New coffee trend: Demand grows for nitro
Coffee shops in Portland and elsewhere are seeing growing demand for a new specialty coffee that’s chilled by infusing it with nitrogen.
The Portland Press Herald reported that sales of nitro coffee at Arabica Coffee shop on Portland’s Free Street now account for 15% to 20% of its iced coffee sales after just two to three months of selling it.
“For something that’s brand new for us and we haven’t put a lot of leg work into advertising it, that’s fantastic,” Andy McClure, the shop’s manager, told the paper.
Chemical & Engineering News, reporting on the emerging trend in August 2015, said pushing nitrogen into specially brewed coffee imparts a smooth, creamy flavor, which any drinker of the nitro-enhanced Guinness Stout can verify.
The Cheese Iron in Scarborough has been selling nitro coffees from White Cap Coffee — a startup nitro brewer working out of Fork Food Lab in Portland — since May and sales have eclipsed the shop’s hot coffee.
White Cap partners Tom Marlow and Ben Graffius, who launched the business last September, now service nine locations in southern Maine, and plan to create a larger brewing and tasting room this fall. Nobl Coffee in Exeter, N.H., had fewer than 10 Maine accounts last year and now has 30-plus accounts.
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