I have yet to jump on the LaCroix craze, but I can confidently say that I am addicted to caffeine. I'm an iced coffee all year round kind of girl, and I've been wanting to branch out a bit without compromising my purest tendencies. Enter sparkling coffee. These drinks combine the carbonation of soda with a cold brew coffee base for some mind-boggling flavors. Most of them are based off of a citrus-coffee combination, which is meant to cut some of the bitterness that comes in when carbonating the drinks. Here's a list of five sparkling coffee brands for your next caffeine experiment.
1. Keepers
Keepers combines citrus flavors with Japanese flash-brewed coffee to create a bright, refreshing flavor for their sparkling coffee. By not using a traditional cold brew technique, Keepers manages to keep the citrus the star of the show, without the super-acidic aftertaste of most cold brews. Based in Brooklyn, NY, Keepers can be bought online or in stores around NYC (so they can keep their products as fresh as possible).
2. Matchless
The Matchless cans may look like beer, but this flash-chilled coffee is definitely not alcoholic. Based in Nashville, TN, Matchless combines fully-expressed coffee (read: not cold-brewed) with natural Demerara sugar, then carbonates the mixture. This leads to a lightly carbonated drink, one that has matured with the coffee beans and sugar and changes a bit by the season (depending on the beans). Matchless can be bought all over Tennessee, and in some stores in Indiana and Kentucky.
3. Sandows
Sandow's crafts their cold brew coffee in a London brewery, so the owner's bring their mixology skills to each flavor. Their sparkling coffee is slow brewed with cold water and double filtered for clarity, then mixed with either spices or citrus fruits and carbonated. Based in London, UK, Sandow's can be bought in stores around London or online in cases of 24.
4. Stumptown
Stumptown offers a variety of sparkling cold brew flavors, but all originated in their New Orleans café as a lower-caffeine, exciting option for cold brew lovers. These specific citrus flavors were selected because they add some lightness to the drink, and Stumptown uses nitrogen rather than CO2 to reduce bitterness. Their sparkling flavors can be ordered online (and as a variety pack) or in most Whole Foods locations across the country.
5. Upruit
Upruit's sparkling coffee is a cross between an energy drink and seltzer—made in small batches with organic cold brew coffee and fresh fruit juice, the brand replenishes electrolytes and antioxidants while delivering 100mg caffeine per can. Offered in three citrus-inspired flavors, their cans can be bought online or in stores across New York (their home base).
If you noticed that almost all of these flavors incorporate citrus flavors, you'd be correct. Industry leaders note that mixing coffee with other flavors is like making a cocktail—you have to balance all of the flavor profiles you're incorporating. The carbonation by itself would be too bitter, and just adding sugar would make the entire drink too sweet (like a cola). Citric acid balances out both the bitterness and the sweetness, leaving you with a taste that's generally described as combining lemonade and coffee—or LaCroix and Starbucks, perhaps?