Intelligentsia, Oatly Reunite for Roaster’s First RTD Coffees

Before U.S. consumers turned oat milk into the second most-popular plant-based milk currently on the market, there’s a good chance they learned about it at a coffee shop.

Intelligentsia Coffee was at the forefront of the trend: the Chicago-based boutique roaster and cafe was the first U.S. coffee chain to feature Swedish import Oatly on its menu. Now the two companies are extending their partnership into the ready-to-drink world with a line of oat milk lattes — along with a dairy-free black coffee SKU — launching today online and at Intelligentsia cafes in Boston, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.

A division of Peet’s Coffee, itself part of family-owned multinational JAB Holding’s broad coffee portfolio, Intelligentsia is amongst the “third-wave” post-Starbucks coffee brands — a group that includes names like Blue Bottle, Bluestone Lane and Peet’s-owned Stumptown — that have made the jump into ready-to-drink products.

According to Intelligentsia President and CEO James McLaughlin, the decision to expand was simple: RTD allows the brand to bring one of its cafes most popular items to a larger consumer audience. Beverages made with Oatly represent 13% of total orders at the stores, the company noted.

“Once we figured out how to unlock the quality piece and produce a product that we are really excited about and proud of, then it made sense for us to enter this segment,” he said.

Rather than cold-brewing, Intelligentsia is using flash-chilled coffee, which is brewed hot and quickly chilled without dilution to retain aromas and flavors. Each variety — Cold Coffee, Oat Latte and Spiced Oat Latte — is made with a custom blend of Ethiopian beans and is vegan and gluten-free. While Cold Coffee offers a straightforward black variety, Oat Latte and Spiced Latte lean towards indulgence. Oat Latte features notes of sugar cookie and chocolate milk, while Spiced Latte is a ready-to-drink adaptation of Intelligentsia’s all time top-selling seasonal drink. All three are packaged in 11 oz. TetraPak Prism cartons and have a suggested retail price of $3.99.

Aside from selling in its cafes and online, Intelligentsia will market its cold coffees at its existing wholesale accounts in the on-premise and hospitality space. Over the coming months, the plan is to gradually migrate the products to the natural and conventional grocery accounts — Whole Foods, Wegmans, Gelson’s among them — that already carry Intelligentsia’s packaged coffee.

The arrival of Intelligentsia’s new brews comes as the oat milk-with-coffee craze that the cafe chain helped to kick off continues to spillover into RTD via innovative brands. Peet’s other premium coffee brand, Stumptown, itself launched a three-SKU line of oat milk lattes, also featuring Oatly, in October 2019.

“It was really making sure that we could get the product right,” said McLaughlin. “We are definitely not first to market in this category but I do think we’re going to have the best product.”