Maxwell House Debuts Foaming Iced Latte Powder For Café-Style Coffee At Home
Café coffee just hits different compared to home-brewed java. That's not to say that it's bad, but in your own kitchen, you probably lack the professional-grade espresso machines, top-shelf ingredients, and the skill and knowledge of trained baristas. Maxwell House, however, is trying to make it easier to have coffee shop-style beverages at home with the introduction of their Iced Latte with Foam, reads a company press release.
A powdered mix that doesn't need to be heated, the Iced Latte with Foam makes use of Maxwell House's proprietary cold-stirred foam technology to create a pleasant frothy topper to your iced latte that would be the envy of any barista. The only instructions are to add the mix to a glass of cold water and stir.
Representing the company's first innovation in almost a decade, the Iced Latte with Foam is the result of growing sales of iced beverages at coffee shops, notes Sweta Kannan, the Director of Marketing and Coffee Innovation at Maxwell House's parent company, KraftHeinz. No longer will perfect iced lattes be the bailiwick of baristas alone because now consumers can recreate their favorite beverage in the comfort of their own home in three flavors: vanilla, caramel, and hazelnut.
Rebranding for a new generation
Maxwell House was started 131 years ago in Nashville, Tennessee by grocer Joel Owsley Cheek, where it was served at the hotel which still bears the name. Allegedly, it was once served to President Theodore Roosevelt, who proclaimed it was "good to the last drop," a phrase that became the company's longtime slogan. It was, for years, the number one coffee brand in the U.S. And though, it has since lost much of that ground, it is hoping to recapture a piece of it by getting in on the flavored cold-coffee segment. And the company is targeting this space specifically because, according to KraftHeinz's own research, while 31% of coffee sold in shops is cold, only 7% of drinks at home are.
The Iced Latte with Foam is part of a larger rebrand at Maxwell House. The company is aiming at younger consumers who have grown up with coffee shops — and gourmet coffee beverages — as part of the cultural landscape. This demographic is more apt to order a latte or a nitro cold brew over a standard cup of coffee. The rebrand comes with a clever tweak of Maxwell House's famous catchphrase, which will now implore consumers to "Live Life to the Last Drop."