As long as alcohol and coffee have existed, there have been brave heroes angling to combine the two mood-altering concoctions. From the Irish coffee to a host of other cocktails, barkeeps toiled to create energizing new drinks and distillers followed suit.
In recent years, the story has shifted the highlight the coffee with hard coffee brands like Brewers and Bad Larry’s. But the latter proved, as its name suggests, unpalatable and the former is grain spirit-based, limiting where it can be sold and enjoyed.
Cafe Agave hopes to shake up this narrative with their new Spiked Cold Brew Coffee.
“People are drinking better and looking for quality —whether it’s alcohol or coffee,” said Mark Scialdone, founder of Cafe Agave, in a statement. “In coffee, they are choosing gourmet blends and new brewing techniques. We saw the opportunity to create a new category of beverages that combined two of peoples’ [sic] favorite things: gourmet cold brewed coffee and alcohol.”
The quality of the coffee comes first thanks to pure Arabica Colombian coffee. This dark roast cold brew is combined with wine, dairy cream, fermented agave, and natural flavors resulting in four versions: vanilla cinnamon, cafe mocha, espresso shot, and salted caramel.
“We talked a lot about how we always start the night out with a cup of coffee,” said Co-Founder Ami-Lynn Bakshi. “But a high quality, great tasting, coffee plus alcohol offering that’s ready to go — anywhere, anytime? It’s a game changer.”
The spiked cold brew is sold in packs of four, and thanks to the agave and wine base, it can be served anywhere that wine and beer is. In addition to certain restaurants, breweries, and wine bars, this opens up accessibility to a wide range of pop-up events, edging in on canned wines’ territory.
But don’t be deceived by this classification! While other hard coffees tap out around 7 percent alcohol by volume, Cafe Agave Spiked Cold Brew Coffee provides a whopping 12.5 percent ABV and a half a cup of coffee’s worth of caffeine in a fairly modest 187 ml can.
Gracing the West Coast, you can find a can of Cafe Agave Spiked Cold Brew in Nevada, Arizona, California, Washington, and Oregon with future expansions on the horizon.
