Cold Brew
1960s
Nitro Cold Brew
It looks like a pint of Guinness, pours like one, and cascades like one. There's not a drop of beer or cream in it.
Cuvรฉe Coffee in Austin didn't invent a new coffee technique in 2012 โ they borrowed one from the beer world next door. Force cold brew through a tap under nitrogen pressure, the same way a brewery pours a stout, and the gas breaks into bubbles so fine the coffee turns velvety without a single drop of dairy. Starbucks took it national in 2019, and the trick went mainstream.
Those tiny nitrogen bubbles are denser than the coffee around them, which is why a fresh pour visibly cascades โ dark liquid appearing to roll downward before settling, the exact optical trick you'd see pouring a Guinness. Unlike COโ, nitrogen doesn't turn the drink fizzy; instead it mutes bitterness and rounds out sweetness, so the same cold brew tastes noticeably different once it's been on tap.
Origin & History
Nitro cold brew was popularized by Cuvรฉe Coffee in Austin, Texas around 2012, when they started serving cold brew on draft using nitrogen โ a technique borrowed from the craft beer world. Starbucks launched nationwide nitro cold brew in 2019, bringing it into the mainstream.
Fun Fact
The cascading effect visible when nitro cold brew is poured โ dark liquid seemingly rolling downward in the glass before settling โ is caused by the nitrogen gas bubbles being denser than the surrounding liquid. It's essentially the same visual effect as pouring a Guinness.
Related Drinks
- Cold BrewCold brew never sees a single degree of heat โ it just waits. Twelve hours later, it's sweeter than coffee that was scalded to make it.
- Dutch CoffeeOne drop a second, for up to eight hours. Some cafรฉs then age it for months โ like it's whiskey, not coffee.
- Iced AmericanoThere's a Korean phrase that means "I'd rather freeze to death than skip my iced Americano" โ and the data backs it up.