Just mix the concentrate with water — cold brew sales surge as home cafe trend grows

Kurly cold brew sales up 60%; Momos Coffee transactions jump tenfold

Dedicated cold brew bottles have been appearing on shelves as demand for the concentrate surges. [CU]
Dedicated cold brew bottles have been appearing on shelves as demand for the concentrate surges. [CU]

"Cafe coffee costs 5,000 won — it just makes more sense to buy the concentrate and mix it yourself at home."

Yoon, a worker in her 30s, fills a tumbler with coffee before heading to the office each morning. Her drink of choice is cold brew. "The price of coffee started to feel like a real burden, so I began making it at home," she said. "All you do is pour water into the cold brew concentrate — it couldn't be simpler."

Cold brew, which requires no separate brewing process and simply needs to be mixed with water, is drawing growing consumer interest. The trend reflects a broader effort to cut costs as coffee prices have risen consistently. According to the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS) consumer price index, the coffee price index stood at 146.06 (base year 2020 = 100) in August, up 2.0 percent from the same month a year earlier.

Cold brew is made by steeping coffee grounds in cold water for an extended period. Products that dilute the extracted concentrate with water or milk have also appeared on the market. Ready-to-drink (RTD) cold brew products require no dilution and can be consumed straight from the bottle.

For consumers who already enjoy cold brew, home-use concentrate products offer a way to ease the financial strain. At cafes, cold brew typically costs 500 to 1,000 won more than a regular Americano, owing to the time and effort involved in brewing and storing it.

The price difference is stark. A 300-milliliter cold brew concentrate sold by Paul Bassett yields up to 15 cups, working out to roughly 1,300 won per serving. Given that a single cup of cold brew at a cafe runs around 5,000 won, the savings are considerable.

Cold brew product sales on Kurly rose 60 percent in August compared with the same period a year earlier, and the number of products available on the platform grew 35 percent over the same period. Transactions for Momos Coffee's key cold brew products jumped more than tenfold during the same stretch. On SSG.com, sales in the Dutch coffee category climbed 45 percent in the second quarter of this year.

Beyond cold brew, sales of other easy-to-make coffee drinks for home use are also climbing. Lotte Mart's overall coffee beverage sales rose 25.1 percent from June through Sept. 15 compared with the same period last year, while sales of its private-label coffee drinks surged 52.8 percent. Over the same period, coffee sales at E-mart's No Brand stores grew 9.5 percent, with non-liquid products — including whole beans, tea bags and instant mixes — up 16.9 percent.

"As more people want to easily prepare drinks they enjoy at home or in the office, we are seeing growing demand for products that are easy to store and convenient to consume," an industry official said.


siuu@heraldcorp.com