In this article, you’ll learn:
- Why cold brew has become a baseline consumer expectation – and what the numbers say about where the market is heading
- What is stopping most operators from adding it to the menu, and why do those barriers no longer hold up
- How fast cold brew coffee makers like Hardtank are changing the operational calculus for restaurants, hotels, and high-volume venues
The cold brew market is now worth $3.87 billion globally – and it is still accelerating. If your venue serves beverages and cold brew is not on the menu, there is a growing risk of missing customer demand.
To understand why, we spoke to Logan Kedwell, founder of Abbotsford Road Coffee Specialists – a New York-based specialty coffee roastery with years of experience working across the food and beverage industry. Read on for his insights.
The logistics of fast cold brew coffee makers
Speed is the real story here. Not the drink itself – the logistics of it.
Logan has seen the hesitation up close. “It feels like a coffee problem,” he says. “Like you need the equipment, the training, the barista who knows what they’re doing. Like it belongs to someone else’s business model, not yours.”
But he is clear about where the real obstacle lies. “The barrier,” he says, “is not interest – it’s perception.”
That perception gap has a real cost. Traditional cold brew preparation takes between 12 and 24 hours of steeping time – a cycle that limits how much any venue can produce and serve each day.
Modern fast cold brew coffee makers work differently. Systems like the Hardtank 20 and Baby Hardtank use a patented recirculation technology that continuously agitates the grounds, producing four litres of cold brew in under an hour. The entire process is automated, ensuring consistency across every batch without specialist input.
For a restaurant doing 200 covers before noon, a hotel breakfast service, or a bagel shop with no modern cold brew coffee machine, that changes everything.
Why fast cold brew coffee makers are the answer to a market most operators are ignoring
Cold brew still features on a fraction of restaurant menus – yet customers are ordering it everywhere else. At the coffee shop before they walk through your door, at the airport, at the hotel bar. Cold brew demand does not stop at the café door. It walks into restaurants, hotels, bagel shops, and breakfast services every day. The question is whether those venues are ready to meet it.
Logan is direct about the stakes. “Their customers are ordering cold brew everywhere else,” he says. “The demand isn’t coming – it’s already there.”
He goes further. “Not having it,” he argues, “is now the thing that stands out.” A vice president at one of the US’s largest specialty roasters recently put it in even starker terms: when consumers walk into a venue now, they do not want cold brew – they expect it. That shift in language reflects what is happening on the ground.
The numbers are hard to ignore. According to the NCA’s 2023 annual report, cold brew consumption in the US increased by 73% between 2019 and 2023. Non-espresso specialty beverages – including cold brew and nitro – rose nearly 42% from 2020 to 2025, according to the NCA’s Spring 2025 National Coffee Data Trends report. And in the UK alone, 43% of consumers now drink cold brew at least once a month.
Cold brew is also pulling in customers who previously avoided coffee altogether. Over 50% of Gen Z customers purchased iced RTD coffee from a shop rather than a café or roastery, according to MTPak Coffee.
Cold brew is generally perceived as less acidic and smoother than hot-brewed coffee, creating a different sensory profile that appeals to a broader audience. For hospitality operators, that means cold brew is not just a different version of what you already sell. It is a new customer.
The right fast cold brew coffee makers remove most of the traditional operational barriers
The menu gap is not a mystery. Operators hear “cold brew” and think steep times, overnight prep, specialist equipment, and wasted product. Logan has heard every version of this conversation.
“I had a conversation recently with a venue owner who told me they’d decided against adding cold brew this season,” he recalls. “Too complicated, they said. Needed equipment. Staff would need training. Not worth the hassle for a drink that only some customers want.”
He has been thinking about that conversation ever since. “I think they’ve got the picture exactly backwards,” he says.
Those concerns were valid once. Research found that between April 2021 and April 2022, orders of cold brew at quick-service restaurants alone increased by 27% in the US – a period when most operators were still treating cold brew as a specialist product requiring a specialist kit. The gap between demand and supply has only widened since.
Fast cold brew coffee makers like Hardtank and Baby Hardtank are built to close it – for high-volume operations and smaller venues alike. No overnight steep. No specialist. No guesswork.
The automated process removes the variability that operators fear, and the compact footprint of systems like Hardtank’s means even space-pressured kitchens can run it. Logan puts the commercial case plainly: “The complexity is gone. The story and the margin remain.”
Fast cold brew coffee makers: Key takeaways
- Cold brew is no longer a specialty item – it is a baseline consumer expectation, with the number of people drinking it up 73% since 2019, and most restaurant menus still do not carry it.
- Modern fast cold brew coffee makers have eliminated the operational barriers that kept cold brew off non-specialist menus – speed, consistency, and simplicity are now built in, with systems like Baby Hardtank producing four litres in under an hour.
- Summer is the highest-opportunity window for operators to act, and the cost of waiting is losing customers to venues that already have it.
Looking to respond to changing cold brew demand? Explore Hardtank’s solutions for fast cold brew production and RTD development, or contact the team to get started.
Fast cold brew coffee makers: FAQ
Do I need specialist staff to serve cold brew? No. Modern fast cold brew coffee makers automate the entire process – extraction, consistency, and batch control – without barista-level training. Systems like Baby Hardtank produce four litres in under an hour, with no specialist input required.
Is cold brew only popular with existing coffee drinkers? No. Cold brew’s lower acidity makes it accessible to customers who normally avoid coffee, and over 50% of Gen Z customers already buy cold coffee from non-café venues. Adding it to your menu means reaching a wider audience, not just converting existing drinkers.
Is cold brew still growing, or has it peaked? Still growing. The cold brew market is now worth $3.87 billion globally, non-espresso specialty beverages rose nearly 42% from 2020 to 2025, and the number of people drinking cold brew has risen 73% since 2019. The category has normalised, which makes it a menu staple rather than a trend bet.
Want to learn more about our cold brew systems?
- Explore private label RTD: Learn how to launch your own canned coffee
- Discover your profits: With our ROI calculator.
- Speak to the team: Contact Hardtank here.
