Review: Drive Coffee Le Mans Nitro Cold Brew
(2021) Pulling off a quality nitro canned coffee requires quality beans, reliable packaging, and a little intuitiveness. Being named the official coffee of Formula One is a big deal, and Drive Coffee’s come-uppance has continued quality coffee options. We have reviewed the Le Mans medium roast for our daily brew, but we got our hands on the nitro canned coffee and took it for a spin. Always looking for different coffee options to get through the day, this was an exciting chance to review a difficult product.
Colorado’s Drive Coffee started with vintage racing labels and has branched out since. Le Mans medium roast was their arrival to the coffee scene. Since then, they have added dark roasts, mocha and latte canned coffee, and - somewhere between - they took the Le Mans roast and made it nitro. The quintessential label of Gulf colors with a Ford GT40 wraps the convenient can of cold brew coffee. With warm days in early fall, we jumped at the chance to crack a few open and sample the south and central American bean concoction.
Drive Coffee’s Le Mans Nitro Cold Brew coffee comes out with a pillowy head and dark pour to cool the warmest of afternoons.
In our experience, nitro brews in a can have had a bit of a disadvantage. While the instructions recommend shaking vigorously, all that results is a podium-like champagne spray with a percentage of the coffee going rogue. Drive Coffee may have compensated for that because of extra room left in the can for those who follow the directions. Shaking until the contents no longer stirred, we covered the lid with a paper towel and found minimal foamy discharge. Then we hard poured the can into a pint glass and marveled at the descending nitro bubbles. Success!
Nearly immediately we sipped the foamy top off the nitro coffee and felt immediate satisfaction. The medium roast was well-rounded and refreshing. It was the closest thing to a stout a coffee could emulate. Thick, slightly sweet, but immensely drinkable, Drive Coffee’s Le Mans medium roast nitro is perfect for the post-ride refuel or the afternoon pick-me-up. This is the selection for those who say coffee is too acidic. Everything is rounded off in this can.
An area the consumer may shy away is price. We justified the purchase based on the closeness to nitro can coffee down the street. The only difference was the cost of shipping. The package arrives adorned with FRAGILE and ‘Refrigerate Immediately’ on the box. Not a bad supply for warm-weather resolutions.
We have been fans of Drive Coffee from the start. Seeing their model grow from cornerstone racing machines to National Parks to the forthcoming Formula One tracks, they are devoted to quality brewing. Join their mailing list to find out they are employee-centered, having hired more people during the pandemic to keep up with demand. Of course, becoming the official coffee of Formula One is a big deal, but there is something to be said for living up to the hype. Drive Coffee’s Le Mans nitro medium roast cold brew cans will be in rotation when the weather is toasty. Drive Coffee has reliable quality beans. Their nostalgic packaging speaks to those yearning for the former times when Mulsanne was a proper straightaway. With room for shaking to froth up a nitro pour, they delivered with intuition for a delicious coffee.
