Black medicine brewed iced coffee: The cure for bad coffee?
Another brand that generated a lot of debate was Black Medicine, which made the final round of the New Beverage Showdown.
A ready-to-drink (RTD) “pressured brewed” iced coffee, Black Medicine is bolder, stronger and smoother (less bitter) than rivals, claimed founder Chris Cooper, who described it as the 'Cure for bad coffee".
Unlike some competing premium RTD coffee products, which are 'cold brewed', Black Medicine is brewed hot, he said: “Cold brews have a distinctive taste which lacks complexity. Brewing hot is necessary if you want to extract all of the flavor components in the bean. This is true even if you wish to serve the coffee cold; making iced coffee does not require cold brewing.”
So does it taste as good as he says?
The judging panel thought so (“the best-tasting ready-to-drink iced coffee I’ve ever had… it tastes amazing”), although it was confused by the brand name (it is coffee or an energy drink? What's medicine got to do with it?), while the packaging seemed targeted towards men, despite the fact that iced coffee is a category where women tend to over-index.
