Starbucks new drink sounds more like one you'd order up at happy hour, not with your morning breakfast sandwich. Inspired by a classic gin and tonic, the new Gin Barrel-Aged Cold Brew is now available at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Seattle.
OK, so it may have the word "gin" its name, but don't let it fool you. This is not an alcoholic coffee cocktail. Rather, the "gin" refers to the types of barrels the cold brew was made in.
According to Starbucks, they start by putting unroasted Rwandan coffee beans into oak barrels that first held bourbon, and then were used to age gin. After several weeks, similar to aging wine, the beans absorb flavors from the barrels, including notes of pepper, cardamom and vanilla. Once the beans are roasted, the alcohol is burned off, but the coffee retains its flavor and aromas, and the result is coffee infused with citrus and caramel notes.
“The beans absorb the botanical essence of the gin, bringing out its bright citrus notes with a sweet caramel finish. The resulting cup is rich, nuanced and unlike anything we’ve tasted before," Jennifer Galbraith, Starbucks manager of product development for R&D said in a statement.
So, no real alcohol, but if you have cans of LaCroix stacked up in your fridge, you'll be happy to hear that this is a sort of ~sparkling coffee~. After the whole coffee aging and roasting process, the new drink is made by shaking together the Gin Barrel-Aged Rwanda coffee concentrate, ice, and a bit of lime bitters, then topped with tonic and a lime.
You can get this drink exclusively at Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Seattle now for a limited time. But if you don't live in Seattle, ask a friend to ship you some of the whole-bean coffee and mix up your own coffee mocktail. And really, nothing is stopping you from spiking your own creation with gin.