Starbucks Big Data... Cold Brew Shined Amid Eoljuka Trend

The share of iced coffee sales among all coffee beverages has expanded to 64%, reflecting the Eoljuka trend
Cold brew drinks launched in 2016 have surpassed 50 million cups cumulatively by last year, showing annual growth

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] As the popularity of Starbucks Coffee Korea's cold brew beverages continues to rise, it has been found that more than 6 out of 10 Starbucks customers currently prefer iced coffee drinks.

Starbucks announced on the 9th that an analysis of big data on coffee beverage sales revealed that the share of iced coffee beverages has expanded to 64% due to the growth in cold brew beverage sales.

In 2015, the sales ratio of iced coffee beverages (51%) and hot coffee beverages (49%) was similar, but after the launch of cold brew in 2016, iced coffee beverages began to surpass hot coffee beverages in sales share.

This reflects the consumer trend favoring iced coffee beverages that remain popular even in winter to the extent that the new term ‘Eoljuka’ was coined, along with the popularity of cold brew, which is highlighted as a new extraction method and an iced-only beverage.

Starbucks Cold Brew is an iced beverage made by baristas professionally trained in stores, who extract a small amount of fresh concentrate daily by steeping in cold water for 14 hours, then adding cold purified water and ice.

The share of cold brew sales among all iced coffee beverages expanded from 9% at its launch in 2016 to 16% in 2017, and further to 20% in 2019.

In fact, the sales growth rate of Starbucks Cold Brew in 2019 exceeded 50% compared to 2018, and the cumulative sales volume from its launch in April 2016 to 2019 surpassed 50 million cups.

With about 4.5 million cups sold up to March this year, it has risen to become one of Starbucks' most popular coffee beverages, following iced Americano, iced Caffe Latte, and Starbucks Dolce Latte.

Currently, Starbucks sells a total of seven cold brew beverages, including four cold brew drinks?Cold Brew, Dolce Cold Brew, Cold Foam Cold Brew, Vanilla Cream Cold Brew?and three Nitro drinks?Nitro Cold Brew, Nitro Vanilla Cream, and Nitro Chocolat Cloud.

Cold Brew, characterized by its smooth chocolate flavor, is especially loved by young customers, with the purchase ratio of the trend-sensitive 20s age group increasing from 15% at launch to 30% currently. Cold Brew and Vanilla Cream Cold Brew are the most popular.

Starbucks Nitro Cold Brew, introduced in 2017, is a beverage made by injecting nitrogen into cold brew using a proprietary nitro coffee machine developed in-house, following an authentic method.

Hyun-sook Park, head of the beverage team at Starbucks Coffee Korea, stated, “With the iced black coffee market expected to rise in the 2020 coffee trends introduced domestically and internationally, the rich and clean flavor of cold brew pairs well with various ingredients, so customers are expected to seek a variety of cold brew beverages. We also plan to add special cold brew drinks this year.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.