Emerging Trend: The Coffee and Wine Bar Hybrid

News has been brewing—get it?—that coffee and wine hybrid bars are gaining popularity. Starbucks, for example, has been rumored to start selling booze soon, although I haven’t seen it yet…but what gives? Are coffee and wine really “pair-able?

“Wine and coffee have a bevy of similarities…Both have hundreds of chemical compounds that affect the flavor, with wine averaging 200–400 compounds and coffee surpassing 800. Where a wine drinker swirls a glass to release a wine’s aroma, a coffee drinker senses aromas on different areas of the palate. Both are complex, and the same grape or bean, respectively, can yield wildly different varietals

If you’re doing coffee right, you’re going to attract those who are already attracted to coffee,” he explains. “If you have wine available, there’s room for the bartender or barista actually to educate that consumer about wine, as well. … If they come into your establishment because you’re doing wine correctly, there’s room to expand the coffee market to them so they can broaden their enjoyment of the beverage world.

—Jason Haeger, Consultant for the Specialty Coffee Industry

The idea of broadening enjoyment of the beverage world in general sounds cool, so I’m intrigued to see if more of these wine-and-coffeeshop-combos pop up.

—Judith Pena, Asst. to the EIC

(Source: rmgtmagazine.com)