Nitro, Nitrous, Nitro-brew, Guinness coffee, coffee on draught? What’s all the fuss about, and what exactly is Nitro Cold Brew Coffee?
First, let’s clear up what we’re talking about. Here at Artemis, we produce “Nitro Cold Brew Coffee” and we believe that it’s some of the tastiest out there (even if we do say so ourselves). How do we make it? First, we take cold brew coffee, brewed using our standard process. We then infuse it with pure nitrogen and keg it, ready to be poured and enjoyed from the tap.
What the Nitrogen does to the coffee is nothing short of wizardry. When Artemis Nitro is poured, you’ll see a mesmerising cascade of tiny bubbles flowing up to the surface of the drink, eventually forming a perfectly dense, velvety and creamy head.
Benefits of Nitro Cold Brew Coffee:
Don’t be fooled, our Nitro contains no milk. In fact, it’s got nothing but pure water, coffee and nitrogen. This creamy addition, however, does provide the perception of a much creamier, sweeter drink – without the calories!
In fact, an inherent benefit of Nitro is it can often act as a small bridge between high-calorie, high sugar, milk-based coffees and practically zero-calorie black coffee options. Most people tend not to add sugar to cold brew anyway due to its low bitterness; Nitro goes that step further and brings everything people like about milk-based coffees, without any of the nastiness.
The ‘wow’ factor for Nitro lies in the serving. Coffee on draught. I mean, come on! You just can’t get more awesome than coffee on tap. Draught beer has been around for the good part of a century, and people have become accustomed to seeing it in pubs and bars. Serving coffee in the same way creates a big break in expectations and creates talking points between the customer and barista.
Speaking to the industry for a moment; regarding the challenges of the Speciality coffee market, there has been a long-fought war of, “you don’t need sugar and milk with that.” Nitro could be a solution. We don’t need to build weapons of mass cold brew dispension to cover the general public in Nitro coffee, but it can be used as potential gateway product which we can pitch and recommend as being served on its own.
What Nitro Cold Brew Coffee isn’t:
Nitrous
This is the gas you breath at the dentist and the doctors, formerly known as Nitrous Oxide. It’s also the base product of NOS, which I’m sure you’ll be familiar with if you’ve ever watched a Fast & Furious film. Given that this is a restricted product, I can confirm that this is not what Nitro coffee is made with! It would be an experience drinking a Nitrous Coffee, but not one you want if you’re planning on staying on the right side of the law.
Nitro-brew
In our experience this is simply a cultural misunderstanding. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the term, it just insinuates that it’s brewed with nitrogen. This is rarely the case. You could easily brew with nitrogen in many ways, but it’s not likely to give you the effect you’d see from a proper Nitro. Nitro-brew is just a term that confuses people a little, more so than Nitro coffee.
Guinness Coffee
Artemis Nitro is 0% ABV. The term “Guinness coffee” comes from the way the drink cascades once poured. It looks just like an amber Guinness, where the bubbles slowly rise to the top to form a creamy head. It’s a good way to describe Nitro and the production method of getting the gas in there is similar, but it’s definitely coffee –Not beer.
