About the Snob

Cold Brew Snob started with a simple problem: travel enough and you learn that "cold brew" can mean anything from sixteen hours of patient dripping to yesterday's hot coffee poured over ice. Someone needed to keep score.

So now, every trip gets built around coffee shops. Every shop gets the same three questions:

1. Is the brew actually good? Not "good for the airport" — good.
2. Is the space worth sitting in? Cold brew is a slow drink. The room matters.
3. What's the story? Who runs this place, and why?

Each review scores those three things and averages them into the Snob Score — five drops, half-drops allowed, no grade inflation. A 3 is a shop worth visiting. A 4 is a shop worth detouring for. A 5 has not been awarded yet.

Why Japanese style?

Because Japan took cold coffee seriously first. Mizudashi (水出し) — literally "water-extracted" — has been brewed in Japanese kissaten for generations, drip by drip, long before nitro taps and mass-market cartons. The patience of that method is the standard this site holds everything to, and the reason the design of this site looks the way it does: quiet, unhurried, nothing on the page that doesn't need to be there.

The fine print

Reviews are always paid for out of pocket — no free drinks, no sponsored reviews, no shop ever knows the Snob is in the room. The gear page contains affiliate links, which fund the flights; the full disclosure explains how that works.

Have a shop that deserves a review? The tip line is coming soon. Until then — brew slow.