We are so excited to launch our first ready-to-drink bottled beverage! Introducing our bottled Dolce de Leche, available at all of our shops starting Friday, September 1st! While we love the opportunity to brew coffee fresh for customers each and every day in the café, we know it’s not always convenient to stop by a Water Street, so we LOVED the idea of a ready-to-drink beverage. A beverage that is flavorful, coffee-forward, well-balanced and ready to go. Just grab it from your refrigerator or cooler, give it a shake and enjoy!

While we had plenty of knowledge and experience conceiving of delicious coffee drinks, we needed to partner with someone that had the packaging expertise and the other critical component of this drink: milk. Enter our friends at Amish Country Dairy.  

What a TREAT it has been to partner with Amish Country Dairy from Shipshewana, IN. These guys really know their milk and their cows! Our sales representative Nate has been incredibly responsive. He and Lamar, who works in formulation, patiently explained to us how their equipment works, how to process a trial run, what to expect from the HTST (High Temperature Short Term) pasteurization process, how their equipment is cleaned and sanitized, and why they don’t homogenize (because it TASTES better; we’re all for that!) Lamar has an excellent palette, and was really tuned into what we were trying to accomplish. We collaborated for months working to get the perfect formulation of coffee, caramel and milk. The whole team at Amish Country Dairy went above and beyond so that our final Dolce de Leche tasted perfect. 

Amish Country Dairy Farm	Dairy Cow	Amish Country Dairy Farm

How exactly did we make it tasty?

For our first ready-to-drink, we knew we wanted to make a crowd favorite even more accessible. Our much loved Dolce de Leche seemed the obvious choice. 

Fortunately for us, the cream-top milk from Amish Country Dairy wonderfully complimented our existing Dolce caramel sauce. This combination was creamy, sweet, swirly-pearly without being overindulgent. In our mind the trickiest part was getting the coffee right. There are A LOT of bottled coffee beverages that miss the mark on the coffee component. The processing of a ready to drink coffee beverage often flattens a robust or complex brew, and we just couldn’t stand for that to happen to our delicious beans! After experimentation which included taste tests with hot brew, with cold brew, with espresso, we created an Iced Coffee with a BANG reduction that partnered PERFECTLY. Best of all, this coffee concentrate performed surprisingly well throughout the pasteurization process.

While there are several ways of pasteurizing, Amish Country dairy uses the process of HTST (High Temperature Short Term), this method ensures that the milk is safe without compromising the flavor of our coffee or caramel. Additionally since the milk is not homogenized, they’ve eliminated another process that could negatively impact the final flavor. Having a delicious bottled Dolce de Leche is just as much about what we AREN’T doing to it, as what we are.

BANG Concentrate being added	Dolce Caramel Sauce being added	Mixing together with cream-top milk

What’s Cream-top milk? 

The creamline, or “cream-top”, comes from the fact that Amish Country Dairy doesn't homogenize the milk. While pasteurization is necessary to keep the milk safe and drinkable, homogenization is not. Keeping ingredients natural and less processed means the fat will settle at the top and should be shaken before enjoying. 

Why drink Dolce?

It’s the best. Our house made caramel sauce. The Iced Coffee with a BANG that you know and love. The non-homogenized cream-top whole milk dairy from the happy cows at Amish Country Dairy. We truly put the best ingredients we could make into this drink and think that it shows. And, how about that caffeine content?! This beverage will be sure to energize you. It’s perfect anytime of day. Great over ice or on the go.

Where can folks get this drink? 

Single bottles will be available in each of our locations and retail at $4.99. Come into a café or order through the app.  

This product is also available for wholesale. If you’re interested in carrying this coffee at your place of business, offices, breakrooms, waiting areas, grocery, convenience store, vending, hospitality, co-working space please reach out to Austin 269-488-7177.

Will there be more?  

This process was a TON of fun and we’d love to expand the line into new and exciting flavors. What WSCJ beverage would you like available? Send us a note or let us know on social.

Lamar measuring milk levels in tank	Bottling Dolce de Leche	Crated Dolce de Leche for delivery