Venture on a hot streak with a cold brew

Ben Barker founded Leeds-based Artemis Brew in 2015 and after seeing great success in Yorkshire is hoping to take his business nationwide.

“Speciality coffee in Leeds is growing more and more,” the young entrepreneur said. “Over the past five years there’s been more and more shops popping up that are truly focused on the quality of the coffee and where it comes from.”

Mr Barker added: “More people are becoming aware of how much variety there is in coffee and people are inquisitive of how coffee can taste differently.”

Artemis creates its products using the cold brew process, which Mr Barker says brings out a sweeter nuanced flavour from the beans.

The 23-year-old launched the business after funding for a career in pathology fell through.

“Both my parents are self-employed,” said Mr Barker. He eventually settled on Artemis as he was a “big coffee geek”.

He started by making cold brews at home and even got himself a barista qualification. Mr Barker started off by making the coffee for himself.

He said: “I liked the idea of it because it’s a lazy way of getting really good quality coffee. I could walk downstairs pop the top off a bottle and I’d have a really high quality drink that took no time to make.”

His drinks won the approval of friends and family and he realised he could turn this into a successful business. The company’s bottles are being stocked by 30 independent stockists and it has just picked up its first stockist in Peterborough with Mr Barker expecting his drinks to be in London, the South West and Scotland in the summer.

Demand for cold brew coffee is on the up with big chains such as Costa and Starbucks looking to offer their own beverages.

Mr Barker said: “Demand is going great. More and more people are hearing about cold brew and are interested in what it is. That is what will transform the business.

“Big chains like Starbucks already do cold brew and that is helping get the name out. People see it there and think I’d like something of a bit of a higher quality and they find us.”

In addition to the bottles, Artemis also has a product called Nitro.

“It’s the same cold brew coffee that is in the bottles,” explained Mr Barker, “but it’s conditioned with nitrogen.”

He added: “It’s kegged and served on draught and it pours like Guinness. The nitrogen conditioning gives it a really smooth flavour so it’ll actually get a head on top of the drink like a beer.

“You get the same product which has got no milk or sugar in so it’s really low calorie but it’s got the smoothness of a milk coffee or a creamy coffee.

“What we are finding is that there’s places that are mixing it with cocktails. Places that want to just serve it on its own.

“People are saying that they like the idea of it in a pub because it’s an acceptable alternative to drinking a beer.”

The concept of adding nitrogen to coffee is relatively new to the UK. Mr Barker first spotted the trend in America.

The cocktail industry is a market where Mr Barker sees further scope of development with new products already being lined up.

He said: “We take the cocktail industry as being quite significant because at the moment a lot of cocktail bars are wanting to increase the quality of their coffee offering and cold brew is a great platform to help them achieve this.

“I expect more releases targeted towards the cocktail market.”

Something’s brewing...

Cold brewing may seem a relatively new phenomenon but Ben Barker says that historically it’s arguable that it was the first brewing method for coffee ever.

However, in recent years people have become more experimental – realising the different flavours and notes that can be extracted by this method of brewing.

Another historical significance for Mr Barker’s business is the name Artemis.

He said: “Artemis is the Greek goddess of nature and purity. Our ethos aligns with her traits. Our products are 100 per cent natural.

“It’s just filtered water and coffee. There’s no additives.”