Cool Blue - Iced coffee

Indulge in ice-cold coffee. Café Blue, at Sovereign Centre, is serving it up in a whole new way.

The coffee shop introduced their Cool Blue iced coffee, made through a slow-drip process, a month ago.

"It's a different method of brewing coffee," explains co-owner of the coffee-shop chain, Jason Sharp. He explains that the process of using cold water instead of hot to extract the coffee drink produces an entirely different flavour. Cold water is dripped over ground coffee beans and a coffee concentrate is extracted, one drop at a time. The iced-coffee maker, takes eight hours to extract 1500 ml of concentrate that will serve as the base for the iced-coffee beverage.

The concentrate is then diluted and kept cold in a beverage cooler. "This keeps it ice cold without putting it over ice," notes Sharp.

According to Sharp it's well worth the wait, as it produces a superb flavour distinct from coffee brewed with hot water.

Sharp explains that the flavour produced with the cold water is fruitier, with a lot of chocolate and citrus notes. "It's low acidity and easier on the stomach," he said, adding that it's ideal for persons who can't have hot coffee as the acidity affects their stomach. Iced coffee also does not go bad as quickly as hot coffee does. The latter goes bad two hours after its brewed, while iced coffee can last longer than a week.

"There are many methods of producing cold coffee, but we feel we have the best option of producing it while keeping the signature taste of Blue Mountain coffee," he states.

While the method is popular in Japan and some boutique coffee shops around the world, it's new to the Caribbean. "It's the first of its kind in the Caribbean. Café Blue, once again, is leading the charge with innovation and quality," boasts Sharp.

The iced coffee is served in 12oz and 16oz cups and, while many persons have it black, you can have it sweetened as you like. "Anything you normally get in your coffee beverage, you can have it in it," he said. That includes flavours such as caramel, hazelnut, amaretto, Irish cream, condensed milk, whipped cream. Sharp said it's ideal for the lunch-hour crowd, because, once breakfast is over, they want the punch of a coffee drink, but it's too hot to have a hot cup of coffee.

The Cool Blue iced coffee is currently available at the Sovereign location, but will soon be available at their Rose Hall location in St James. The beverage will then be offered at their new locations; in Fontana Pharmacy's Montego Bay branch, which will be opened on December 10, and at the Norman Manley International Airport outlet, which will officially open by December 20.