Ready-to-Drink Coffees are

From cold-brew to energy-based, product innovations are brewing across the ready-to-drink (RTD) coffee category. America’s thirst for portable coffee continues to surge, and manufacturers big and small have invested in the RTD space, bringing interesting ingredients, artisanal brewing techniques, and fun new flavors to shelves. A popular packaging choice, the metal can has solidified its top position for simplifying how we get through the day.

Plenty of ready-to-drink flavor options like white chocolate, coffee cake, and cinnamon bun are sweetening sales in the category, while the metal can makes coffee easy to grab and start the day. The cans are also a popular packaging choice for their long shelf life. They afford little or no change in flavor consistency for three to six months for most RTD drinks, and reduce the hassle and mess of to-go cups or making a cup at home. Here’s something else to pour over: Dollar growth data for RTD coffee from Chicago-based Information Resources Inc. (IRI) pegged RTD refrigerated coffee sales at $925.4 million. That's a 31.5-percent year-over-year increase, for the 52 weeks ending May 15, 2022, in total U.S. multi-outlets. Forecasts from Mordor Intelligence project the U.S. RTD coffee market by packaging type (bottles and cans) and distribution channel (supermarkets, c-stores, online retail, and others) will register a compound average growth rate of 7.75 percent from 2022 to 2027.