Two coffee aficionados have developed a super-secret coffee elixir and want to bring jars of java right to your doorstep.
Kickstand’s Neal Olson and Aaron Davis have perfected their $16.95-per-bottle coffee concentrate and will make home deliveries of their sludge this fall.
“This is a great way to bring iced coffee into people’s homes and another great way to utilize bikes in our business model,” said Olson, who began turning the syrup into iced coffees at Kickstand’s location in McCarren Park this summer.
The duo started serving cups of gourmet java from a homemade brewing station on a wooden flatbed in 2009.
The contraption, which is attached to the rear wheel of Davis’s custom-made bicycle, slowly became a hit among discriminating coffee connoisseurs and bicycle fetishists — which in Greenpoint is pretty much the same crowd.
Now, the caffeinated cyclists will drop off bottles of their deliciously potent coffee syrup to your home or office just like the neighborhood milkmen or seltzer sellers of yesteryear.
Olson picks up his coffee beans from Café Grumpy, which gets them directly from farms in Guatemala or Nicaragua. Then he grinds them himself and brews his coffee concentrate, filtering it three times over a period of 24 hours.
The result is a silky substrate that can be bottled and stored for months. When you’re done, Olson and Davis will take your empty bottle and bring you a refill without charging extra.
Customers can sign up for the weekly delivery service through the company’s website. A pint of the stuff costs $16.95 — about $3.25 per cup — while a 32-ounce jar costs $32.95, a tiny discount.
Some coffee experts say that the price is steep.
“That is an expensive cup of coffee, even versus going to a high-end coffee bar and buying a cup,” said Giles Coffee President Donald Schoenholt.
Olson justifies its cost by saying that the price equals what one pays for a glass of “specialty” iced coffee at one of the gourmet cafes in the city, such as Gimmie Coffee in Williamsburg or Cafe Grumpy in Greenpoint.
“We’re trying to shoot for better quality than what they can offer and the convenience of bringing it to your house,” said Olson. “There are very few people in the United States who are doing single-origin, cold-brewed coffee. You know exactly where these coffee beans are coming from and its quality.”
Kickstand’s proprietors recommend mixing one part coffee with one part water and adding ice for iced coffee — or hearing the mixture on the stove to make great tasting coffee as fast as it takes to boil water.
You can even take it camping or to work with you — so kiss those 25-cent freeze-dried coffee packets goodbye forever.
For info or to order, visit www.kickstandbrooklyn.com.
