Cold Brew—The Best Of America?

From the moment I hit American shores, I have been criticizing the coffee, and rightly so! It’s mostly horrible. I’ve had the occasional good coffee at a cafe, but it’s been almost as rare as hen’s teeth.

As I drink most of my coffee at home, I bought a beautiful French Press and also, a single coffee pod machine that also takes ground coffee. After a lot of trial and error, Jim and I finally found that our local health food store, Sprouts, has its own brand of Organic Dark Roast Coffee and it is utterly delicious. My at-home coffee problems had been solved, and when we had visitors and I made them a coffee, they were blown away by how good it was. And don’t get me started on the amazing coffee creamers you can buy here!

My daughter discovered cold brew quite a few years ago. She particularly liked the Starbucks Cold brew and we’d often catch a ferry into Brisbane City and head to the Starbucks there. Starbucks has been a dismal failure in Australia—we have much better coffee just about everywhere else, including at our gas stations. But cold brew was definitely mastered by Starbucks. I was never a fan; I just loved strong, hot coffee too much to drink it cold and black. It seemed pointless until I came to America.

Enter cold brew. Well, I must admit that I first became a fan because of the nasty hot coffee being offered everywhere. Out of sheer desperation I started buying cold brew and found that if I added the Coffee-Mate Sweet Italian Creme Creamer to it, it was knock-your-socks-off good. I’m talking next-level good. And then I discovered that you can buy amazing cold brew in every grocery store and gas station (servo), and I was sold. It really did solve the coffee dilemma.

I thought it couldn’t get better, but I was wrong. Coffee-Mate does a huge range of flavored creamers, many being seasonal. Think pumpkin spice (ugh), but also Snickers flavor. I bought the Snickers creamer as they are my favorite chocolate bar, and that creamer was like drinking liquid Snickers. A mix of chocolatey, caramelly, peanutty goodness, in a bottle, and unlike a lot of creamers, it’s not overly sweet. It really is the perfect creamer for cold brew. I have become so obsessed with my little cold brew habit that I even take a flask of it when I go out. You never know when that cold brew craving will hit.

Cold brew is so good that it reminds me of all that is good in America. Despite living in crazy times, the cold brew is very good, and while it’s only such a small part of life, it’s a sense of normality. That might sound a bit strange to some, but when you consider how much change immigrating has meant, finding something like a really good cold brew, or a place that sells fantastic tacos, or a lovely walk by the lake on a cold day, you’ll understand how little it takes to help you feel grounded.