Why Canned Cold Brew Can Never Compete With Fresh

Cold brew coffee has become incredibly popular in the U.S. in the past decade, with both national chain and local coffee shops offering it on menus, and coffee lovers regularly making their own version at home, as I prefer to do. Although many brands offer canned cold brew as a convenient and shelf-stable way to enjoy the coffee confection when you can't get it fresh, unfortunately, the flavor becomes altered.

If you're not familiar with cold brew coffee, it's essentially the inverse of its name — coffee brewed cold. Coarse-ground coffee beans are soaked in cold water for 12 to 24 hours and then strained into a concentrate that's kept refrigerated. When it's ready to be enjoyed, the desired amount of concentrate is diluted with water, resulting in a less acidic, sweeter, and smoother-tasting coffee with more caffeine than iced coffee has, per ounce.

When it comes to food and beverages, fresh is generally better-tasting than canned, and canned cold brew coffee is no exception. Since canned items can pose a risk of causing harmful food-borne illnesses, the FDA requires canned cold brew coffee for retail sale to be pasteurized, a process that involves heating it as high as 300 degrees Fahrenheit. While necessary, the heat destroys the unique flavor that cold brew, in particular, is known for. Coffee enthusiasts have created numerous Reddit threads to delve deeper into the debate about canned versus fresh cold brew; but it's hard to find a Redditor who disagrees with the preference for fresh cold brew.

So, what's the point of canned cold brew even existing if it doesn't taste like the fresh version us cold coffee drinkers fell in love with? Those who aren't cold brew connoisseurs probably wouldn't notice the taste difference between canned cold brew and the fresh version.

For anyone needing a convenient and refreshing way to get a caffeine buzz, popping open a can of cold brew will get the job done. The average can of cold brew is typically 11 ounces and contains about 200 to 340 milligrams of caffeine (similar to the Starbucks iced coffee that boasts the most caffeine).

It's worth noting that while the flavor of canned cold brew may differ slightly from its fresh counterpart, the flavor isn't necessarily terrible. We ranked store-bought cold brew from worst to best, and uncovered numerous brands that offered a fantastic-tasting product — delivering almost the same experience as drinking fresh cold brew. In fact, I must admit that I prefer the taste of the canned Starbucks Nitro Cold Brew compared to the fresh version I get at a Starbucks cafe. Still, neither the best store-bought canned cold brew, nor even one served at a chain coffee company, can match the quality of a cold brew you can make at home — or sometimes get from a local coffee shop.