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being much more intelligent industries than we were, so now we can talk about extraction with beer people and we can talk about what happens with different water temperatures, be it hops or coffee." To redefine a beverage well enough that it can hold its own on a menu next to the cappuccino, especially given its introduction to the coffee industry is only a few years old, would not be possible unless it represented the heart of the coffee-drinking culture. "I think as coffee professionals, we spend way too much time making drinks for ourselves and forget about the con- sumer," says Mike of Cuvée, "and this is definitely a drink for the consumer." At the core of what these four companies are doing is reconnecting what it means to be a part of the coffee com- munity. Much like the beer community—and now even more so, because both are using the same equipment to make nitrogenized beverages—coffee professionals are taking their work beyond the coffee bar. Further, the nitro option is inspiring a lot of baristas and café owners to create specialty drinks for their own shops. "We love the creativity that nitrogenized cold brew has sparked amongst our baristas," says Diane of Stumptown. "Our Seattle team has created a cold-brew nitro shrub [cold brew, vinegar, fruit, and sugar] in their cafés, and our brew- bar team has developed an amazing cold-brew nitro with a Bergamot-cream topper at our café in New York City." If anything, the growing popularity of nitrogenized cold- brew only serves to signify how far the entire industry still has to go. "This whole thing is just getting started," says Matt Lounsbury, VP of Stumptown Coffee. "Cold brew, nitro cold brew—this is just the beginning." Above le: Bard Coffee in Portland, Me., has enjoyed great success with its new nitro-coffee program. "Aer much debate last year, we bit the bullet and launched nitro this summer. We have it in kegs and it was really popular. Even when people didn't order it, it was a great conversation/excitement starter with customers and baristas," says Kari Guddeck of Bard. Right: Stumptown Coffee Roasters is regarded as the cold-brew king among specialty roasters, and its nitro-coffee program has been predictably popular. "It changes nearly every sensory experience," says Diane Aylsworth, head of cold brew for Stumptown Coffee Roasters, of nitro. "You get a cool visual from it: It pours like a Guinness, comes out cloudy, and you watch it cascade down and separate out into a darker brew and a lighter head. From an aromatic standpoint, it gives off this beautiful coffee aroma, much stronger than a normal drip. From a mouthfeel perspective, it's creamier and thicker." 70 barista magazine