Though I have tried Two Bears in the past, their cold brew coffee is surprisingly hard to find where I live considering the fact they are local. Luckily I happened to walk by a food fest along the waterfront where one of the vendors was none other than Two Bears! So brace yourself for reviews.
Taste
The coffee is a little cloudier than expected probably due to the sedimentation that I re-introduced when I shook the bottle. It smells like a sweet drip coffee with subtle chocolate notes. The taste is watery at first but develops as it travels along the tongue to the back. There is absolutely no bitterness at any point. Some sourness is present which gives the coffee some brightness, a clean finish and just a touch of citrus at the end.
Now, a word on the coffee. The flavor is light and free of bitterness but lacks boldness. The sourness dominates the taste at times I was expecting the coffee to shine through. That could mean that it is wasn't brewed long enough (underextracted), maybe not enough coffee was used, or just that the coffee has high acidity. Whatever the case may be, I thought it could be bolder.
Energy
No mention of caffeine content anywhere on the label, but the effects are similar to that of a cup of strong coffee. The sourness also perked me up at the start so that's a bonus.
Scores:
Cost - $4
Taste - 7/10
Energy - 7.8/10
Overall - 14.8/20...sour
I realize you wrote this review last year, but I just discovered this drink the other day, and had to go online to find a review after I tried it. You nailed it on the head. I got the hazelnut sea salt one, but same thing, it's got a sour taste with a citrus finish. And no hazelnut or sea salt that I can detect. It's really not a robust tasting coffee, which is usually the case in cold brew. Plus I find it strange that they add citric acid to the ingredients, when I thought the point of cold brew was that the process makes it less acidic than simply chilling hot brewed coffee. I've made cold brew at home and have always been impressed how I can drink it black, but I can't do that with chilled hot coffee. Anyway, I didn't think about the citric acid when I read the ingredients before purchasing, but after tasting it, I think they should do without and maybe it'd be better.
ReplyDeleteI tried this drink yesterday. The ingredients list now has fruit juice concentrate ... is this normal? It tasted absolutely retched. Ended up mixing it with milk and had to dump in two artificial sweeteners and it still tasted terrible: that is not the sign of a good cold brew, it should be drinkable straight out the bottle without anything added.
ReplyDeleteThat is definitely not normal. Not sure why it would have fruit juice concentrate...maybe instead of a preservative or acid.
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