The New Howard Schultz-Backed Nitro Cold Brew Machine Is a $700 Gas
It’s a pricey dream come true for consumers of caffeine.
Especially made for committed consumers of cold brew coffee: Cumulus.
Source: Cumulus
The air we breathe for free is about 78% nitrogen. And yet, for all its ubiquity, to get a cup of coffee infused with the stuff, you need to pay a serious premium. At the Starbucks in my Brooklyn neighborhood, the smallest iced coffee costs $4.25. Make it a cold brew and it’s $4.75. But infuse that cold brew with nitrogen, to bring out its inherent sweetness, sans sugar, while giving it the creamy head and body of a Guinness, and you’re up to $5.75.
Customers regularly pay that price because the drink demands both time and serious equipment that most home baristas don’t have. Cold-brewing coffee typically takes upwards of 24 hours. Adding nitrogen to the finished product requires a piece of gear like the $290 uKeg Nitro Cold Brew Coffee Maker, which needs a new $3 capsule of the inert gas for every 50-ounce batch. The easy option for those who want their nitrogen fix at home is to just buy it canned. But even that comes at a cost: An eight-pack of Starbucks’ own (in 9.6-ounce cans) sells for $27, or $3.38 per can. A 12-pack of La Colombe nitro cold brew (in 9-ounce cans) sells for $34, or about $2.80 per can.