If you’ve visited Teeccino’s Facebook page lately, you’ll have seen photos of our newest creation: Dandelion Draft. Whoa..what are they up to over there in Teeccino land? We’ve been giving sneak previews to some friends and strangers alike of our answer to the latest coffee craze: Nitro Coffee. You may not have heard of that either since Nitro Coffee is just being introduced in a few pockets around the country, but Santa Barbara happens to be one of them. So we thought, why not nitro Teeccino?
OMG! I wish I could send you a pint right through this email because you can’t believe how delicious nitrogenated Teeccino can be! But first let me back up and tell you all about nitrogenation and why it makes Teeccino taste so unbelievably delicious, creamy and refreshing!
Ever drunk a pint of Guinness? Or watched those cascading micro-bubbles like a waterfall in a glass of a nitrogenated stout? Nitrogenated beer is appearing everywhere on tap as microbrewers discover how nitrogenation brings out the sweet flavors of a bitter beer.
Beer is typically carbonated with CO2 like sodas. But CO2 gives beverages an acidic flavor. Nitrogen, which is 78% of our atmosphere, is much harder to mix into a liquid. But when you do, it produces sweet, creamy flavor notes without any of the acidity of CO2. It also doesn’t make you burp like CO2 because the micro-bubbles of the dissolved nitrogen don’t have that gassy effect.
There must have been a home brewer who also was a coffee roaster because some inspired soul had the idea to nitrogenate coffee. I’m sure they felt just like I did when my home brewing son, Galen, who is also Teeccino’s sales manager, handed me a pint of nitrogenated Teeccino. OMG! It was such a revelation to my taste buds!
First off, it has this foamy froth on top that reminds you of the crema on an espresso or the head on a pint of beer. Next, I was blown away by the creaminess in my mouth – without any dairy – plus the texture of the micro-bubbles and the visual fun of watching the drama going on inside the glass. I drank it right down and asked for more. And that’s how it’s been as I’ve watched everyone else react to their first taste of nitrogenated Teeccino. More please!
Here’s what everyone says: It’s so re
freshing! It’s so sweet, are you sure there’s no sugar in this? It’s so creamy! It’s so rehydrating! From small children to tattooed beer drinkers to coffee addicts to grandmas, everyone loves the taste and the experience of Dandelion Draft.
Our first decision was to focus on our Dandelion flavors, Dark Roast and Caramel Nut, so people who need to be gluten-free could drink nitrogenated Teeccino too. Dandelion root is renowned for its liver cleansing properties, its minerals and antioxidants. Along with chicory root, it contributes inulin, a prebiotic that feeds your beneficial digestive flora, to a cup – or shall I say pint? – of Teeccino and its bitter flavor adds to the digestive health benefits too.
If you’re gluten-free, you can’t drink beer, but you’ll feel like you’re drinking a beer when you’ve got a pint of Dandelion Draft in your hand. Rest assured, Dandelion Draft is non-alcoholic. It also doesn’t need to be sweetened because the nitrogen brings out the sweetness in Teeccino’s carob, dates and figs making it sweet enough to be entirely sugar free. Gluten free, alcohol free, sugar free. Just Teeccino on nitro!
We began making kegs of Dandelion Draft last spring and taking them to festivals like Earth Day where it debuted publically for the first time. Then we had a launch party at our local favorite 
nightclub here in Santa Barbara, SoHo. Of course in the bar setting, we couldn’t resist making some tasty combinations with liqueurs and next thing we knew, we had a whole menu of great mixed drinks using Dandelion Draft as a base. We were ready to rock and roll!
But we ran into a bump in the road. We had planned to start by brewing Dandelion Draft at our local coffee company but they were having so much demand for their Nitro Coffee that they decided they couldn’t brew Teeccino too. Bummer! But the entrepreneurial road is never an easy one, at least not for me, and you can’t get discouraged when things don’t go the way you want them to!
So we’ve been out visiting beer breweries to research the equipment we need to brew up Teeccino and then to nitrogenate it. Though we can make Dandelion Draft on a home brew scale, we need to ramp up to real production numbers and professional quality in order to launch it. We’ve discovered that what we need is, of course, different in many ways from what beer breweries have so it’s become clear that Teeccino needs its own brewery!
We’re calling it “The Brew Lab” because it will be small but perfect for our beginning needs of putting Dandelion Draft into kegs. However, we still have the hurdle of the financial challenge. We just don’t have the resources to finance it ourselves. So, we’re thinking of a crowd-funding campaign.
What do all of you think? You know Teeccino best. Are we heading in the right direction? Do you think a crowd-funding campaign is something you could get behind? Are you excited about tasting Dandelion Draft? Or as we’re thinking of calling it when we get it into bottles or cans: Dandelion Nitro!
Please share your thoughts with us!
Teeccino Dandelion Draft vs Nitro Coffee