Wandering Bear Cold Brew

Wandering Bear Cold Brew recently extended its product lineup with a third flavor, Vanilla with a Splash of Coconut Milk. The product, which is USDA Organic and has 20 calories per container, joins its other two varieties, Straight Black and Mocha Coconut.

Typically, vanilla flavored coffee drinks simply don’t stack up well against flavors like mocha or even black coffee as they tend to have an overly artificial flavor to them. However, we think that Wandering Bear’s use of coconut cream helps this product avoid that fate (it’s the same approach used on their Mocha Coconut).

The resulting product is coffee forward followed by notes of vanilla and coconut. There’s no added sweetness, but none is required. It’s slightly rich in body and a tad more viscous than normal coffee, so we think there’s plenty of flavor just as it is. And like any good cold brew out there, it’s very smooth from start to finish. The only obvious knock on this product will come from people who simply don’t like coconut, but that’s a matter of preference as opposed to something that we’d view as an objective flaw.

Wandering Bear is packaged in an 11 oz. Tetra Pak with a Dreamcap closure -- just like the rest of the on-the-go lineup. For this flavor, they’ve chosen a light blue backdrop, which is fine in as much as it’s a standard color to denote vanilla. We’re fans of the illustrated style of the brand as well as the overall aesthetic that they’ve created. However, the use of a Tetra Pak doesn’t quite feel as premium as glass or even cans used by the competition.

Overall, Wandering Bear has done a nice job with this extension. It’s true to the level of quality that the brand has established thus far, and having a third flavor definitely makes the line feel more complete.

To complement their Straight Black Cold Brew Coffee, which is available in both single serve and “coffee on tap” multi-serve, Wandering Bear is adding a new flavor to the lineup: Mocha with a Splash of Coconut Milk.

This variety, which is USDA Organic and Fair Trade certified, is made with a straightforward blend of cold brew coffee, coconut cream, and cocoa extract. There’s no added sugar and the resulting product has only 20 calories (and 0g of sugar) per 11 oz. resealable Tetra Pak carton.

From a taste perspective, the flavors in this product are really quite subtle. You can definitely taste the cocoa, but, thanks to a lack of added sweetness, it isn’t what you’d typically find in a coffee product labeled “mocha.” The same can be said for the coconut cream, which adds just a hint of coconut flavor and richness to the product. It’s a really interesting and well-executed approach to flavoring a cold brew coffee and we really don’t miss the sweetness.

However, we do wonder if the approach to the naming convention is the best one possible, as this product is neither a traditional mocha nor something that’s heavy on the coconut milk. What it does have is a nice cocoa flavor with a hint of coconut,and we’d love to see a name that articulates that better..

On the packaging side of things, this product looks very similar to Wandering Bear’s flagship product. The 11 oz. Tetra Pak carton has a one color design that is appealing to the eye. Compared with the flagship, they’ve adjusted the background color to look a bit more like the color of the liquid. This is a fine approach, although we wonder if there is enough visual differentiation between the two products.

Lastly, we feel like Wandering Bear really needs another SKU to round this out. This SKU certainly shows that they are capable of coming up with creative and well-executed flavors and another offering would help the Wandering Bear line really feel like it has some substance compared with the competition.

Overall, a nice addition to the Wandering Bear lineup, minor nitpicking aside.

Wandering Bear is a New York City based company that has, at least until now, been known for its bag-in-box offerings. Recently, the company raised new funding, which we can surmise has something to do with the fact that the company is now expanding into a single serve ready to drink offering.

For now, the company is offering a single variety, Straight Black, which is, as the name suggests, straight USDA Organic and Fair Trade cold-brew coffee that doesn’t have any added sweeteners or flavorings. It’s bright and bold in flavor and extremely smooth in finish, which are all of the things that we’ve come to expect from high quality cold brew coffee. For Wandering Bear there’s another aspect that’s important: having quality that’s consistent with their bag-in-box offerings. On that front, they’ve definitely succeeded.

Packaging for this product is an 11 oz. Tetra Pak aseptic (although it still requires refrigeration) resealable Dreamcap package. They’ve done a really nice job creating something that’s clean and chic looking, while also creating an aesthetic that resembles the look of their bag-in-box product. That latter point, which gives the brand continuity and cohesiveness across product lines, is a really smart move on the part of Wandering Bear.

However, we do wonder how this product will fare on its own. Compared with their multiserve product, which has a point of differentiation in its method of delivery, this product doesn’t stand out all that much from the plethora of ready to drink single serve cold-brew coffees that are on the market today. That being said, we wonder if Wandering Bear needs to do a bit more -- be it flavors or something else -- to be able to grab a chunk of the category. As a single SKU, it’s a bit unclear as to how they might do that.

Overall, this is a good and probably necessary step for Wandering Bear. They’ve successfully created a product that can hold its own as far as the liquid goes and it ties nicely back to their flagship back-in-box product. And we definitely think that this can serve as a launchpad for further innovation and evolution in the single serve set.

New York City-based Wandering Bear Cold Brew is an upstart coffee company that offers its cold brew coffee in a bag-in-box format. Inside each box, which comes in either 36 oz. or 96 oz. sizes, there’s an easy-to-use flex tap dispenser that allows you to pour exactly what you want without any prep. Kept in a bag, free from light or air, the product stays fresh for up to a month.

While we really enjoy what Wandering Bear has done with the packaging, its latest offering, a Peppermint Mocha seasonal variety launched in 2017, shows that the company has the ability to create some tasty flavors as well.

The product is made with four simple ingredients: water, coffee, organic peppermint extract, and cacao extract. There’s a nice note of mint and cacao to the aroma, which definitely lures you in. The flavor is bold but smooth, and the mint and cacao flavors are really well balanced. These two flavors can definitely be used in excess, overwhelming the palate, but in this case, the combination works really well. We honestly weren’t expecting to enjoy this product, so we were really surprised at how enjoyable it was.

Lastly, there’s the positioning and design of the product. The box format is definitely something rare in not only cold brew but the larger beverage category as well, so it definitely stands out. That said, the chances of Wandering Bear being visually glanced over on a store shelf seem minimal. Plus, the company has done a really nice job of making a product that feels small batch, but also very credible looking and convenient as a multi-serve product. The one color design of the carton is easy to read and visually enticing.

But if there’s any knock on Wandering Bear, it’s the same one that we have for other multi-serve and concentrate products: missing out on the consumer looking for immediate consumption. That’s a key part of every beverage category and it’s one that will require extra attention for Wandering Bear’s go-to-market strategy to work.