New York-based premium coffee brand Wandering Bear has launched a shelf-stable cold brew keg intended for offices, micro-market, vending and convenience operations nationwide. Each 5-gallon unit delivers the brand’s signature organic and Fair Trade cold brew in a bag-in-box format without the need for refrigeration or nitrogen gas to dispense, reducing cost and complexity without sacrificing quality or experience.
This innovation was the product of a year of R&D and collaboration with the company’s OCS and foodservice customers to understand their needs and pain points when offering cold brew on tap. As cold brew kegs have surged in popularity, Wandering Bear uncovered significant challenges that operators face when delivering this premium offering to accounts. Limited refrigerated storage space, temperamental gas tanks and frequent service calls drive cost and complexity when offering cold brew on tap.
Wandering Bear is no stranger to the office coffee scene. The brand launched in 2014 offering cold brew subscriptions to offices around New York City, often hand-delivered by the founders themselves. That service is still part of the company’s business and is now live in 30 states, according to Wandering Bear co-founder, Ben Gordon. Even as Wandering Bear has expanded nationally with retailers like Kroger, Whole Foods, Safeway and Target, the company’s sales of traditional 5-gallon nitrogen kegs has kept pace, with sales growing more than 200% in 2018.
“We started Wandering Bear by selling our cold brew boxes to offices,” recalls Matt Bachmann, co-founder. “So not only do we have a unique understanding of the channel’s pain points, we have also had the opportunity to build strong partnerships with leading OCS and foodservice providers allowing for this level of collaboration to culminate in a product offering we know will help operators be more successful.” Bachmann noted that Wandering Bear will be taking this new offering to market with a handful of existing OCS partners including Corporate Essentials, Coffee Distributing Corp., U.S. Coffee and Metropolitan Coffee House.
Wandering Bear’s new shelf-stable bag-in-box keg uses a simple electric pump to dispense, reducing cold brew keg stressors and enabling significant improvements to any keg program:
● Shelf stable: Fewer deliveries and easy storage for customers
● 180-day shelf life: 2x the shelf life means less spoilage
● No nitrogen tanks: Fewer service calls, fewer service interruptions, less equipment
● Easy to change: Customers can easily swap and dispose of old kegs themselves (no more cold brew blackouts!)
Working with OCS and vending companies, Wandering Bear estimates this offering can save operators 25-30% on the operating costs of their keg programs. It will be offered in 3 delicious flavors -- Straight Black, Hazelnut and Vanilla.
About Wandering Bear Inc.
New York-based Wandering Bear Inc. is a beverage company delivering organic and Fair Trade certified ready-to-drink cold brew coffee, with no preservatives or sugar, to consumers at home, at work and on-the-go. The Company serves its cold brew in a multi-serve bag-in-box “coffee on tap” formats, 11oz individual units, as well as 5-gallon kegs for food service operators. Subscribe for home delivery at www.wanderingbearcoffee.com and keep up with the Bear @WanderingBearCo on social. s
