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Coffee Details
- Coffee NameNitro Cold Brew Coffee Original Black
- Company Rise Brewing Co.
- Company Location New York, New York
- Estimated Price$34.99 / twelve 7 oz cans
- Other notes Organic
Coffee Scoring
Pros
- Nitro adds nice creaminess to coffee Cons
- Needs more robust flavor
Disclosure: Pull & Pour received coffee samples for this post, however, as always, all opinions are 100% my own.
RISE is one of the more well-established cold brew brands on the market. Their coffee can be found in grocery stores across the country, as well as online; they offer a wide range of cold brew options featuring various flavors and styles. RISE recently sent me a 12-pack of their nitro cold brew coffee [original black] to explore.
I have always been a big fan of nitro coffee [and nitro beer for that matter]. It adds a wonderful creaminess to the coffee—and opening the can is a lot of fun. While the nitro element in the coffee for the RISE cold brew definitely added some creaminess, it wasn’t as creamy as some other nitro options I’ve tried in the past. The flavor and body of the coffee was a bit thin and I wish it had a bit more “umpf.” The flavor was delicious though. It was balanced, smooth and had a really nice natural sweetness [honestly I was surprised there was no added sugar]. I also tasted some really nice chocolatey notes throughout, which is one of my favorite notes in cold brew coffee.
As mentioned above, RISE offers a variety of flavors and latte-style options. I always prefer my coffee black though, so this variation only had organic coffee and purified water.
One of the big selling points of RISE is the caffeine content. Their fairly small seven-ounce serving packs a huge amount of caffeine: 180 mg [for reference a standard 8 oz cup of coffee has around 95 mg of caffeine]. Caffeine is never the reason I drink coffee, so that isn’t a huge selling point for me, but could be for many.
The Bottom Line
While I wish the flavor was a bit more robust, RISE nitro cold brew still has a lot going for it. It is creamy and has great sweetness and is a great on-the-go option for anyone who loves a smooth, balanced coffee—and the extra caffeine kick.
Cold brew isn't new. The Japanese have been doing it since the 1600s, and my mother's been doing it since I was young: The first time I drank it was in her kitchen, dripped into a Mason jar from a large plastic container that sat there seemingly forever. It was wonderful. But ever since those Stumptown cold brew stubbies popped up in 2011, bottled cold brew has been hailed as the savior of the small-batch roaster—a way of selling ready-to-drink coffee in the grocery store instead of the cafe.
We decided to taste every unflavored cold brew coffee we could find in Whole Foods, Safeway, New Seasons and Trader Joe's—19 in all. Our tasting panel included a barista, the editor of WW's coffee issue, the editor of Sprudge coffee blog, and a drinker who likes coffee so much she resorts to tea to govern her caffeine use. We ranked each cold brew from 1 to 100, based on pure deliciousness.
It turned out the flavor spread was insanely large: Some tasted more like acetone or Naugahyde than coffee, while the best were beautifully expressive, if still a bit flubbery compared to a fresh-brewed cup. A few caveats, however: The Groundworks Original bottle we tried was horribly fouled somehow—after tasting a different bottle later, we figure it had a solid shot at landing in the top 10. Also, our bottle of Stumptown Holler Mountain mysteriously disappeared right before the tasting. We blame Trump and the spirit of kleptocracy.
Here are the top 10, starting with the best.
1. [Tie] Stumptown Ethiopia Guji Organic Score: 86.25
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[Tricia Hipps]
The only surprise here is that Stumptown Ethiopia Guji had to share the podium. One of our tasters already called out this bottle in advance as his favorite—a result duplicated blind—and the strong berry flavor is so distinctive two tasters immediately said its name after sipping it. Only Starbucks was guessed as easily.
According to Stumptown's head cold brewer, Brent Wolczynski [who's been making cold brew there since 2011, long before the roaster's sale to Peet's], the process on this Guji isn't any different from the Stump's other brews. It's the beans themselves that are different, and he believes African coffee beans express themselves better in cold brew than beans grown elsewhere. "Ethiopia Guji is a gorgeous coffee with floral notes and a pleasant acidity that's reminiscent of melon and finishes sweet," says Wolczynski. "We think that really shows in the cold brew."
Taster notes: "Super berrylike." "Toasty, but also jarring in a good way." "A good after-dinner flavor." "This is Stumptown Guji. Clean. Light. Put in an IPA."
2. [Tie] High Brew Black & Bold Score: 86.25
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[Tricia Hipps]
In April, The Austin Chronicle declared its city the "cold brew capital of the world," the only real solution to Texas heat. From the results, it looks like the city is sharing the title—although it added a little Southern sweetness to do so. This smallish roaster from Austin made the only sugared cold brew we allowed in the tasting. It still tasted like coffee rather than cola syrup [looking squarely at you, Stumptown Sparkling!] and used less than a gram of sugar to temper the inherent rubber and acidity of much cold brew. This left the Black & Bold with robust coffee flavor, and a pleasant maltiness some tasters likened to a good stout.
Taster notes: "Lacto—in a good way." "Sweet potato." "Malty, chocolaty flavor. Kind of like a stout. Pretty good!" "Tastes smooth and rich."
3. Blue Bottle Score: 85.25
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[Tricia Hipps]
The Bay Area's Blue Bottle—recently bought by Swiss food behemoth Nestlé—was an early favorite, with good reason. Alongside Stumptown, it's a pioneer in packaged cold brew. In fact, it tasted so much like "what cold brew should be" that multiple tasters assumed it was Stumptown.
Nope! The Blue Bottle was a bit more intense and round than Stumptown Original, giving it a score very close to the top slot.
Taster notes: "Round, earthy, lovely." "Like a fancy cake." "Would pair well with a blueberry muffin." "Pleasant."
4. Stumptown Organic Score: 82
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[Tricia Hipps]
What do you know? Organic is better: 1.75 points better, to be exact.
Taster notes: "Inoffensive." "Round, complex." "No off-notes, good, clean finish." "Neutral."
5. Stumptown Original Score: 80.25
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[Tricia Hipps]
The original Portland cold brew bottle was expected to fare well in the taste test—and it did. Especially notable was the sweetness pulled out of the coffee beans even without any sugar added.
Taster notes: "Smooth and sweet." "Stuff in a hummingbird feeder." "Natural process coffee." "Nice like Charlie Brown or Death Cab for Cutie?"
6. Starbucks Score: 77.25
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[Tricia Hipps]
Starbucks is rumored to use flavor enhancers to make its cold brew taste so good. If true, it's also managed to keep it a secret. Either way, we'd drink Starbucks' cold brew long before we'd have a regular roasted cup: Its cold brew tastes great. That said, it tastes great in a slightly unnerving way. Multiple tasters noted a certain strangeness to the flavor, the same way a McDonald's Quarter Pounder can taste oddly good while still also tasting like Elmer's wood glue.
Taster notes: "Straddling the uncanny valley of coffee." "Pleasant finish." "Not gross, but fake." "Is this Starbucks?"
7. Dutch Bros. Nitro Score: 71.5
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[Tricia Hipps]
Oregon-founded, Oregon-owned, caffeine-pumped Dutch Bros. makes its entrée at an admirable No. 7—but it almost didn't make its way into the tasting. One of our tasters insisted that even if it wasn't in the grocery stores we visited, its kiosks and bottles are so ubiquitous it'd be a crime not to include it. Well, it's the first Oregonian cold brew in our top 10. And because it's Dutch Bros., it's nitro, bro.
Taster notes: "Bland but in a comforting way." "Good body, mellow sweetness, creamy finish." "Nitro bland."
8. Signature Select Score: 70.25
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[Tricia Hipps]
Safeway, motherfucker. Though there was an oddness to this—our hypothesis was that some robusta beans came in with the arabica, something only possible with a larger roaster—this fared surprisingly well given it's a grocery store chain owned by a faceless, many-headed monster whose no-shit name is Cerberus Capital Management. But cold brew doesn't always favor small batch—cold brew is cold brew, and it's weird. Safeway, oddly, is the last in our top 10 that we'd recommend drinking, and it's a strange brew.
Taster notes: "Like peanut butter icing." "Lemon poppy bread flavor." "Safeway?"
9. Trader Joe's Organic Cold Brew Score: 60
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[Tricia Hipps]
This is about where the bottom sprang a leak, although the boat's not quite on fire yet—the tasting notes have started to include things like "upholstery" and "sour lake water."
Taster notes: "'70s upholstery." "Barrel aged?" "Sour lake water finish, kinda bright up front."
10. Chameleon Organic Cold Brew Score: 57
This is the second in our top 10 from the cold brew capital of America, and the results are pretty middling at best. Capital cities are boring.
Taster notes: "Totally average." "Jarringly acidic for, like, a second." "Not terrible."
Also tried: Black Medicine, Clutch Unfiltered, Secret Squirrel, Columbia Gorge, Groundwork Nitro, Clutch Barrel Aged, Anchorhead, Stumptown Nitro, Groundwork Classic.
How good is nitro cold brew?
What Does Nitro Cold Brew Taste Like? Nitro cold brew is subtly sweet, with a light body and smooth finish. The sweetness derives from chocolate notes and bright fruit flavors that surface in the cold brewing process. The smooth, soft texture is the defining characteristic of nitro cold brew.
Is nitro cold brew healthier than regular coffee?
Yes, nitro cold brew can be considered healthier than traditional iced or hot coffees as it contains lower acidity levels and fewer calories. The smooth taste eliminates the need for added sugars or creamers, making it an ideal choice for those looking to enjoy their caffeine fix without unnecessary additives.
Is nitro cold brew the strongest coffee?
Being cold brew, nitro coffee contains more caffeine than a regular cup of drip coffee, but the nitrogen gas doesn't really have any effect on the caffeine content.
What's the big deal about nitro cold brew?
Typically made from cold brew coffee, nitro coffee is a coffee beverage that has been infused with nitrogen gas. In addition to giving the drink a smooth, creamy texture, it also adds a natural sweetness and reduces the bitterness of coffee, which makes it a great choice for coffee lovers and new coffee drinkers alike.