The Best Store-Bought Cold Brew, According to Coffee Experts

Because homemade cold brew never tastes quite like when a barista makes it for you.

Cold brew isn’t the easiest to make at home. Plenty of fancy contraptions and products help you steep a batch of cold brew in the fridge, but in my experience, the cold brew never comes out the same as what I would typically get in a coffee shop.

Thankfully, several brilliant brewers make it easier to enjoy a cold brew at home by bottling and selling them at your local grocery stores. Which, of course, brings me to the biggest problem: Which store-bought cold brew should you buy?

With so many options on the market, I decided to pick the brains of a few coffee experts who know the market better than I do. Surprisingly, they all mentioned the same cold brew brand when I asked, so I had to share the love and tell you what you should buy.

Read More: Cold Brew vs. Iced Coffee: An Expert Explains the Difference

The Baristas and Coffee Experts I Asked

• George Lubitz: Communications Director at Terra Kaffe with 15 years of barista and bar back experience

• Mark Morphew: Founder of Bean Ground, a specialty coffee roasting company in Manchester, U.K.

• Meredith Kruse: Founder of Our Love Language Is Food, recipe developer, media personality, and cooking and beverage expert

The Best Store-Bought Cold Brew, According to Baristas

While there are many great store-bought cold brew concentrates on the market, coffee experts agree that Chameleon Organic Hand Crafted-Cold Brew is the best of the best when it comes to having cold brew at home.

Chameleon cold brew comes in a 32-ounce bottle of black cold brew coffee concentrate, made with sustainably sourced beans steeped for 11+ hours. Customers can grab the original Black Coffee concentrate or a variety of cold brew concentrate flavors like Pumpkin Spiced Pie, Vanilla, Mocha, Hazelnut, and Sweet Cafe Cubano.

Chameleon makes concentrates, which are different from ready-to-drink cold brew products. While the company has some ready-to-drink products, all three coffee experts prefer to have a bottle of concentrate on hand.

Lubitz says this is essential for buying the product, so you know exactly how to prepare it. “Drinking concentrates straight will taste like turpentine and should always be cut with, in my experience, at least an equal part of water or milk,” he explains. “I prefer concentrates myself and always dilute it with milk. Sometimes, I add simple syrup, but keeping it simple is my preferred way to enjoy it!”

Along with diluting with water or your choice of milk, Morphew says store-bought cold brews are also great for playing around with flavors using syrups or spices like cinnamon. vanilla, caramel, lavender, even pumpkin spice, or peppermint mocha. If you’re feeling extra ambitious, you could even make your own cinnamon simple syrup, then top it with a homemade vanilla coffee creamer.

Morphew also enjoys using this cold brew concentrate to make a smoothie in the morning. He blends the cold brew with frozen banana, cocoa powder, and milk. For a protein boost, you can add protein powder or nut butter, such as peanut or almond.

A cold brew concentrate like Chameleon is also great for recreating copycat recipes of your favorite drinks, like the Starbucks Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew.

Kruse likes to make pumpkin cold foam to top her cold brew, which saves her a trip to her local Starbucks and money. She also points out that cold brew concentrate is great for making cocktails, like a cold brew martini.

Read the original article on Simply Recipes.