Black Medicine Iced Coffee: Iced Latte

Black Medicine has really hit the nail on the head with this one. Unlike other ready-to-drink “iced latte” products, which are often loaded with sugar, this product is an unsweetened offering. As with all of its flavors, this one uses pressure-brewed coffee that is blended with whole milk, vitamin C and vitamin D3. The flavor of the mixture is extremely impressive to the point where you wouldn’t even think the liquid came from a bottled product is you were given a sample cup. Instead, it literally tastes like what you’d expect to find at any high quality (or "third-wave" coffee) retailer. The lack of sweetener isn’t an issue at all, with the slight natural sweetness of the milk adding to the flavor and helping it achieve a bold body with a smooth finish. Truthfully, we find this product’s flavor to be more enjoyable than any ready-to-drink coffee beverage that we’ve had to date, be it hot-brewed or cold-brewed. Packaging is an 11 oz. aluminum bottle with a black paintjob. While it is definitely an eye-catching package -- simply because it’s not one that we’ve previous seen in the category -- there’s something about it that (probably that this bottle has only been used for carbonated drinks) potentially undermines its credibility as a high-quality beverage. If the company is going to work through this, we’d suggest making the “pressure brewed” portion of it more prominent as that’s also something that’s likely to catch the eye and curiosity of the coffee drinker. Overall, we really have to give Black Medicine a lot of credit for creating something that goes slightly against the grain of the category and totally nails it when it comes to execution.