconds, then popped the top. Just to have a bit fizz out (though way less than if it had been a can of a carbonated beverage, which would have been madness!):
Foamy. Poured into a wine glass, you can see that it had a nice foamy head, a trademark of nitrogen infused coffee:
Yadda, yadda. All that really matters is the taste, and the King’s Brew cold brew coffee was delicious. Smooth and non-acidic, it’s the combination of the lack of acidity of cold brew (where the coffee’s brewed for 24 hours or longer) and the nitrogen infusion, which makes it all foamy. It’s really almost like having a coffee blended up with a bit of ice, it’s that smooth and tasty. Good “tongue feel” as wine snobs would say. 🙂
Here’s what’s cool about the King’s Brew though: It’s zero calories, dairy free, has no additives and low acidity. And a can is a pretty hefty 300mg of coffee. By comparison, a typical 12 ounce cup of coffee would have around 140mg of caffeine, so this stuff is definitely a bit closer to a Monster Energy than a “tall coffee with room for cream”. Then again, it tastes waaaayyyy better than any of those yechy (and unhealthy) energy drinks.
Since you don’t have to stick with just the cold brew straight out of the can, I decided to mix mine up with a little bit of half and half. My cat was quite impressed. Or possibly not:
Could just be he’s possessive of my ThunderCats glasses, actually. But as you can see, a delicious looking – and, yes, delicious tasting – brew. In fact, King’s Row Coffee has an entire page of different drinks you can make using the cold brew King’s Brew as a base. Scroll down to check out the White Vermonter too, sounds delish!
Long and short of it: If you’re looking for some really delicious cold brew to impress even the biggest coffee snob, King’s Brew might well be just what you seek. Available for sale in Vermont and New England, hopefully they’ll get wider distribution and have it at stores in Colorado soon.
King’s Brew nitrogen infused cold brew coffee. $4.50/can. Buy it online, or learn more at Kings Row Coffee.
Disclaimer: They sent me some coffee. Yup. And hopefully they’ll send more.