Cold coffee heats up Las Vegas retailers’ sales

For U.S. coffee shops, business usually cools down as the weather heats up.

However, Americans' year-round thirst for cold coffee has been rising for years.

Last year, they consumed 90 million gallons of ready-to-drink coffee beverages. This resulted in a 52 percent rise from 2009, data from Beverage Marketing Corp. show.

Peet's Coffee & Tea, one of the nation's biggest coffee chains with about 400 stores, replaced traditional iced coffee with cold brew in June. Sales have exceeded last year's iced coffee numbers by as much as 70 percent.

"We went all in on cold brew," Peet's general manager Tyler Ricks said.

For Peet's, focusing on cold brew was part of an effort to slow the seasonal decline in coffee sales, ranging from 15 percent to 20 percent.

The amount of venues serving iced coffee in the U.S. rose from 19 percent in 2009 to 24 percent in 2013, data from market research firm Mintel show.

Starbucks launched cold brew at 2,800 stores this summer.

As for local cafes, Grouchy John's Coffee Shop has used this method since the business's early days in a mobile truck more than five years ago.

JJ Wiley and John Ynigues co-own the shop, now in a permanent location off Maryland Parkway in Paradise.

"Cold brew coffee is really easy to make," Wiley said. "It just takes time."

Steep to serve

Time is key when making a cold brew. After pouring espresso beans into a container and filling it with water, the solution steeps for at least 12 hours before it's ready to serve.

Ynigues said this process extracts stronger — yet less bitter — flavors.

"You usually get some of the bitterness in the espresso (with hot drip brewing), but with the cold brew it just brews all of that bitterness out," he said.

While Grouchy John's waits 12 hours, Mothership Coffee in Henderson steeps for 24 hours.

The shop's owner, Joshua Walter, said either amount of time works well. It all depends on the shop's preference.

"As long as you understand what's going on and you make the right decisions, you'll get a good result," he said.

Mothership, which opened three months ago, uses a unique method for serving their own chilly coffee: Nitrogen. Every cup comes from a keg and is poured from a tap to bring out the most from the brew.

"What we're essentially doing is creating microbubbles with the nitrogen," he said. "This allows us to smell and taste (the coffee) more."

Sometimes Mothership sells more than a keg a day in the summer. Grouchy John's averages eight to 10 gallons daily. That decreases to two gallons sold every couple of days in the cooler months.

Ynigues noted that the market tends to shift with the seasons.

"The amount of coffee we use stays in balance," he said. "We don't use any more or less depending on the weather."

Seasons are no matter for caffeine enthusiast Blake Feeney. He enjoys cold brew year-round.

"It's just bolder and it has more coffee taste," he said. "It's more smoky and has a deeper taste."

Cold cashes in

Traditional iced coffee is brewed the same way as regular coffee — via hot dripping.

Wiley said hot coffee takes about four ounces of beans per gallon. Grouchy John's cold brew takes half a pound per gallon.

Hot dripping requires fewer beans because the heat extracts more flavors from them than steeping. Wiley, however, is still a fan of the 12-hour wait.

"This is such a better method and it yields such a better product," he said.

Cold brew costs reflect the amount of product used.

Starbucks charges customers $3.25 for a grande cold brew — 60 cents more than a grande iced coffee.

Grouchy John's has a 65 cent difference.

"A 16 ounce hot cup is $2.10," Wiley said. "A 16 ounce cold brew is $2.75."

Price is no object for Feeney. Cold brew is on the rise, and he believes it's here to stay.

"I think it's more than a fad," he said. "It'll be an ongoing trend."

Reuters contributed to this report. Contact May Ortega at mortega@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2908. Find @MayVOrtega on Twitter.