Starbucks’ Seattle Roastery is now offering two new speciality drinks and bags of coffee made from beans aged in whiskey barrels.
The company announced Monday that the branch will be selling, for a limited time only, a cold brew sweetened with vanilla syrup and a hot “con creme” drink that is topped with cascara sugar and foam—both made from whiskey barrel-aged coffee beans.
The beans, called Starbucks Reserve Whiskey Barrel Aged Sulawesi, are made in “freshly emptied” whiskey barrels from a Washington State distiller, Woodinville Whiskey. According to a press release from Starbucks (SBUX), the beans are “hand-rotated frequently to ensure all the coffee comes into contact with the oak barrel” over the course of several weeks—a novel roasting process that is said to burn off the alcohol but retain the flavor of the “whiskey’s identity.”
“The process takes time, care and patience, ensuring we deliver a distinct experience that stays true to the specialness of the coffee while imparting the complementary, distinguished flavor of the oak-aged barrel,” Duane Thompson, from Starbucks beverage R&D team, says in the press release.