La Colombe to debut draft-style latte in a can
Science is at work here. It's not simply cold, sweetened coffee and milk.
Last summer, homegrown coffee company La Colombe introduced draft lattes - founder/mad scientist Todd Carmichael's ingeniuous attempt to fix an inherently poor method of making the cold coffee drink.
Now, Carmichael, local canning company Crown Holdings, and a cast of engineers have come up with the canned cold latte.
It's not simply cold, sweetened coffee and milk. Through a patented process using nitrous oxide and a special food-grade valve - dubbed Innovalve - the canned drinks have true, fresh-poured latte texture. The milk feels frothed, the coffee tastes unbitter. It's also not highly sweeteened, because the new process leaves the drink requiring less sugar.
(La Colombe is marketing this as "canned draft," which is an oxymoron. Let's go with draft-style latte.)
The 9-ounce cans - sold in packs of four for $10 - will go on sale March 1 at La Colombe's Philadelphia cafes and online.
Technic.ly Philly has a rundown of the science here.