In this article, you’ll learn:
- Why Arctic Juice Café chose Hardtank to bring a functional cold brew RTD to market
- How Arctic Juice Café built its formulation around what customers already love
- How Hardtank supported Arctic Juice Café with compliance, packaging, and brand identity
Café brands increasingly want their coffee to travel beyond the counter, and functional RTD coffee is one of the fastest-growing ways to do so. Arctic Juice Café took on that challenge by turning its cold-brew oat into a functional canned product built for life on the go.
Laura Cooper is the Systems Operations Manager at Arctic Juice Café. We spoke with her about why the brand partnered with Hardtank, how the formulation came together, and what she would tell other roasters. Read on for her insights.
Escaping the four walls
Arctic Juice Café chose Hardtank to launch a scalable functional RTD without building production capability in-house.
The decision started with a simple observation about how its customers live. The brand wanted a product that matched their pace without losing what made Arctic Juice Café recognisable in the first place.
“For us, RTD was about taking the Arctic Juice Café coffee experience beyond the four walls of the café,” Cooper says. “Our customers live active, on-the-go lives, so creating a great functional coffee product they could grab and take with them felt like a natural next step for the brand.”
Rather than building a production line internally or piecing together multiple vendors, Arctic Juice Café looked for a manufacturing partner who already had the technical foundation in place. That decision reflects a broader shift in the industry.
As functional coffee options expand, more brands are working with specialists who understand both coffee formulation and the technical requirements of RTD production..
Hardtank’s private label process offered exactly that combination. It let Arctic Juice Café launch a scalable product without diverting focus from its core café business.
Regulars writing the recipe
Arctic Juice Café built its functional formula on an existing cold brew oat recipe and on what café customers already order.
The brand already had a cold brew black product in its lineup. For the RTD launch, the team wanted to expand into cold brew oat and layer in a functional element. Rather than guessing at what might resonate, they used existing customer insight as the starting point for formulation.
“We already had our cold brew black product, but we wanted to add the functional element into our cold brew oat,” Cooper explains. “The formulation needed to be clean, taste genuinely good and feel recognisably Arctic. Knowing what our customers already drink and respond to gave us a strong starting point when working through the recipe with Hardtank to include the functional elements.”
This approach mirrors a wider trend in the category. Brands that lead with clear customer insight, instead of chasing every emerging ingredient, tend to launch functional products that feel authentic. For Arctic Juice Café, that meant using its café relationships as a formulation compass rather than starting from a blank slate.
The hidden complexity behind a functional cold brew launch
Flavour was only the first hurdle, because functional ingredients also change shelf life, stability, and packaging decisions.
Once Arctic Juice Café moved into functional territory, the project expanded into a web of technical decisions that extended well past the recipe itself.
“Getting the taste right is only one part of it,” Cooper says. “You then have shelf life, stability, production, packaging, and all the small technical decisions that ultimately affect the finished product. Translating everything Arctic into a functional drink that gives multiple benefits on top of great flavour took a lot of balancing and testing to get it perfect.”
This challenge is common among brands entering the functional RTD space for the first time. Functional ingredients, whether adaptogens, nootropics, or other additions, can interact with shelf stability, pasteurisation, and packaging. A standard black cold brew never has to account for those interactions, as Hardtank’s overview of functional coffee market trends explains. Balancing those variables while preserving a brand’s flavour identity is an important part of the work a specialist manufacturing partner can support.
Navigating compliance and packaging without losing brand identity
Hardtank handled the regulatory and technical side of RTD production, so the finished can still looked unmistakably Arctic Juice Café.
Formulation is only half the equation. RTD production introduces regulatory and technical requirements that most café brands have never had to navigate. Arctic Juice Café was clear that a specialist partner made a measurable difference here.
“This is where having a specialist partner added real value,” Cooper says. “We know our brand and our customer, but RTD production comes with a different set of technical and regulatory requirements. And Hardtank helped us navigate this at every step. It was important that the final product still looked and felt unmistakably Arctic Juice Café, and our final product absolutely achieved that.”
Regulatory and packaging compliance is frequently the most overlooked hurdle for roasters entering the RTD category. Labelling and nutrient disclosure requirements add another layer for a functional product. Hardtank supports partners through this process, from nutrient information to full compliance data. That frees brands to direct their energy towards the parts of a launch that shape identity: label design, positioning, and brand voice.
For Arctic Juice Café, that division of labour meant the finished can could carry the brand name with total confidence.
Arctic Juice Café’s advice: dream bigger
Arctic Juice Café found that the right partner offers more than production capacity, because practical advice shapes what a brand can attempt.
Looking back, Cooper points to the value of a partner who brings both experience and encouragement to ambitious ideas. That matters more than simply executing a brief.
“For anyone considering a custom RTD, Hardtank offered experience, practical support and advice on how to deliver our goals,” Cooper says. “It allows companies to dream big!”
Hardtank’s work with beverage brands shows the same combination of technical guidance and genuine collaboration. Some roasters weigh whether to build functional RTD capability in-house or partner with a specialist. Arctic Juice Café suggests the right partner does more than execute, and helps brands think bigger about what is possible.
A smooth path from concept to can
Beyond the technical milestones, Cooper highlighted the overall experience of working with the Hardtank team as a defining part of the project.
“It has been very smooth, and the support we received to realise our ambitions for this product has been second to none,” she says.
For a brand moving into an entirely new product category, that kind of consistent support can be the difference between a stressful launch and a confident one. Arctic Juice Café’s functional cold brew oat now carries the same identity customers know from the café, in a format built for wherever their day takes them.
Arctic Juice Café: Key takeaways
- Arctic Juice Café partnered with Hardtank to extend its café coffee experience into a functional, on-the-go RTD product.
- The formulation built on Arctic Juice Café’s existing cold brew oat and customer insight, adding functional elements without losing brand identity.
- Hardtank covered the technical and regulatory complexity of RTD production, from shelf stability to compliance and packaging.
Ready to bring your own functional RTD to life? Explore Hardtank’s private label process to get started.
Arctic Juice Café FAQ
How did Arctic Juice Café develop its functional cold brew RTD?
Arctic Juice Café built the formulation around its existing cold brew oat product. The team used established customer preferences as a foundation, then worked with Hardtank to add the functional ingredients.
Why did Arctic Juice Café choose Hardtank instead of developing the product in-house?
Arctic Juice Café wanted a partner with the specialist knowledge, technology, and production capability to scale quickly. That choice let the brand stay focused on its core café identity.
How did Hardtank help Arctic Juice Café with compliance and packaging?
Hardtank guided Arctic Juice Café through the regulatory and technical requirements for RTD production while helping the finished product stay visually and stylistically true to the brand.
Want to learn more about launching your own functional RTD?
- Explore Hardtank’s ready-to-drink products: see how private label RTD works.
- Discover Hardtank’s private label process: learn how formulation and production come together.
- Speak to the team: get in touch with Hardtank.
