Nitro Coffee Co

Company background

Aaron (AP) and Lucia Beattie fell in love with cold brew coffee after experiencing it in Vancouver and The Rockies. When they returned back home they were on the hunt for a new business project to sink their teeth into and thought they could bring cold-brew coffee to the people of Comber, Northern Ireland. They originally set up in May 2017 and began developing a product before deciding on heading down the Nitro route for something really different and Nitro Coffee Co was born.

Challenge

The company wanted to launch a low-calorie chocolate mint coffee drink – made with its specialised cold brew coffee and oat milk. The finished drink would be passed through Nitrogen gas to have a smooth head and less bitter taste but they required support with recipe development, sourcing suppliers, advising on the legal labelling of the drinks and training on nutritional labelling calculations.

Solution

To assist with the development of their concept, Nitro Coffee Co was supported by North West Regional College (NWRC) Business Support Centre (BSC) through the InnovateUs programme which is funded by the Department for the Economy to develop a new chocolate mint flavoured cold brew coffee drink.

NWRC Beverage Technical Consultant, Linda McClean, provided 30 hours of upskilling support in sourcing ingredients & costings, recipe development & defining target taste, shelf life test set up & organoleptic assessment and product labelling recommendation.

Impact

On completion of the project, the company has successfully developed a low-calorie chocolate mint coffee drink using specialised cold brew coffee and oat milk which appeals to new customers who are looking for a sweeter and flavoured coffee drink.

Future

AP and Lucia Beattie, Co-owners of Nitro Coffee Co described the benefits of working with NWRC’s Business Support Centre via the InnovateUs programme:‘’We were absolutely delighted with the support we received from Linda McClean. Linda took us through the application process and was on hand throughout the entire process, helping us to focus in on the important issues and providing expert guidance and practical support to assist us in taking our product from concept through testing and onward to bottling. Product development is never straightforward however, thanks to NWRC Foodovation and Linda, we were able to ask the correct questions and can be confident that all important aspects of the process have been properly addressed. We would have no hesitation in recommending NWRC Foodovation as a project partner for any small business seeking to pursue the InnovateUs programme.’’