The boom of ready-to-drink coffee beverages shows no sign of slowing. With many coffee drinkers still confined to the comfort of their own homes, the people need coffee drinks, and RTD options appear uniquely positioned to caffeinate the masses. Now Intelligentsia, one of the biggest names in American specialty coffee for the past two decades, has entered the fray with their own line of ready-to-drink coffee beverages.
Announced via press release today, February 23rd, the Chicago-based coffee roaster enters the RTD sector with three different offerings, each inspired by in-store customer favorites: Cold Coffee, Oat Latte, and Spiced Oat Latte. For the base of each of the three all-vegan, gluten-free flavors, Intelligentsia has opted for a blend, pairing an Ethiopian coffee from direct trade partners METAD with either a Guatemala from Finca Santa Ana or a Peru sourced via Origin Coffee Lab, depending on seasonality.
The Cold Coffee, which is hot-brewed then flash-chilled “to express depth of aroma and complexity of flavors and… to preserve the coffee’s natural sweetness,” respectively, has notes of caramel, lime, and cherry. For both of the oat latte flavors, Intelligentsia has continued their partnership with Oatly, whom the press release states makes up 13% of all cafe orders. The Oat Latte combines the Cold Coffee with Oatly, with notes of sugar cookie, milk chocolate, and molasses. The Spiced Oat Latte finds inspiration in a South American spiced and sweetened oat-based beverage, Avena. To that end, Intelligentsia created the Spice Oat Latte as a ramped-up version of the Oat Latte with the inclusion of cinnamon, vanilla, orange, and ginger.
“Until now, you had to live in a city with one of our coffeebars to get a firsthand look at the way we approach coffee and to appreciate the attention-to-detail that goes into every drink that we serve,” Intelligentsia CEO James McLaughlin tells Sprudge. “The ready-to-drink format allows us to control the brewing process and taste, and allows us to guarantee that when someone picks up a carton of our cold coffee, oat latte or spiced oat latte, it tastes like one that’s made in our coffeebars. That’s what I find exciting about the ready-to-drink category, how accessible it makes coffee and how it allows us to reach and introduce extraordinary coffee to so many more people.”
The new Intelligentsia ready-to-drink line of beverages are out now. The 11-ounce drinks can be purchased at any Intelligentsia location in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, or New York City or online for $3.99. For more information or to try some for yourself, visit Intelligentsia’s official website.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
Disclosure: Intelligentsia and Oatly are advertising partners with the Sprudge Media Network
