Store-Bought Cold-Brew, Ranked Worst To Best

Cold brew is one of the later developments in the ever-expanding realm of coffee brewing and consumption. Rather than pushing nearly-boiling hot water through ground coffee beans to make a cup or a pot as quickly as possible, the opposite amounts of heat and time are utilized. Coffee grounds get steeped in cold water for up to an entire day. The result: coffee that's not only cold, but which offers a remarkably smooth and silky taste and texture. Cold brew is completely different from iced coffee, however. The latter is just traditionally prepared coffee gone cold and served over ice; cold brew is a novel preparation method to get a specific product that can be served any which way.

Cold brew has proved particularly suitable and attractive in the packaged coffee market. This niche of caffeine delivery has grown tremendously in the last decade or so, with several of the biggest and best coffee entities (as well as some promising and dedicated upstarts) selling cold brew in aluminum cans, glass bottles, or plastic jugs. There's an impressive variety among the cold brews most commonly available in grocery and convenience chains, and store-bought cold brew can be as good as a coffee shop's, if one buys the right kinds. Here are the most visible and top selling cold brew brands going, and how they stack up against each other, ranked from worst to best.

Single origin, carefully crafted coffee that until recently wasn't available in the average supermarket outside a big city, Blue Bottle entered the highly competitive coffee market with a lot of hype and goodwill. But its main cold brew item, Blue Bottle Coffee Cold Brewed Coffee, is a major disappointment. Attractively adorable and sold in eight-ounce soda cans that enhance portability, Blue Bottle's cold brew — the Bright style we sampled — is a confounding, overpriced mess. Cold brew ought to be smooth and have a near-syrup-like consistency; Blue Bottle's version is watery and almost transparent, finishing in an anemic, light brown color.

When poured out of the can, a strange residue forms on top that adds something to the unpleasant flavor. The cold brew from Blue Bottle, a company that was once part of a coffee recall that affected millions, tastes like a mouthful of water that seems like it was extracted from a potted plant's soil. It's bitter, far too earthy, and there's not a lot of nuance, nothing resembling a traditional cup of coffee at least. One would think milk would help, or at least mask some of the utterly awful taste, but instead it just makes it more watery and doesn't do away at all with the lingering, mouth-puckering aftertaste.

Straight out of the bottle, a generous pour of Califia Farms Cold Brew Black Coffee (in the medium roast style) looks like it might check all the boxes. It's thick and viscous as the best cold brews are, with a deep brown color, and offers a trace of popping bubbles that stick around on the surface of the coffee. It smells like strongly brewed drip coffee, but that's since gone cold, indicating a confident and pronounced coffee taste to come.

Unfortunately, that's where the praise for Califia Farms Cold Brew Black Coffee ends. The flavor is so moderated as to be mild, and doesn't leave much of an impression after the initial tasting. What does fill the mouth right away is a mixture of minerals and a bleach-like note. Thankfully, those tastes go away quickly; but then there's no aftertaste at all, leaving nothing behind. Califia Farms Cold Brew Black Coffee even tastes the same when milk is added, which is to say, confusing and dirty at first, and then as if no beverage was ever consumed at all.

When poured from the gigantic jug in which it's packaged and sold refrigerated, Pop and Bottle's cold brew, or the medium-roast variety at least, gives off an aroma of burnt and wet, all at the same time. Remarkably, that's the best way to describe the taste, too. And it's not as if the beans have been extra-roasted — this product supposedly uses a middle-of-the-road level of bean cookery. It just gives off the flavor of coffee that was roasted too long and then soaked in water in an unsuccessful attempt to take off the bitter edge.

It's oddly not unpleasant. That profile is so intriguing that one finds oneself repeatedly sipping it to get a handle on all the notes that must be laying below the surface. Pop and Bottle cold brew isn't too thick, and in working with the curious flavor, makes this coffee a sipping beverage. It would go great with a big, leisurely breakfast, but it's not suitable for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up. There's no aftertaste to speak of, which ordinarily is a good thing, except that Pop and Bottle dissipates at such a rate that it erases all taste memory. And Pop and Bottle is ultimately unremarkable with the addition of milk — the mixture tastes only like milk, with no trace of coffee at all.

When you open a big bottle of Stok's Cold Brew Coffee — the black, unsweetened variety– you're hit with the unmistakable scent of coffee candy. Like those little treats one's grandmother may have kept in her purse, Stok Cold Brew is made up of cloying yet welcoming sweetness — despite the lack of dairy or sugar in the product– to go along with the coffee-like taste. 

Stok doesn't really taste like regularly-brewed coffee or even cold brew, but more like the imitation of coffee, or a cup of prepared instant coffee left in the fridge for a few hours — but then diluted with a whole lot of water. Instant coffee is fancier than it's ever been, but that's still not a favorable comparison.

The notion of weakness persists through most every aspect of Stok Cold Brew Coffee. Thin and watery, a glass of the stuff looks like heavily diluted drip coffee. There's not much room for coffee taste, and subsequently, there isn't much there. Stok tastes like coffee candy-laced water, and thus doesn't provide a wallop of taste, nor the other things associated with coffee, like bitterness, an aftertaste, or a dose of caffeine. Oddly, Stok tastes more like coffee with the addition of milk. That kind of beverage almost tastes like melted coffee-flavored ice cream.

This stout little blast of strong, thick, probably could've been concentrated cold brew isn't fooling around. High Brew Cold-Brew coffee, in its purest and darkest, boldest, strongest permutation, comes out of a can almost as black as the product itself. There's a lot of coffee taste packed into each sip, and so it immediately proverbially punches the drinker with a wave of everything coffee can muster, good and bad. Yes, there's a lot of coffee flavor — although not a complicated one, just pure, straightforward, Mr. Coffee-style taste — and a lot of bitterness, too.

High Brew Cold-Brew feels like it was concocted to be a caffeine delivery device first, and a pleasant coffee beverage second. It is thick and smooth the way a cold brew ought to be, and it's absolutely improved with the addition of milk. The persistent and powerful coffee does battle with the creamy and sweet milk, and that creates something almost blended that one might find at Starbucks, alongside some unsung heroes of its food menu.

One of the few shelf-stable cold brew coffees on the mass market, Trader Joe's Cold Brew Coffee, sold in individual servings in slim metal cans, could very well taste like the preservatives necessary to make it able to endure transit. It actually tastes like a semi-fresh cup of coffee, albeit one made in a regular drip-style coffee machine, and then chilled until it's ice cold. This is to say Trader Joe's Cold Brew Coffee doesn't bear the unique characteristics of cold brew — it's not as smooth and subtle as the ideal examples of the genre ought to be.

Trader Joe's Cold Brew Coffee is attractively thick in color and consistency, and it contains a very strong coffee flavor. There's nothing exotic going on — a simple, run-of-the-mill blend akin to Folgers or Maxwell House must have been used to process this cold brew. But this product does provide a mighty, familiar coffee taste and powerful hit of caffeine, all in a concentrated amount of liquid. 

There's a smooth finish with just a hint of an aftertaste, and that all stays put with the addition of milk. That additive just makes the stark and dark liquid a creamy coffee-flavored beverage. The Cold Brew Coffee just might be a Trader Joe's product to buy every time.

The storied coffee brewer based in Portland, Oregon, has a reputation as a provider of complex, unique, and strong coffee blends, so expectations were high for the Stumptown Original Cold Brew Coffee. It's indeed a complex and unique product, but not all that strong. This cold brew is light and refreshing, and it's a very thin beverage so a bit on the watery side. However, one can tell from the first sip that it's been lovingly crafted from high-quality coffee beans. If it weren't seemingly diluted with a heavy hand on the water, a bottle of this just might be too much to get through.

The beans used for this cold brew taste lightly roasted, but they retain a strong coffee taste, as well as a mineral sensibility. This is a coffee best enjoyed by sipping. Maybe don't make sun tea this summer – try cold brew instead. Stumptown's Original Cold Brew could be just as hydrating, ideal as a cooling off on a summer's day drink, but with the extra kick provided by a wallop of caffeine and an array of earthy flavors. Milk only makes Stumptown Original Cold Brew Coffee a little better, not altering the coffee taste at all but pulling out hidden layers and toning down the palpable bitterness.

La Colombe Coffee Roasters' canned cold brew drinks, especially the black, unsweetened, medium-roast entry, provide a low-level fizziness that remains throughout the entirety of the beverage drinking experience. Strangely, this isn't a "nitro" style cold brew, so there aren't any air infusions at play here, just a lovely extra texture that enhances the already stellar and multi-level taste.

Rich in coffee flavor, but in an understated way, one can notice notes of chocolate and caramel in a La Colombe cold brew. It's not the least bit earthy, as coffee can sometimes be, but quite refined and smooth, and that applies to the flavor and physicality of the product, too. It rides the line between watery and syrupy, not too thick but not too watery or underwhelming either. 

Pouring in a bit of milk brings out some tasting elements, like the innate chocolate tone and a pure black coffee edge, but it unfortunately makes the consistency too watery. All in all, the milk isn't really necessary because the coffee is already so milky and flavorful.

Organic and small batch products can go one of two ways. They can either taste like the dirt they were just grown in, or they can taste like somebody lovingly labored over the ingredients to create a well-thought out and beautifully realized product. Chameleon Coffee, an operation out of Austin, can join the latter group with its bottled cold brews. It touts its products as handcrafted and organic, and one can taste the quality in every serving.

Drinking any one of Chameleon's flavors of cold brew (we tried several) is a delightful little journey. Sweet coffee essence winds its way out of the bottle, before the dark brown, whiskey-like coffee settles into a glass. The first sips give nothing but pure coffee essence, naturally sweet and naturally creamy before those sensations fade out into a surprisingly strong aftertaste. That's where you can really taste the organic coffee, and its distinctive but not overwhelming earthiness, as well as other notes that shall remain a mystery. 

Take it with milk if you like your coffee with milk, but you don't really need it. However, it does make this an intensely rich beverage, where the coffee stands up even bolder.

There's just something special and fun about nitro cold brew, and Rise seems to have perfected the process with its Organic Black Cold Brew Coffee. The injection of nitrogen makes for a luxurious and silky flavor and finish, plus it pours like a Guinness. After opening the can with a satisfying crack, it goes into a glass where the different colored component ingredients slowly fizz and form together to make for a thick, dark, and black liquid with a half inch or so of foamy fluff floating on top. Rise's cold brew stays bubbling for a few minutes, too, just to let the drinker know they're about to consume something that's going to tickle the tongue.

At first sip, the flavor of coffee — made precise by the coldness and nitrogen — is overwhelming in taste and scent. As it settles on the tongue, different subtle notes come to the surface before it all retreats into a blend of creamy, bittersweet, and earthy. Rise cold brew tastes more like homemade cold brew than any other brand. When milk is incorporated, more elements and layers not previously noted make themselves known, and while not watering down the coffee at all, lets those distinctively coffee flavors burst through.

A can of Starbucks Nitro Cold Brew is so startlingly light, with the label indicating there's less than 10 ounces of liquid inside a vessel that can hold 12. The cold brew inside is just that airy, thoroughly treated with nitrogen. That's supposed to make coffee as smooth as melted chocolate or velvet in a number of ways, and Starbucks' version complies, with what has to be the most bubble-laden nitro cold brew sold in cans across America.

The proper way to enjoy a nitro-style cold brew is to pour it into a glass, which allows the liquid to settle and give the drinker a little show as it bubbles up to form a foamy head. It takes a ridiculously long time for a Starbucks Nitro Cold Brew to get drinkable — about three minutes, which is an eternity when one needs a caffeine boost or when one is staring at a delectable looking coffee treat that smells bright, creamy, and bold. The wait is worth it. 

The coffee fizzes gently as it rolls over the tongue, bringing with it understated and undercut coffee, as smooth as it is creamy, and that's even in the varieties where no milk has been added. Whatever science they're doing at Starbucks with nitrogen works, because the company's various cold brews taste like ice cold cups of strong coffee where all unnecessary water has been somehow removed and all of the rough edges have been sanded off.

The bottled and canned cold brew brands selected for rating, ranking, and evaluation herein were chosen based on their national availability. These are the brands most commonly found at a variety of supermarkets, and big box and convenience stores. No concentrates were considered; only ready-to-drink cold brew beverages. In the case where one company offered several varieties of pre-made product, The Takeout selected the one that seemed to be the most representative, flagship, or middle-of-the-road — light or medium roast versus espresso or fringe items, and purely coffee as often as possible, thus avoiding flavoring agents and milk. 

Before sampling, each cold brew was refrigerated and chilled for a minimum of 24 hours and served very cold. The Takeout evaluated each cold brew coffee on its own and unadulterated, and then with the addition of milk in order to replicate the two most common real-life consumption situations. Criteria to determine an overall opinion of each coffee product included richness of coffee, complexity of flavor profile, thickness of product, presence and assessment of an aftertaste, appearance, and pleasantness of odor. All things considered, each product was then given a relative ranking.