Local Spotlight: Lu's Habitude Cuban-style cold brew

Most readers by now know that I’m not an avid coffee drinker but I’m also not opposed to trying it out to support our local scene. Since its National Coffee Day, I wanted to highlight a local business. There’s one that started a little over the year ago called Lu’s Habitude and they sell Cuban-style cold brew.

If you’ve never had it before, Cuban Coffee is known for its strong sweet taste. Instead of me telling the story, I’ll let their webpage do the work:

Our founder, Ian “Lu” Luzer, fell in love with cafecito while living in Miami. Cafecito is one of the traditional types of Cuban coffee, brewed with ordinary coffee beans and sweetened with cane sugar. It is typically twice as strong as American style coffees and served in a smaller Cuban coffee cup.

I’m told cold brew can mean many things and for Lu’s Habitutde, that means they brew at 40 degrees to prevent the extraction of the oils and higher levels of acidity. This allows it to keep the bitterness levels to a minimum. Just because it’s brewed cold doesn’t mean it has to be enjoyed cold. After the brewing you can heat it and enjoy a cup of hot coffee without all the oils and acid you would typically get from a hot brew.

Their suggested service size is 1 to 2 ounces. You can drink it straight or add milk or creamer or heat it for 30 seconds and enjoy it hot. What did I do? Chugged it.

Currently, Lu’s Habitude offers just one product in a shelf stable can; their Cuban-style espresso (dark chocolate, semi sweet). They also offer 32oz growlers of both sweet and non-sweet for the Wichita area which you can order from their webpage.

They are also available at such local establishments like Peerless, Emerson Biggins Old Town and soon to be at The Humidor. On top of that, they are at many liquor stores around town like R&J’s, Central Market, ABC’s out west, Jacks and Goebel which was where I found mine.