The Story Behind Saxbys Cold Brew Iced Coffee
Meet Lauren Stevis and Michelle Nur-Chowdhury, Saxbys crackerjack Training Team and the brains behind our Cold Brew Iced Coffee recipe. Since we’re in the middle of a Cold Brew Season Countdown, we took the time to talk to Michelle & Lauren about why cold brew is best, how they came up with the perfect recipe, and which famous person they’d love to serve cold brew to.
What inspired you to switch to the cold brew method?
Lauren: A huge part of my role as a Training Manager is to be a Saxbys brand ambassador. So it was really important to me that our iced coffee was something I could take a lot of pride in. I wanted to be able to differentiate ourselves from a taste and quality standpoint, and I knew Saxbys could do that with a Cold Brew Iced Coffee.
To me, a trainer is more inspiring if she’s genuinely excited about the product or method she is teaching. The learner will only be as passionate as the trainer. And knowing how much time and care we take to prepare iced coffee the right way (never brewing it hot) gives me a sense of pride that is absolutely infectious in my training sessions.
Explain how you came up with the Saxbys cold brew method. What was the testing process like?
Michelle: We had a basic idea of how to cold brew, but from there we needed to find what worked best for Saxbys. We tested several different grinds of coffee until we found a coarse grind worked best, and we also tested the amount of time the cold brew would steep. We tested as little as 10 hours to as much as 18 hours and landed at a time that produced the most pleasing strength: 14 hours.
Lauren: We did a ton of industry research, compiling endless amounts of recipes, strategies, and expert opinions. Then we tested absolutely every variable imaginable. In addition to the grind and timing, we tested the extract straight, we tested it diluted, and we tested it with varying levels of dilution until we found the richest, sweetest, most balanced iced coffee imaginable.
How did you know you’d found the perfect Cold Brew Iced Coffee recipe?
Lauren: When the caffeine shakes from all of our taste-testing seemed less like a product of testing and more like the desired effect of our perfect coffee elixir.
Michelle: We also put our corporate team through a tough (but delicious) blind taste test. They had to choose their favorite of seven different samples. (Editor’s note: We were there and it was awesome.)
Lauren: Steeping our coffee grinds overnight coaxes the sweetest, richest most balanced flavor qualities out of our coffee. The result is a crazy-smooth iced coffee with that added kick of caffeine…and yes, 14 hours of beauty rest for our beans leaves you with more caffeine.
If you could recommend Saxbys Cold Brew to any famous person, who would you pick?
Michelle: Ellen Degeneres. The reason? Well, she doesn’t drink coffee. However I’m sure that once she tastes the clean, smooth, refreshing flavor of our Cold Brew she will change her mind about coffee!
Lauren: Taylor Swift. She’s the epitome of energetic, catchy beats and I support that….Cold Brew could only enhance it.
What songs remind you of sipping on Saxbys Cold Brew?
Michelle: “The Lazy Song” by Bruno Mars. It’s cool, fun, and laid back.