Cold brew is one of the hottest things in the Triangle coffee scene. These are the best.
The swelter is upon us. As temperatures spike, coffee may be the most refreshing refuge out there.
The good news is we’re living in the cold brew boom.
With cold brew, cold coffee became great. And cafes and coffee shops are carving out more and more of their menus for iced offerings.
To make cold brew, time replaces heat as the means of extraction, turning a two- or three-minute hot brew to a 12-hour steep, or even 16 or 24 hours. The result is a rich concentrate that cuts out the acidity of a hot cup but with deep flavors of chocolate or fruit or flowers — and enough caffeine to power a small car.
Within the Triangle’s expansive coffee scene, featuring world-class roasters and talented baristas, it’s a cold and caffeinated wonderland. This is, after all, the birthplace of Slingshot Coffee Co., one of the nation’s best-known bottled cold brews making it mainstream by taking up space on the shelves of major grocers.
A sizable number of local coffee shops have their own offerings, from cold brew blends, single origin, flash brewed, artisan iced or coffee sodas.
Here are a few of the Triangle’s best shops for iced coffee.
42 & Lawrence
134 E. Martin St., Raleigh
No other Triangle shop has bought into cold brew as much as this wonder bar from Larry’s Beans. There’s a regular cold brew, one made from beans roasted specifically for cold brew, one hit with nitrogen and an iced latte, all on tap. Larry’s also sells a canned nitro cold brew in stores around the Triangle.
Big Dom’s Bagels
203 E. Chatham St., Cary. 919-377-1143 or bigdomsbagelshop.com
There’s a lot of magic in this bagel shop, built out of a former Little Caesar’s. Among the magic is an overachieving coffee program, centered around a small espresso machine. But the star may be the cold brew, made from Black & White beans and often among the most fruit-forward cold brews one will find.
Black & White
314 Brooks St., Wake Forest and 327 W. Davie St., Raleigh.
When two of the world’s best coffee pros team up to start a coffee company in Wake Forest, expect the exceptional, including a nitro cold brew. There’s also a downtown Raleigh location, inside the Videri Chocolate factory, likely one of the best smelling places on earth.
Boulevard West
104 W. Main St., Clayton. 919-243-1384 or facebook.com/boulevard27527
Johnston County’s first specialty coffee shop has a Main Street location in downtown Clayton. Cold brew is on the menu, but look for specials flavored with raspberry and almond.
BREW
122 E. Chatham St., Cary and 2310 Bale St., Suite 106, Raleigh.
Using Raleigh Coffee Company beans, this two-shop operation in Raleigh and Cary pours a nitro-infused cold brew that’s velvety and rich.
Cocoa Cinnamon
Three locations in Durham at cocoacinnamon.com.
Chiseled onto the year-round, snow and sunshine menu since the beginning is St. Al’s, a cold brew blend named in honor of Durham sculptor Al Frega, a friend of the business. A blend of full- and light-bodied roasts is steeped 12 to 24 hours, with the result rich and smooth and increasingly fruity, owner Areli Barerra de Grodski says, since they’ve started roasting their own beans under the Little Waves Coffee name. During the pandemic they started selling it by the jug.
The Durham Hotel
315 E. Chapel Hill St., Durham. 919-768-8830 or thedurham.com/coffee
This boutique hotel in downtown Durham has a much better coffee program than it needs to. The sprawling retro lobby is a perfect spot to spend a morning with a coffee and pretend to be an out-of-towner.
Fount Coffee+Kitchen
10954 Chapel Hill Road, Morrisville. 984-888-5454 or fountcoffee.com
Brightly lit and inviting, Fount fuels the coffee obsessives working in RTP. This glass box of a cafe has flash brewed iced coffee on tap year round.
Full Bloom
141 W. Main St., Garner. 919-720-4013 or fullbloomcoffee.com
This downtown Garner coffee roaster and cafe is one of the Triangle’s few shops to bottle their own brew. Full Bloom makes a rich classic version with no milk or sweetener, but also a unique honey blend, and another spiced with cinnamon, all in stubby glass bottles.
Gray Squirrel
360 E. Main St., No. 100, Carrboro.
This small Carrboro coffee shop and roaster offers a rich, classic cold brew, plus New Orleans style (with chicory). If your life requires more than a 20 ounce jolt, half gallon jugs are for sale to take home.
Heirloom Brewshop
219 S. West St., Raleigh. heirloombrewshop.com
This Warehouse District coffee shop is meticulous in its care of coffee and tea. Cold brew fans, look for Japanese style, flash brewed iced coffee.
Iris Coffee Lab
725 Tucker St., Raleigh. 919-441-7489 or iriscoffeelab.com
A few blocks off the heart of Glenwood South, this newish Raleigh coffee shop pours a creamy nitro-blended flash brew made from Black & White beans. Look for on-tap specials, as well, like Thai tea.
Joe Van Gogh
Four locations in Durham and Chapel Hill.
This Hillsborough roaster has four cafes, each equipped with a kegerator of nitro cold brew that’s silky smooth and eye opening. More recently, JVG has started offering its cold brew in a can.
Jubala
8450 Honeycutt Road in Lafayette Village, Raleigh and 2100 Hillsborough St., Raleigh.
At two Raleigh cafes, these master alchemists are not fans of cold brew. At Jubala, iced coffee is preferred, brewed as a pour-over with more grounds than usual, half the water and ice to dilute the rest. They use Yama towers to make a small amount of cold brew concentrate daily to use in their seasonal special, a coffee lemonade that’s tart and bright.
Open Eye Cafe
101 S. Greensboro St., Carrboro.
About 20 feet separate the espresso machine and the roaster at one of Carrboro Coffee’s cafes. Here they have proprietary cold brew in nitro kegs.
Perennial
401 W. Franklin St., Chapel Hill. 919-914-6045 or perennial.cafe.
This Chapel Hill cafe was lost in the COVID-19 pandemic, seemingly closed for good. But this spring Perennial reopened, making a deeply flavored cold brew, mixed up from concentrate to order and poured over ice. There are currently no indoor seats, but a garden patio along Kenan Street is always pleasant.
Raleigh Raw
7 W. Hargett St., Raleigh.
All cold brew starts as a concentrate before it’s diluted down to something that won’t launch you into outer space. Raleigh Raw does a lot of things its own way, including its Raleigh Coffee Company nitro, optionally sweetened with house-made almond milk, local wildflower honey, coconut sugar and maple syrup.
This story was originally published June 22, 2021 at 12:07 PM.
