MillerCoors seeks buzz with hard coffee

USA | Forget Irish coffee: MillerCoors is testing a ready-to-drink alcoholic coffee in a few markets in partnership with La Colombe Coffee Roasters. La Colombe Hard Cold Brew Coffee, which contains 4.2 percent ABV, is already trialled in Boston, Denver, and parts of Florida.

As MillerCoors reports on its blog on 9 September 2019, the alcohol in the drink comes from a malt base, like beer, and cane sugar. Packaged in 266 ml cans, the drink is sold in two flavours: black or vanilla. A can will cost USD 2.79.

Both drinks contain about 50 mg of caffeine per can, compared with 80 mg for a can of Red Bull.

Although brewers and beverage producers have long shied away from mixing caffeine and alcohol, it needs to be pointed out that coffee has been used in brewing stouts and porters for some time. Only recently have craft brewers begun to experiment with using coffee in different beers.

It must have been the launch of a coffee+beer hybrid by brewer Pabst this summer that MillerCoors decided to market its own version.

Pabst Blue Ribbon Hard Coffee, at 5 percent ABV, is made with Arabica and Robusta beans, milk and vanilla.

In the US, ready-to-drink coffee is growing at about 10 percent per year, according to Nielsen data cited by MillerCoors, and La Colombe is seeing sales grow at about 33 percent per year.

Founded in 1994, the Philadelphia-based roastery and retail chain La Colombe Coffee has been majority-owned by the CEO and Chairman of the Greek-style yogurt brand Chobani, Hamdi Ulukaya, since 2015.