Peet’s Introduces a Fresh Take on Cold Coffee

nytimes.com - A storm is brewing in the world of cold coffee.

On Wednesday, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, the company that introduced America to dark roasts, will begin selling a new crushed-ice coffee drink it calls Javiva — and will emphasize that, unlike its competitors, the concoction is made from “fresh, brewed coffee.”

While that might seem obvious, Peet’s marketing is aimed at drawing attention to the fact that most competitive coffee-and-crushed-ice drinks, known in the business as “blended iced coffees,” are made from instant coffee powder, coffee syrups and coffee extracts, not from pots of brewed coffee sitting in the stores where they are sold.