Summertime and the selling's still not easy (but it's getting easier).

Summertime and the selling's still not easy (but it's getting easier)

In June of last year, I wrote an article in this magazine about selling coffee in the summertime and shared a few coffee secrets and recipes for keeping sales up during the hot weather. It became one of my most requested

I've long been a believer in cold coffee beverages (notice I didn't say iced coffee) and apparently a lot of other people are too. Just a few of the cold coffee beverages or mixes that are now available are: "Ice Breaker" (Hills Bros.), "Cappuccino Coolers" (Fairwinds Gourmet Coffee Company), "P'Nosh" (P'Nosh Beverage Company), "Original New York Express Iced Coffee" (Original New York Seltzer Company), "Georgia" (Coke), "POKKA" (POKKA Corp. of Japan), "Cappio" (General Foods), "Nescafe Mocha Cooler" (Nestles' Nescafe), "Jamaican Gold" (Prince of Peace Enterprises, Inc.), "Ice Cap" (Chateau Miel, Inc.), Boyd's great tasting Mocha Cappuccino, the new "Granita Latte" cold coffee drinks so popular in Seattle, and "Manhattan Special", a terrific espresso soda manufactured in Brooklyn, New York. Although this list may seem enormous, I'm sure there are even more products available that I don't know about.

One new entry into the cold coffee market that I recently learned about is an Iced Cappuccino mix developed by National Fruit Flavor Co. of New Orleans, LA. It tastes really good and uses regular, brewed coffee.

Their sales manager, Avery Stirratt, contacted me and explained the process. To a carafe of regular, brewed coffee (non-flavored) add their flavored, sweetened product and milk, chill, serve over ice and the result is a great tasting cold coffee beverage. The sweetened flavoring is available in a variety of tastes and the product itself is self-stable for a number of months. When milk is added, the shelf life of the product is decreased to the shelf life of the milk. The concept is interesting and the product really does taste good.

Cold coffee beverages, when properly made, are delicious but when made and served improperly, they're awful. If you choose to make your own, be sure to use either freshly brewed coffee or coffee that has been stored in a preheated thermos. Cold coffee beverages made from burned coffee left on the heat too long, taste like cold, sweetened, burned coffee left on the heat too long.