Cold brew coffee has been super trendy for a few years now, and with good reason: It's the perfect pick-me-up for warm weather coffee drinkers since it's so much better to walk outside in summer carrying iced coffee instead of hot coffee. But because it's so trendy, it's also expensive to buy at your local coffee shop, and by the time you get to August, your bank account may be asking for a little relief from the heat as well.
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Fear not, Trader Joe's has you covered for taste and cost with new Trader Joe's Cold Brew Coffee Bags.
Trader Joe's
If you've never tried cold brew coffee before, here's what the buzz is all about. Coffee beans contain certain oils and acids that activate when those compounds meet hot water, giving brewed coffee its bitter taste. Brewing coffee with cold water means those compounds don't pass through to your cup, so you get a smooth taste in your cup of coffee. Trader Joe's cold brew coffee has around 50 percent less acid than hot water-brewed coffee, which means the coffee is also a little better for your teeth and stomach.
And now one of our favorite grocery stores has something that makes cold brew coffee super easy, too. Trader Joe's Cold Brew Coffee Bags are probably the simplest way to make your own cold brew coffee — just drop two bags in a pitcher with seven cups of cold water before you go to bed and by the time you wake up the next morning, you've got coffee ready to go.
The coffee bags are like tea bags, only filled with 100 percent Arabica medium-roast coffee, grown in Tanzania at the base Mt. Kilimanjaro. TJ's tasting notes say the Arabica beans have subtle, complex notes of berries and molasses.
Trader Joe's Cold Brew Coffee Bags come in a 8.5-ounce resealable bag with four coffee bags and sells for $5.99. Two of the coffee bags will give you seven cups (8-ounce cups) of brewed coffee, which means that each cup will run you a whopping 43 cents. That's right, even if you add in cream and sugar (or other fun flavors), Trader Joe's Cold Brew Coffee Bags will run you way less than at Starbucks or your neighborhood coffee shop.
And if you're looking for other fun ways to use cold brew coffee or cold brew coffee concentrate, try using it in brownies, ice cream, and cocktails.
