While making plans for their second restaurant, 98 Center, local Restaurateur’s Alex Borichevsky and Frankie Winfrey decided to bypass traditional espresso coffee options for an array of alternatives that included Vietnamese, Pourover, Bulletproof and Cold Brew coffee.

Cold brew coffee has gained popularity in the last ten years within the artisan coffee community. Traditionally named Kyoto-Style coffee, cold brew can be traced back to 1600’s Japan. It is said that the Japanese learned about the method through Dutch traders who cold brewed their coffee to store on their ships. There is some confusion on whether is it called Dutch Coffee or Kyoto-Style Coffee but either way if the Dutch invented it the Japanese elevated it to a fine art.

Borichevsky and Winfrey on the suggestion of coffee experts purchased the elegant Yama Cold Brew Drip Tower that originates from a glass factory specializing in hand blown, tempered glass. The method is simply to allow iced water to drip down through ground coffee at a about a drip per second. The process takes a total of 12 hours. If you visit the restaurant you can see the tower displayed just behind the cashier counter!

So, why cold brew? In the summer it is a refreshing alternative to iced tea. The caffeine content is high for those that want that strong hit of caffeine at any point of the day. Because cold brew coffee is never heated and in turn never oxidized it has reduced acidity and bitterness making for a very smooth and light-bodied drink. 98 Center uses Fresh Moab Coffee’s various single origin African beans (well known for their floral notes) from Ethopia, Yirgacheffe, Papua New Guinea, Congo and Malaui.