Balancing mellowing-out and a pick-me-up, hard coffee is making a splash in the beverage industry. Capitalizing on America’s “coffee culture,” emerging hard coffee brands are seizing the opportunity to expand on coffee’s repertoire with a variety of options by combining the best attributes of caffeinated and alcohol beverages.
According to New York-based Nielsen CGA, the numbers reflect hard coffee’s rise. For the 52-week period ending July 18, dollar sales for hard coffee hit $18.9 million, up more than 11,000 percent compared with the same time period last year.