Review: classic canned cold coffee

Coffee, cans, convenience - any good?

Mar 19, 2023

Welcome to The Magic Roast! Your regular update on all things coffee, running and other stuff. Support The Magic Roast by sharing this post (if you like it. If you hate it, share it even wider to teach me a lesson!)

Share The Magic Roast

Summer has gone - lets drink cold coffee!

Summer’s gone, so what perfect time to get into a review about cool, refreshing coffee in cans!

This summer seemed to explode with a great new product - canned iced ‘long-blacks’ ‘flat whites’ and other coffee adjacent drinks - made by specialty coffee companies.

This canned coffee thing isn’t new. Starbucks, Boss Coffee and others have been doing for a while. The new thing was that New Zealand based ‘speciality’ coffee roasters were getting involved. Which means they should all taste pretty amazing.

But do they?

I tried a bunch of iced coffee drinks so you didn’t have to, and based on a purely subjective set of criteria, where the main objective was that the criteria rhymed, I have crowned winners.

The criteria were:

Accessibility - cost, location
Sexability - aesthetics, how much you’ll get judged for drinking it
Taste-ability - how easy is it to taste happiness, joy and wonder.

The drinks reviewed were in three categories:

Oat milk ‘flat whites’
‘Long blacks’
Other coffee related drinks.

TL;DR

This is a bit of a long one, so TL;DR - do what ever you can to get your filthy little mitts on these bad boys:

Oat milk flat whites

I managed to get my hands on five speciality oat milk flat whites for this review:

Mojo Coffee Cold Brew + Oat Milk
Supreme Coffee Flat White with Oat Milk
Havana Five Star Flat White with Oat Milk
Flight Coffee Oat Milk Flat White
The Lab Cold Brew + Oat Milk

…they’re not flat whites…

Call me a stickler. Call me a snob. Call me whatever. But these aren’t flat whites.

Why? Because these aren’t made with espresso, they are made with cold brew coffee. There’s a big difference in flavour and texture between the two, so you can’t compare them.

I can see why they called it a flat white - its a term the average consumer can understand. It’s coffee with milk. So, from that point of view, I get it. But it took me a while to shift my brain away from the cold oat milk espresso drinks I make at home, to these ‘flat whites’.

Now that I have that out of the way, lets review!

The winner - Flight Coffee Oat Milk Flat White

By far, the Flight Coffee Oat Milk Flat White in a can was the best of the five I tried.

Made with Flight Coffee’s Bomber Blend, this tasted sweet, with a full and creamy body, and a really nice oaty taste. It had a chocolate ice cream vibe to it, was very refreshing and an overall pleasant experience.

Accessibility: $20 for four, delivered to your door, or available in most Flight Coffee cafes around the place. This includes the Mount Surf Shop and Cafe in Tauranga, but outside of Wellington, it might be a little bit of a mission. 1.5 stars.
Sexability: The can looks great and Flight Coffee is cool where ever you go. 2 stars.
Taste-ability: The best tasting Oat Milk Flatty. 2 stars.

Overall: 5.5 stars

Highly recommended: Havana - Five Star Flat White with Oat Milk

What a surprise.

Honestly, I had low hopes for the Havana Five Star Flat White with Oat Milk as I’m not a massive fan of their coffee over all. But I drunk this with an open mind, and wow, I was rewarded for that.

This had an amazing mouthfeel. Big, bold and beautiful. This felt like a milkshake it was that good. I really enjoyed this!

It was pretty close to the Flight Coffee one for the winner here. Recommend.

Accessibility: $4ish, available at your local New World and available online. How good is that? 2 stars.
Sexability: The can was okay, and Havana are okay too. 1 star.
Taste-ability: Really yum, great mouthfeel, a great oat taste. Highly recommend. 2 stars.

Overall: 5 stars

Yeah, okay: Mojo Cold Brew and The Lab Cold Brew

The Mojo Cold Brew and the Lab Cold Brew are both made by Mojo, using the Feelgood Blend. I didn’t realise that at the time of purchase, but there you go.

These are okay. If you’re in a bind, they’d do the job.

Accessibility: $5ish, available at your local Mojo in Wellington, The Lab Cafe, and online. Easy to get if you’re in Wellington or Auckland, maybe harder elsewhere. 1 star.
Sexability: Nice cans to be fair - muted pastel colours, but the cool factor is low. 1 star.
Taste-ability: A pleasant oat milk and coffee taste, but felt a bit thin - not very satisfactory. 1.5 stars.

Overall: 3.5 stars.

Avoid: Coffee Supreme Flat White

Oh boy.

I wanted to love this one. Supreme has been close to my coffee heart since I got my first Chemex. But this was poor.

It had a fizzy taste to it which was gross, thin, disgusting.

Accessibility: $5ish, available online and in Supreme cafes. 1 star.
Sexability: Sexy can and great brand. 2 stars.
Taste-ability: It was gross and took away from the cool can. -3 stars.

Overall: 0 stars.

Loving this review? Mint! I loved doing it. If you feel like buying me a coffee so I can keep reviewing awesome coffee drinks, then do it! Go on. It’s fun.

Buy me a coffee

STOP PRESS A response from Supreme

I dropped Coffee Supreme a line, because the fizz in the cans seemed like a bug, not a feature. And to their credit, they responded:

One step of producing our Iced Coffee range is a carbonic flush, this process purges the oxygen from the can, keeping the coffee fresh — something we’re all about. While there shouldn’t be any residual CO2 in the can, it appears a handful of cans from our first production do. The taste you’re experiencing is due to this. We have noticed some inconsistencies ourselves and we’re already in the process of working on refinements for future runs!

So, maybe some awesome changes to come in the future! I’ll be keeping a close eye on their progress.

Long Blacks

Again, not a long black, this is actually a cold brewed coffee. Anyway, here are our contenders:

Coffee Supreme Long Black “it’s water, but cooler.”
Havana Coffee Super Deluxe Long Black
Innerbloom Straight Up Cold Brew Coffee

Winner Winner: Innerbloom Straight Up Cold Brew

Holy moly I did not expect this.

Made in the mighty Bay of Plenty, Innerbloom is not a coffee I had come across before. And what a shame - this was amazing.

This was complex - light and almost tea like, with floral notes that sort of reminded me of chamomile tea. This was paired with a sweetness that balanced out any potential bitter coffee taste. Hands down the best of the ‘long blacks’.

Accessibility: $4ish, available from New World and $60 for 12 online. Easy as. 2 stars.
Sexability: Sexy can, surfer vibe, fun and cool. 2 stars.
Taste-ability: Boom town rats - amazing product. 2 stars.

Overall: 6 stars.

Highly recommend: Havana Coffee Super Deluxe Long Black

Really solid and super tasty, the Havana Coffee Super Deluxe Long Black is gooood.

A far more traditional coffee flavour than the Innerbloom, with more dark chocolate notes that I think would go really well with an espresso martini type drink.

Accessibility: $4ish, available at your local New World. How good is that? Pretty good. 2 stars.
Sexability: The can was okay, and Havana are okay too. 1 star.
Taste-ability: Very nice. Chocolatey and fun. 1.5 stars.

Overall: 4.5 stars.

Come on bro: Coffee Supreme Long Black

Argh. Again, a bit of a fizz that muted what otherwise would be a good drink.

Some signs of a good time, and sounds like it’s something they’ll fix in the future but I can’t recommend this one at the moment.

Much better than their ‘Flat White’ though.

Accessibility: $5ish, available online and in Supreme cafes. 1 star.
Sexability: Sexy can and great brand. 2 stars.
Taste-ability: Could have been good, and there are positive signs there. But the fizz is back. 0 star.

Overall: 3 stars.

Other coffee related drinks

There were a couple of other coffee related drinks that I thought would be a hoon too.

OMG YES: Coffee Supreme - Cascara Fizz

Did you know that coffee is actually a fruit? The bit we usually brew up is the seed, and the outside fruit bit usually gets biffed.

Sometimes that fruit bit gets saved, dried and turned into a product called cascara, and it’s a little bit like a raisin.

You can purchase cascara and brew it hot, and it’s like a sweet tea. Yum.

And speaking of yum, holy moly - the Coffee Supreme Cascara Fizz is the biz.

Not impacted by the issue their Flat White or Long Black had, the Coffee Supreme Cascara Fizz is so so so good.

Fruity, sweet, refreshing, fun.

Accessibility: $5ish, available online and in Supreme cafes. 1.5 star.
Sexability: Sexy can and great brand. 2 stars.
Taste-ability: Holy smokes this thing rocks so hard. So hard. 2 stars.

Overall: 5.5 stars.

Yummo: Flight Coffee - Sparkling Cold Brew

Brewed with the same coffee as their Oat Milk Flat White, the Bomber Blend, this drink is sort of like the long blacks reviewed above, but with added manuka honey and mandarin - so it’s not quite in the same category as those ones (hence why I have separated them out).

The Flight Coffee Sparkling Cold Brew is yum yum yum. A great cold brew flavour with a brightness from the fruit, and a subtle but tasty honey note. So good.

Accessibility: $5ish, available online and from Flight Coffee cafes around the country. 1.5 stars.
Sexability: Sexy can and great brand. 2 stars.
Taste-ability: So good. So refreshing. So exciting. 2 stars.