It's In The Can

A hot cup of coffee isn’t always what you want in summer. So why not try a cold one? As Mersa Auda reports, this sector of the market is growing – and becoming more innovative – day by day

- Mersa Auda

On a scorching summer day, even the most devoted speciality coffee drinker would happily trade their espresso or flat white for a chilled, refreshing drink. Ideally, it should still taste like coffee, while meeting the standards connoisseurs have come to appreciate and expect. So where to turn?

Iced coffee was invented to satisfy this need, but it does not fit the bill for most. The combination of brewing the coffee with hot water and then chilling it (which flattens nuances in flavour), coupled with the addition of sugar, milk or other ingredients used to balance the bitterness, results in a drink that is nothing like a cup of superior-quality coffee.

Then came along the cold brew, where coarsely ground coffee is soaked in cold water for between 12 and 24 hours. This far gentler process brings out a very different tasting profile. It’s smoother and less acidic, preserving the natural sweetness of the bean and making the drink perfectly enjoyable on its own. Cold brew began appearing in speciality coffee shops a few years back, either in a sophisticated Oji cold drip tower or as a homemade infusion kept in large jars or hand-labelled glass bottles. Demand soon outgrew the small batches available, and a conveniently pre-packaged, portable version was the inevitable next step.

No country for cold men

The pioneers of canned coffee as a concept are the Japanese, who began offering this alternative decades before it became popular elsewhere in the world. Aluminium-encased coffees can be found everywhere in Japan, from convenience stores to vending machines, and some can even be consumed hot after immersing the can in warm water for a few minutes. It’s popular enough to be endorsed by A-list celebrities including, rather bizarrely, grumpy-faced Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones (see below).