While the Cold Brew at Starbucks might sound appealing from it's description, the amount of caffeine it holds is next level.
Being a Starbucks partner means I was super excited for a "new version" of iced coffee, especially since I am not the biggest fan of the original iced coffee.
The difference between regular old iced coffee and cold brew is simple and complex all at once: it's all in the brewing process.
Iced coffee is a specific blend of coffee, brewed with hot water, and later cooled with ice. Taking hardly any time at all.
On the contrary, cold brew is slowly "steeped" with cold water for 20 hours, packing in the flavor and the caffeine. Cold brew is originally made with half cold brew and half water in order to tone down the intensity as well.
(Refer to Starbucks for more information on both)
Now let me tell you my one, and only, war story with the infamous cold brew...
I had just gotten done working a 4 am to 12 pm shift and had plans to see Ant-Man not too long after I got off work. Just enough time to go home and change, but not enough to take a nap.
I needed a solid pick-me-up to make it through the movie and the rest of the day so I (a) didn't fall asleep in the movie I was paying to see and (b) didn't crash at 7 when I would get home to wake up at 10 and not be able to fall back asleep.
[ENTER: COLD BREW] It tasted great, don't get me wrong. It woke me up and I was ready to go on with my day's plans. A little shaky, but ready to see the movie.
Spoiler alert (kind of) I was doing okay up until Paul Rudd started shrinking to the size of an ant and growing back to human stature all over the screen. There was so much going on in every corner of the silver screen as I noticed my heart was going a million miles a minute.
I began to feel trapped by the movie goers sitting at the end of the aisle. I was sweating and short of breath. Trying to tell myself I was okay and could get up and leave if I wanted helped, but only to a certain extent.
I had to sit there and wait it out.
I closed my eyes for the rest of that scene and counted my breath to force more air into my lungs and eventually it passed.
The whole process took place over the time span of, maybe, 10-15 minutes... all over a 5 minute scene (tops).
I decided to not drink the tasty cold brew ever again after leaving the theater more exhausted than my opening shift that morning.
It only took me one time to drink the cold brew to figure out that it did not agree with my body in any regard. Maybe the barista who made my drink didn't put the proper amount of water in mine or maybe it was because I got a venti size.
Either way, that is one lesson I only needed to learn once!
