Beverage start-up Nomi has launched a range of 100% natural cold brew coffees, inspired by the Japanese ready-to-drink coffee market.
Nomi – which means “drink” in Japanese – is available in Tokyo black, Kyoto iced and Osaka almond varieties, claiming to be one of only a handful of companies in the UK to brew and wholesale coffee in this way. The premium bottled coffee is never heated, instead electing to cold brew the drink for 16 hours in order to ensure low acidity and a smooth flavour, meaning that each bottle of Nomi contains up to half the calories and a fifth of the amount of sugar as hot-brewed offerings.
The brand was inspired by the popularity of ready-to-drink coffee in Japan, which founders Sam Leather and Kieran Goodacre both noticed while working and living in Hokkaido. “Every convenience store we’d enter had 10–15 different versions of bottled coffee,” Leather told FoodBev. “The only problem – all the versions were very sugar, with little or no coffee in and full of E numbers and preservatives.”
So the duo, who had met at university, set about creating an alternative that was full of real coffee and 100% natural. And, in addition, it had to feature no added preservatives or E numbers. They cupped roughly 15 different countries and origins of coffee, and contact a lot of coffee roasters seeking advice on what to pair with their cold brewing method.
They found that around 70% of consumers in the UK add something to their black coffee, yet no other wholesale cold brew coffee company was mixing cold brew, so Nomi conceived the three newly launched variants in order to cater to a full range of tastes.
Nomi founder Sam Leather also claimed that there was a tangible sense of an emerging market in the UK for cold-brewed coffees, particularly with consumers between the ages of 25 and 40.
Leather said: “Our target audience is young working professionals who appreciate real, good quality coffee and want a ‘guilt free energy kick’. We use in-season coffee, so depending on what time of year it is, our flavour and coffees will change slightly to ensure the best quality, freshest coffee!
“We are currently using Ethiopian for our Tokyo black and Kyoto iced versions, and Rwandan for the Osaka almond version. No other wholesale cold brew coffee company in the UK is currently mixing cold brew – they are only selling it black. So naturally we thought we should produce a range: a dairy version using milk, a non-dairy vegan version using cold pressed almond milk, and a black version.”
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