What the heck is in a cold brew? At some point in the last few years, cold brew coffee went from an unknown drink to an everyday essential sold everywhere. I get it. We all want to be part of the trend. But let’s be real: Do we actually like cold brew?
Sipping that cold brew coffee feels like you’re connected to a mysterious underground coffee scene, and your friends approve of your refined coffee taste. It screams, “I’m unique, I’m cool, I’m someone who reads Kafka for fun.” We glorify it as if it’s the best invention since the air fryer.
Truthfully, however, cold brew is hard to like. Before college, I was not a huge fan. The talk of Scripps College offering its own exclusive cold brew on tap succeeded in manipulating me and countless others into believing it is the best form of coffee. It’s gotten to the point where I’ve waited a whole seven minutes and 38 seconds to get some cold brew (the machine broke when it got to me). Madness is real, and cold brew is the cause of it.
But let’s break down the origins of this craze. Cold brew coffee was originally invented in Kyoto, Japan, after being introduced by the Dutch. By the 2000s, little niche coffee companies like Stumptown Coffee Roasters and Blue Bottle adopted cold brew practices into their cafes. Now, cold brew appears in big coffee chains like Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and even worse, our dining halls.
What is the appeal behind cold brew coffee?
Cold brew has been popularized not just as a drink but as a lifestyle. Iced lattes had their moment as the laid-back alternative to uncool, boring hot coffee, and matcha lattes have become a healthy, soft-core aesthetic drink. Even now on TikTok, there’s a trending audio stating, “I’m a matcha guy now.” What does that even mean?
It’s OK to like these drinks, but it’s to the point where it has become too ubiquitous and mainstream. Cold brew is the newest subject of this. Especially on social media, it is almost inevitable to see a picture of avocado toast with a cold brew coffee posed perfectly next to it. Behind the classic cold brew aesthetic is the signal of someone who has good taste and is “on brand.” You’re not just drinking some iced coffee — no, no, you’re in the deep, niche end of consumption and living life on the edge.
This romanticization of go-to beverages needs to stop.
Coffee used to be about simplicity. There was a balanced, trustworthy blend of rich coffee beans and water. Every cup had the same warmth and the perfect blend of sweetness and bitterness. But coffee has been twisted and injected into something else: cold brew. There isn’t a need to reinvent coffee, the process is straightforward and pure as it is. Coffee had craftsmanship and class that cold brew is degrading.
Cold brew culture has changed the value of coffee from an opportunity to savor its bitter and sweet notes to a means of getting caffeinated as quickly as possible. It’s a sad and bleak symbol of how society turns the simplicities of life into something that maximizes efficiency over experience. There is depth of flavor in regular coffee and yet we settle for a dull, over-processed brew not meant to be enjoyed but to keep us going.
Sticking to the cold brew bandwagon is a big commitment. It is essentially coffee on rocket fuel. In fact, a standard 16 oz cold brew from Starbucks has about 205 milligrams of caffeine, whereas a 16 oz hot coffee has around 190 milligrams. Once you become addicted, you need higher doses of cold brew to keep that same effect going. You start out thinking cold brew is going to fix your lack of sleep from those late nights locking in, but then you find yourself jittery, heart racing and in shambles.
It’s all fun and games for the first hours of refreshing cold brew until you end up being hyper-alert and even more fatigued than before. We all pretend to do it because it’s the “cool” thing, the “right” thing. In reality, cold brew can make you feel wired and completely exhausted at the same time. We drink cold brew merely as a statement in society, not something we actually enjoy.
Cold brew is an acquired taste at best and shouldn’t be forced on you. We’ve convinced ourselves that it’s what we should be doing, not what we want to be doing.
It’s OK to admit cold brew is not all that. The world is filled with other amazing coffee options, dare I say, a regular drip coffee.
Stop pretending to like cold brew that you end up throwing most of away. It’s time to make peace with regular coffee and stop this cold brew addiction.
Daniel Han Tae Choi PO ’28 is an economics major and would like a small iced coffee.
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