Oct 20, 2016
Starbucks goes Guinness with Canadian launch of Nitro Cold Brew coffee
If there’s a retailer that can make a buck selling coffee, it’s Starbucks. The company’s revenue this fiscal year is on track to top US$20 billion. No doubt, that’s a lot of soy-milk lattes. It also highlights Starbucks’ constantly evolving line-up of drinks to keep up with the coffee hipsters.
Today, Starbucks Canada is launching its own Nitro Cold Brew at a location in Toronto’s financial district. With a planned rollout at multiple locations in Ontario and B.C. in the coming months, the launch will make Starbucks the largest retailer offering Nitro in Canada. It also marks the latest chapter in the fast growing market for high-end, chilled coffee drinks.
Poured straight from the tap, Nitro Cold Brew may remind first-timers of the Guinness experience. The cold brew coffee is infused with nitrogen gas and released through a pressurized valve. The net result: a creamy glass of coffee that looks like, well, Guinness.
Of course, Starbucks has offered iced coffee dating back to its earliest days. Last year it made a big push into cold brew, a more time-intensive coffee-making process. According to market research firm Mintel, U.S. sales of cold brew coffee rose 115 per cent to US$7.9 billion between 2014 and 2015. Even with that growth, the average coffee drinker has yet to sample cold brew, creating a great opportunity for growth-hungry U.S. chains like Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts.
Fall may not seem like the ideal season to roll out a new variety of coffee that is not hot, but the reality is cold drinks are a huge seller for Starbucks. The company says it expects to more than double the size of its cold beverage business in Canada within five years.
