West Asheville coffee shop Waking Life Espresso bottles ice coffee, eyes second location

Waking Life Espresso, a five-year-old independent coffee shop in West Asheville owned by coffee connoisseurs Jared Rutledge and Jacob Owen, has begun bottling its own flash-chilled ice coffee and distributing it locally. Rutledge is also eyeing a downtown Asheville spot for a second location of Waking Life.

Rutledge and his crew brew their coffee, then run it through an immersion chiller to quickly cool it down, unlike cold-brewing, which limits the taste profile of the finished product, Rutledge said.

“Our goal with it is to provide a local alternative to bottled easy-to-drink beverages,” Rutledge said. “Plus, it’s delicious.”

“It’s like making a soup and cooling it down really fast. That way it lasts longer,” he said, adding that the coffee has a shelf life of about a month.

Waking Life is distributing its 12-ounce bottles at West Village Market, Katuah Market, French Broad Food Co-op and via Jonathon Flaum’s Farm to Home Milk delivery service. (They may also distribute in some local bars, Rutledge said.) Waking Life is also filling pony kegs with their flash-chilled coffee. The bottles cost $3.75.