High Brew Coffee Double Espresso

Coffee reviews continue this week. It seems like the perfect time to start the shift from hot coffee in the early morning to iced coffee and cold brews. High Brew Coffee is the latter and cannot be called iced coffee due to its manufacturing process. To make a cold brewed coffee, the coffee beans are soaked in cold water for an extended period of time and slowly and the beans are then filtered out. Whereas iced coffees are made the normal way and then just chilled.

I got a bunch of these High Brew Coffees from a Target outside of Buffalo for $2.49 each. Though the can is about the same size as a small Red Bull, there are actually only 236 mL of coffee in it.

Taste

I am starting off with the Double Espresso flavor because I need just a little more caffeine this morning. This morning being the morning after Easter and first day of work after the holiday.

The coffee is not pitch black as I thought, but more of a dark brown. The reason? Milk and sugar have been added after the cold brew process. 

The aroma is predominantly espresso with a distant milk note. The taste is comprised of semi-sweet espresso beans with a light milk touch. That's it. There are only 7 grams of sugar in the can, but it feels like more because cold brew is less bitter than normal brewed coffee. The added milk makes this coffee incredibly smooth and easy to drink. The aftertaste doesn't have that extremely bitter flavor like normal espressos, nor does it have an overly rancid milk aftertaste like many of the sweetened iced coffees.

In fact, the smoothness of this drink and its smaller volume, compared to other iced coffees, make High Brew super quick to consume to get your caffeine fix early in the morning...or any time really. I am definitely buying more of these next time I am in the US.

Energy

There are 163 mg of natural caffeine in the can. That's 0.69 mg of caffeine per mL. By comparison, a normal can of Monster of Rockstar is around 0.34 mg of caffeine per mL. This drink is twice as potent. How awesome is that?

The effects are very similar to those of normal strong coffee - I felt awake and focused within 15 minutes without any of the jitters you might get from iced coffees. Another 15 minutes later I was fully energized with clean and jitter-free energy, which lasted for about 3 hours and ended without a crash. Super clean energy kick! I loved it.

Overall, I am super impressed by this cold brew. I love the rich and not too bitter flavor, I love its smoothness and I love the clean energy. 

Scores:

Cost - $2.49 from Target near Buffalo, NY

Taste - 9.3/10

Energy - 8.5/10

Overall - 17.8/20...great coffee taste and very clean energy kick