How Kyoto-style espresso solved a 20-year problem for Blue Bottle Coffee

It took 20 years, an obsessive culture of experimentation, and a global cold coffee revolution to finally solve a problem that Blue Bottle Coffee founder James Freeman identified on day one. Karl Strovink, CEO of the revered specialty coffee group, explains why Kyoto-style espresso is one of the most significant developments in the brand’s history – and the beginning of a new era for cold coffee

When Blue Bottle Coffee founder James Freeman refused to serve iced lattes at his first Oakland café in 2002, his reasoning was characteristically precise and uncompromising: When hot espresso meets ice, flavour suffers.