The Kirkland Cold Brew Coffee at Costco tastes great and is loaded with the caffeine equivalent of over two cups of coffee. Overall the taste is smooth, not bitter, and is great for people who want a coffee drink that does not contain cream or sweeteners.
You get 12 cans, each holding 11 ounces of coffee, per case.
Keep reading for the full review!
Review Summary
Overall the Kirkland cold brew is excellent. Here is a quick summary of the Pros and Cons of the beverage.
On the Positive Side
- Smooth Flavor
- Super Convenient
- Cool Packaging
- Coffee Only, No Sweeteners
On the Negative Side
- High Caffeine
- Cheaper to Make Your Own
Taste Test
Kirkland Signature Cold Brew is very good. This looks like the same coffee they use to make the frozen coffee drinks at the food court which are delicious.
The coffee is smooth and, like you would expect from a classic cold brew, not quite as bitter and slightly sweeter than a regular cup of traditionally brewed iced coffee.
I truly love coffee but am not a coffee snob. If there are any flaws with this cold brew then there are beyond anything that I could pick up with my palette.
These are cans of straight up coffee with no added sugars, creamers, etc.
Caffeine Content
The cold brew comes in small, slender 11 ounce cans. The size of the cans is deceptive however as each 11 ounce can has more caffeine than two cups of brewed coffee.
Specifically, each can contains 225 mg of caffeine which Costco says is equivalent to 2.3 cups of coffee.
The cans have a warning saying that the cold brew is not recommended for people under 18, anyone who is pregnant or persons sensitive to caffeine.
My problem is that I spend most of my morning drinking cup after cup of Costco’s Medium Roast brewed coffee. I typically stop drinking coffee around 10:30-11:00 partially because the weather gets so dang hot by then.
The last thing I need is to start my afternoons by pounding glass after glass of this chilled cold brew and having the extra caffeine keep me up all night.
Who Makes the Cold Brew
I tried tracking this information down but was not able to find a concrete answer.
Costco has had past coffee partnerships with Starbucks so it is not inconceivable that that partnership is at play again for this product.
All we know for sure is that the coffee 100% Colombian is roasted and packaged in the USA.
Price
I bought the 12 pack of Kirkland Signature Cold Brew for $13.89 which comes out to a cost of $1.16 per 11 ounce can or $0.105 per ounce.
You can buy a 32 ounce bottle of Trader Joe’s Cold Brew Coffee for $4.99 which works out to a cost of $0.15 per ounce.
This means that you will save $0.045 per ounce (30%) when you buy your cold brew at Costco instead of Trader Joe’s.
While Costco does offer a much better value than Trader Joe’s please do not forget that you can make your own cold brew at home for a fraction of this price. So, a lot of what you are paying for is convenience and a pretty can.
Best cold brew coffee ☕️ 😋!
This coffee was great, BUT it is a caffeine headache. It’s truly sugar free of everything. I Recommend drinking a half can mixed with flavored cream. I will drink this when I go to Las Vegas.
Yeah this item is always sold out in stores near where I live – and online price is $18.99 – $$5.50 more than in store – and have to pay $3 PER ITEM ship fee unless $75 order total online at Costco – where these are in stock I buy like 6x 12 packs to avoid the hunt for them when out of stock… I drive for a living and don’t want 3x a day 200 calorie cream loaded can for each caffeine break I have thrice daily so I just toss these back like crazy and don’t feel bad about myself when the cost is out of sight the caffeine count is right and the calorie count is hella tight…. I don’t get caffeine overload or headache from this amount because I am a humungus dude at 6’3 265 and my tolerance for all things tolerable is always high as heck… but thank you for having this in store price online because you’re the only place I could find it and compare before I ordered them online… you just saved me $22 dollars before tax. You are now my real time favorite person. Good day to all.
I started out on a cold coffee quest about a year ago. I tried concentrates first. I couldn’t get the ratio of water to concentrate right. Of course I tried 5- brands, so if I had stayed with one, I might have gotten it right. Nonetheless, I tried Starbucks Black cold brew and their nitrogen infused as well. Both ok, but I’m not a fan boy for Starbucks for reasons best revealed in a 10 minute standup routine. I finally picked up this Kirkland at COSTCO, and almost immediately dismissed it as “too weak”. Which brings me to Trader Joe’s Nitrogen Infused rocket fuel. I tried to like it, but realized that I only stayed with it because by 11 am I was wired up. I still had a few cans of this in the back of the fridge, and tried them again.
So here’s the deal, after all the hunting around, the anticipation of new concentrates arriving from Amazon, the disappointment of never getting the ratio right and spilling coffee concentrate on shirts that grab onto that concentrate like grim death, I thjink THIS IS THE ANSWER!
Kirkland Cold Brew Colombian…I’m staying with you. And depending on the location of the COSTCO store you frequent, the price for a 12 pack around here varies from about $14 to $22. Even at $22 it’s a dollar a can less than Starbucks and Trader Joes!
Love your review style and you are the only person I could find who actually spelled out how much caffeine was in each can – The Costco website didn’t even give that info!
Thank you so much!
Thank you!