Iced Coffee Tasting

Have you ever heard of iced coffee tasting? I got intrigued once I saw this term online recently and since I love coffee and iced coffee especially (what’s summer without iced coffee??), I decided to do a little research on it and see what I can find out.

Photo courtesy of Coffee Flight Hebrews Coffee Co., Magnolia, TX

What is iced coffee tasting?

Iced coffee tasting is a new trend that is like wine tasting. There are shops offering this experience to people. So you can come in and get a tray with different iced coffees (smaller in size than normal coffee) which you then get to taste.

People are even doing iced coffee tasting dates. Or are meeting with friends and sharing the coffees to split the cost.

How cool is that? This is seriously a trend I can get behind! I love coffee and iced coffee is even better. Cold brew coffee is my absolute favorite in the summer, and I usually have a batch going as soon as the last one is coming to an end).

Check out my Addicting Cold Brew Coffee Recipe to make the best cold brew at home! It’s totally worth it if you are a coffee fan. And this Copycat Starbucks Frappuccino Bottle Coffee is well, better than the original, if I may say so.

Where did it start?

This iced coffee tasting trend was made popular by a twitter user posting a picture of tray with different coffees that she got when she went to a coffee shop. The tweet went viral (though it seems it’s no longer online).

Weeell, maybe it wasn’t the start of this trend, but at least it seems that’s where it got popular.

Where can I do this kind of tasting?

The viral tweet with the iced coffees came from the Jojo Coffeehouse in Scottsdale, Arizona.

However, we don’t all live in Arizona, so I went online to search for places near me. Unfortunately, the term “iced coffee tasting” didn’t produce very many results. It’s like no coffee shops were offering this (except for a couple I found in Australia 🙄).

Coffee flight at Froth and Cork in Hastings, MN

Iced Coffee Flights

However, searching for that term also brought the term “iced coffee flights” up. Which is kind of a weird term.

At first I was confused about it because what do flights have to do with coffee? After doing some research, I found that this term is taken from the wine world and wine flights just means a selection of wines that is served on a board and that a person can try out (detailed info here). I guess the word “flight” just means “a group of”. I have to admit I have never heard of this before.

(Can you tell I’m not a wine expert? lol?)

Searching for iced coffee flights, gave me a whole lot of interesting results. For example, here is a good post from thriftyminnesota.com that talks about these types of tastings and they list quite a few places that offer these tastings in Minnesota. Next time I’m there (Hello, home!!) I will have to search one of those out!

And here is a fun article from the Los Angeles Times regarding coffee flights: More caffeine for you: Where to get a coffee flight.

Photo courtesy of TJ’s Burritos, East Granby, CT

How to find Iced Coffee Tasting or Coffee Flights in your Area

The best way to find an iced coffee tasting place in your area is to google the following:

“iced coffee flights” + your state (or your city)

There is not a lot written about iced coffee tasting and most places seem to use “iced coffee flights” to refer to this option.

Photo courtesy of Brio Coffeehouse, Greencastle, PA

Lastly, Have you heard of iced coffee flights? or of iced coffee tasting before? Have you tried it and if so where? What was the experience like?

Let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear of your experience. Unfortunately, this trend seems not to have caught on here in Germany. I hope it is only a matter of time. But we will see.