Nitro Tap Uses Science to Infuse Cold Brew Coffee With the Flavors of Cream and Sugar

There's a new nitrogen tap on the market that believes it can revolutionize the cold brew coffee industry. According to the Washington Post, Charles Kleinrichert — the founder of AC Beverage — has invented a device called JoeTap. The system — which will debut later this month at the annual Speciality Coffee Association of America gathering in Seattle — has the ability to make cold brew coffee taste as if cream and sugar have been added to the drink.

Cold brew — coffee that has been steeped in cold-to-room temperature water — has long been championed by the craft coffee world, and now it's finally starting to go mainstream. Coffee giant Starbucks added the drink to its menu just last month. It's also no longer rare to see cold brew served on tap: Prominent coffee companies like Stumptown have been using nitrogen and/or carbon dioxide taps developed for beer to serve cold brew coffee for quite some time now.

JoeTap differs from the standard taps used by other coffee companies, however. Kleinrichert explains that typically nitrogen bubbles are too large "to infuse quickly into a liquid like coffee," so standard taps just push out the coffee "with little infusion." His patent-pending system on the other hand "breaks down the nitrogen into microscopic bubbles and then mixes the gas into the cold-brew coffee via a special infuser." This allows the coffee to develop a "foamy, cascading head, much like the one on a pint of Guinness."

Notably, JoeTap allows users to utilize both nitrogen and carbon dioxide gas during the same process. The amount of each gas used can be customized to each type of cold-brew coffee to make it taste "brighter, creamier, and/or sweeter." Kleinrichert adds that the microscopic gas bubbles created by his system have a bonus result: It can create "unique new flavors that were never found in coffee previously." JoeTap is priced between $4,350 to $4,750 per unit, and Kleinrichert hopes to sell 50 units a week, which means it may soon hit a craft coffee shop near you.