Private label cold brew coffee helps fledgling and well–established coffee businesses leverage the expertise and capabilities of a dedicated cold brew manufacturer to bring a line of cold brew products to market under their own brand name. 

The manufacturing of safe, high-quality, ready-to-drink (RTD) cold brew products requires various skills and tools, such as commercial cold brew machines, canning and filling lines, food production certifications, and coffee expertise. 

For most coffee companies, investing in the correct equipment to produce RTD cold brew in-house is unrealistic. Instead, they should consider partnering with a reliable, trusted, and proven private label cold brew coffee service provider. 

To learn more, we spoke to Maya Zuniga, PhD. and vice president of food and beverage innovation at Treatt.  

Alternative private label cold brew coffee flavours

Why and how does private label cold brew coffee work?

“Cold coffee continues – and will continue – to grow because there is no seasonal impact to it now,” says Maya.

“Consumers drink it all year round, and once formulators continue to build on functional and well-being, or indulgent and great tasting formulations, cold coffee will inevitably increase.

“Cold brew certainly represents a unique iteration of cold coffee, but there continues to be room to optimise quality and reduce/minimise sometimes inherent stale or oxidized notes that occur once the coffee is ground and exposed to air during brewing.”

Choosing a private label partner is a great way to leverage their experience in avoiding such flavour notes. Like any other private label product, private label cold brew is when a manufacturer offers to create cold brew beverages to be labelled under a client’s brand. These private label products are produced specifically for a single client, and to the consumer, it will seem as if the brand itself has created them.

Private label cold brew is distinct from white label cold brew in that it is a brand-specific partnership. With white label products, items are mass-produced and sold to multiple clients or retailers. 

Private label holds some distinct advantages. Firstly, the product itself is unique to the brand, allowing enhanced customisation and personalisation, which is more advantageous to branding and marketing efforts. 

Secondly, private label partnerships typically encourage a more collaborative approach to product development, whereby the client can take a more active role in ideation and direction. With white label, a client purchases a pre-made or defined product for later rebranding. 

Some clients prefer to opt for white labels as turnaround time is often faster, which helps them get to market more rapidly. However, improvements in technology and equipment have mainly mitigated this problem, especially for cold brew products. Certain manufacturers, like Hardtank, can turn private label cold brew around in less than six weeks

As mentioned, the key benefit of private label cold brew is outsourcing the manufacturing phases. By choosing to work with a private label cold brew partner, you can avoid costly overheads like equipment purchasing, maintenance, manufacturing spaces, and labour. 

Hands holding cans

Key considerations when choosing a private label cold brew partner

With many private label cold brew coffee partners available, a few pointers can help you narrow down the best choice for your business. 

Make sure your partner is a coffee expert

This may seem obvious, but partnering with a business that is itself a coffee expert is essential to future success. As a modern coffee company, you’ll need to trade on your brand reputation for coffee quality and innovation. 

You may have an excellent café or roastery, investing time and care into cultivating a strong reputation for excellent coffee. However, if your RTD products don’t match your customers’ expectations from their café experience, your cold brew products will not perform. 

For larger retail initiatives, like selling in supermarkets or convenience stores, quality is non-negotiable. Shelves are packed and extremely competitive, and customers know how to discern quality. 

Look for private label cold brew coffee partners that have a track record in specialty coffee. Hardtank, for example, was built upon a previous 15 years of experience sourcing, roasting, and selling specialty coffee. 

Make sure your partner is a cold brew expert

Building on coffee credentials, you’ll also want to ensure that the partner you pick has experience specifically with cold brew coffee. 

Many generic canning or beverage manufacturing businesses may be able to package cold brew products for you. Still, for the best quality drinks, you’ll want to look for a team that emphasises their cold brew coffee chops. 

This better guarantees the quality of your private label cold brew coffee and increases the ease of menu diversification. 

Modern consumers demand variety and quickly grow bored of single-product line-ups. By setting up a relationship with a cold brew specialist, you can more easily source variations, like nitro coffee, functional cold brew, cold brew teas or cascara, and other intriguing alternatives

Confirm your partner’s food safety credentials

Modern shoppers have more diverse dietary needs and requirements than ever before, driven by an increase in general health awareness and popularised wellness trends. 

Creating a diverse product portfolio is one-half of manufacturing an effective and appealing RTD cold brew product line. On the other hand, food safety is of the utmost concern. Controlling quality degradation, allergens, and cross-contamination is essential to consumer health and brand reputation and protection. Product recalls, or worse, are devastating for food companies

For cold-brew coffee, sterilisation and pasteurisation are essential steps in guaranteeing quality and mitigating risk. Not only do these steps improve the beverage’s shelf life and performance, but they also destroy pathogenic bacteria like listeria and botulism

A handy shortcut for companies considering a private label partner is to look for BRCGS certification from their candidates. BRCGS is among the most stringent food safety certifications in the world, awarded only to manufacturers who have demonstrated a clear and watertight approach to food safety throughout their business. 

BRCGS certifications are built on HACCP principles, combined with management and operational excellence, to send a comprehensive signal to clients and retailers that their products are safe.

Single origin panama geisha private label cold brew coffee

Choose Hardtank for your private label cold brew coffee

At Hardtank, we offer our clients a range of ten high-quality, immensely brandable, and safe RTD cold brew products, including nitro cold brew, canned plant-based lattes, cold brew tea, and tonic cold brew beverages. 

Our sleek, slimline cans are completely customisable. They are a 360-degree canvas on which you can paint your brand aesthetic, tell your brand story, and grab customer attention

We’ve been working in specialty coffee for over 15 years and apply all of our experience and learning to our BRCGS-certified cold brew manufacturing facility. Plus, we offer industry-leading MOQs from just 3,000 units per SKU and the most competitive costing around. 

To learn more, visit our website or get a quote today!

If you missed our recent Cold Brew Masterclass, you can still catch a recording here.

Private label cold brew coffee