We Taste-Tested 13 Brands of Cold Brew Coffee. Finding a Winner Was…Challenging

Two truths: Iced coffee season is officially here. And iced coffee is divisive. I prefer an iced espresso drink; Daniel has a well-documented “love-meh” relationship with it; and millions clearly adore cold brew, if the booming bottled market is any indication. Which brings us to our latest taste test. 

To find the best store-bought cold brew, our editors taste-tested 13 brands—all unsweetened and medium roast—you’re likely to find at your local grocery store. We sampled them in random order without knowing which was which. After many, many sips of cold brew coffee, we tallied the results and crowned an overall winner.

The Criteria

Cold brew is made by steeping ground coffee in room-temperature water for anywhere from eight to 24 hours. It’s known for its smooth, mellow flavor with low acidity and a hint of bitterness. A good cold brew shouldn’t taste acrid, burnt, or over-roasted. But—at the risk of stating the obvious—it should still taste like coffee, with a rich, roasted flavor.

Overall Winner

Blue Bottle Cold Brew Bold

“This is close to the aroma I imagine when I think of coffee,” our senior social media editor Kelli wrote. Everyone noted this coffee’s low acidity and balanced flavor. “This has some complexity and structure, a hint of acid to balance it out,” our editorial director Daniel wrote. Almost everyone enjoyed its aroma and liked that it wasn’t overly bitter. Our visual editor, Jessie, described its flavor as “pleasant and light but flavorful.” 

Runners-Up

• Starbucks Signature Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate 
• Stok Unsweetened Cold Brew
• Stumptown Coffee Cold Brew

None of the cold brew coffees we sampled were quite as good as the overall winner, but our tasters gave passing marks to the brands above. Everyone thought Starbucks Signature Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate was nicely balanced. Amanda described its flavor as “gentle” and “very mellow,” while Jessie thought it was a well-rounded coffee. “Very low acid, not harsh,” Daniel wrote. “Medium roast, sort of tastes like it was designed to offend no one, which…is maybe not the worst thing?” 

Tasters also enjoyed the nutty, toasty notes of Stok Unsweetened Cold Brew Coffee, though most agreed its flavor was too light. Stumptown Coffee Cold Brew was similarly too light for our editors. “Easy to drink, almost like water,” Jessie wrote. Like Jessie, Kelli thought Stumptown’s coffee was “very light and unoffensive.” Daniel did, however, appreciate the hint of acid in the coffee: “Weak, but I can drink it.”

The Contenders

• Bizzy Cold Brew Medium Roast
• Blue Bottle Cold Brew Bold
• Bowl & Basket Specialty Cold Brew
• Califia Farms Pure Black Cold Brew Coffee Medium Roast
• Chameleon Organic Original Cold Brew
• Dunkin’ Cold Brew Concentrated Coffee
• Kirkland Signature Colombian Cold Brew Coffee
• La Colombe Medium Roast Cold Brew
• Nature’s Promise Organic Unsweetened Cold Brew Coffee
• Starbucks Signature Black Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate
• Stok Unsweetened Cold Brew Coffee
• Stumptown Coffee Cold Brew Coffee
• Wandering Bear Straight Black Cold Brew Coffee

Key Takeaways and Conclusion

None of the cold brews we tasted truly aligned with our team’s preferred coffee styles. A few were drinkable—if not especially enjoyable—but many struck us as flat, off-putting, or just dull and flavorless. All were medium-roast and made with only two ingredients: coffee and water. But simplicity didn’t translate to quality.

Cold brew started as a niche offering, but its surge in popularity over the past decade has led to a wave of mass-produced, shelf-stable versions. Unfortunately, few of them are very good.

Making great cold brew starts with fresh, high-quality beans and good water—two things that are difficult to scale. As Serious Eats contributor Ashley Rodriguez points out in her guide to cold brew coffee, the quality of the water may be even more important than the beans you use. And that’s before you get to shelf stability. The flavor of cold brew coffee can be affected by pasteurization, a process required by the Food and Drug Administration for all canned and shelf-stable low-acid products, such as cold brew. Though this reduces the risk of foodborne illness, the sterilization process can result in muted and unpleasant flavors. 

Store-bought cold brew is undeniably convenient, and there are a few we’d drink in a pinch. But in the end, our editors agree: If you want cold brew that actually tastes good, your best bet is to make your own concentrate or purchase cold brew fresh from a coffee shop.

Our Testing Methodology

All taste tests are conducted with brands completely hidden and without discussion. Tasters taste samples in random order. For example, taster A may taste sample one first, while taster B will taste sample six first. This is to prevent palate fatigue from unfairly giving any one sample an advantage. Tasters are asked to fill out tasting sheets ranking the samples for various criteria. All data is tabulated and results are calculated with no editorial input in order to give us the most impartial representation of actual results possible.