Nashawtuc CC partnered with a local barista to offer golfers specialty coffee drinks on the course during the longest day of its annual tournament.
Move over, iced coffee. Cold brew is making waves as one of the most popular cold-coffee beverages. (In fact, sales of cold-brew coffee in 2017 topped $38.1 million, representing a 370% jump since 2015, according to Statista.)
Cold brew is made by slowly steeping ground coffee beans in room-temperature water for up to 24 hours. The coffee is then filtered to produce a concentrate that is diluted with cold water or milk and served chilled over ice.
Because it’s crafted entirely without heat, much of the bitterness and acidity found in traditional brewing is lost. As a result, cold brew is becoming the coffee of choice for those with sensitive stomachs—along with the fact that it typically has more caffeine than its traditionally brewed brother.
Cold brew has been offered in coffee shops for years. But it’s just recently gaining traction in grocery and convenience stores. It’s also breaking through into clubs, like Nashawtuc Country Club (NCC) in Concord, Mass.
“We really wanted to do something different for our golfers during our member-guest event this summer,” says Ashley Atkins, NCC’s Food and Beverage Manager. “We knew they’d need a pick-me-up on the longest day of the tournament. And we’d already done energy drinks, as well as a Bloody Mary bar. That’s when we came up with the idea for a coffee station.”
Atkins nurtured the idea by searching for local baristas who might be able to partner with the club for the member-guest event. That led her to Jeff Widronak, a local coffee expert who owns and runs a coffee-cart catering company. Widronak uses custom-built coffee “trikes” (see photos above) that allow him to create multiple specialty beverages, in addition to cold brew, anywhere the trike is parked.
“We stationed him at the 19th hole, so a lot of our golfers went by him twice,” says Atkins. “From his trike, he offered two different local brews: George Howell Coffee out of Acton, Mass., and Barrington Coffee Roasters out of Lee, Mass.
“[Widronak] also had the ability to create a variety of specialty coffee drinks, like americanos and lattes,” Atkins adds. “He customized each cup based on what the member wanted, and offered two different sizes, too.”
Widronak’s specialty drinks were topped with a coconut-milk whipped cream that was one of the best things Atkins has ever tasted, she says.
The coffee trike was such a hit at NCC’s member-guest, orders for its drinks outpaced those served from the Bloody Mary bar, Atkins reports. “The members not only appreciated that they could get a specialty coffee drink or a cold brew on the course, but also that Jeff’s company’s philosophy closely aligns with our own, to support local growers, farmers and suppliers,” she says. Not surprisingly, she plans to bring the trike back next year.