Review: Original - Oaked Nitro Cold Brew Coffee

Confluence Coffee’s take on a ready-to-drink cold brew coffee is a unique one that incorporates elements of both third-wave coffee and craft beer. It’s cold-brewed, oaked, and filled in a 12 oz. can with nitrogen. The resulting product is flavorful, although it might be slightly hard to get past the oaky flavor (especially if you don't like oak). Compared with other nitro cold brew coffees, this one seems slightly lighter on the nitro (it doesn’t have as “fluffy” of a consistency). As for the coffee, the company's shade-grown Honduran coffee beans are full-bodied, slightly nutty and have a fruity finish. The oak gives the beverage a slightly smokey, roasted flavor, which is a nice twist. All in all, it’s a very unique and enjoyable flavor, albeit one that we feel will probably appeal to a smaller niche than a regular cold brew consumer. On the outside, the product uses a white background along with black, red, and metallic silver accent colors. From an aesthetics point of view, it’s too text-heavy to the point where you have to stop and read to really figure this product out. The lower copy as well as “world’s first” could be moved to the back. Furthermore, we think that the company needs to develop the branding to be more descriptive than “The Original.” As it stands right now, the product seems slightly hung up on being first-to-market, but in reality that won’t mean much to most people (and ultimately, they’ll buy whatever’s best, not which one was first). In addition, we find the white background with silver metallic text difficult to read, so we’d suggest changing that, too. Overall, this feels like a niche product, but one that with proper branding could certainly find success.

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