About Time You Met: Annie Mitchell, Co-Founder of BottleshotBy Angelica Malin

Bottleshot is on a mission to bring New Orleans-quality cold brew coffee to the nation the way it should be; full of flavour, full-bodied, ethical, no additives and with a clean caffeine kick. We chatted to Co-Founder Annie Mitchell about the inspiration behind the brand, Bottleshot’s ingredients and exciting future plans:

We hear your cold brew is smoother than anything else available, tell us more? 

Yes, cold brew is so smooth!  When you think about how espresso is made, you use hot water, and high pressure, to force extract the coffee from the grinds. It’s super quick. We gently steep our coffee grinds in cold water for 18 hours to naturally extract the coffee. It takes a while, but this brings forward the best of the caffeine and has half the acidity of hot coffee.

We’ve now got a product that we’re unbelievably proud of; it’s full-bodied and has absolutely nothing artificial. Our customers always tell us they feel a steadier level energy when drinking Bottleshot, and most importantly that it’s delicious.

So, fewer ingredients mean more flavour? 

100%. We brew and small batches and focus on core, natural ingredients for a delicious flavour profile that’s unapologetically simple. 

Where did the concept come from? 

My business partner Charlotte and I have both grown up with families from New Orleans, where cold brew is an absolute staple.

My mother and grandmother have been drinking cold brew their whole lives and they passed that love onto me.  When I went away to school, my mom mailed me her cold brew. When I moved to London, she taught me her recipe, and when I couldn’t find anything that came close to matching it available, I decided to bring my favourite drink to the European market for everyone else too!

Why do you use a hint of chicory in your recipes? 

We wanted to give a nod to our New Orleans roots and the amazing cold brew that we’ve been bought up drinking. Adding chicory creates a hint of a naturally sweeter flavour profile that complements the coffee.

How many coffees do you drink a day? 

As you can probably imagine, I love coffee. I could drink it all the time, but I always recommend you start with one in the morning and that you’ll find most people won’t need an afternoon fix when they’re drinking cold brew. It’s because there’s no dreaded 3pm afternoon slump! 

Do you have a favourite coffee shop in London? 

I love so many! But my favourite coffee shop in the world is Café du Monde in New Orleans, possibly even more so for their beignets than their coffees.

Where can we find Bottleshot? 

You can find our two signature flavours – Black Coffee and Coffee with Oat Milk – direct from our website, on Ocado, Amazon Prime, at Soho House, Whole Foods Market, and in WHSmith Travel stores. 

What does the future look like for Bottleshot? 

We’re currently working on some very exciting business updates and we’re soon going to be exhibiting at Taste of London. We’ll be bringing a taste of New Orleans to the food festival, serving our cold brew alongside freshly cooked beignets dusted in powered sugar, just like they have at home.

We want to bring our unique drink to people all over the country. We’re currently working on new store partners and will have lots of exciting updates to talk about soon. We’re also looking at increasing our core product range, watch this space. 

How difficult was it coming over from the US and starting a business in the UK? 

It’s certainly always easier to start a business in a space or place that you have a built-in network and support system. But I think most entrepreneurs face that challenge when starting something new!

I also mix up some of my phrases every once in a while, which can be embarrassing, but Brits are actually pretty forgiving!

What advice would you give someone wanting to launch a product/business?

Find the right partners or mentors as early on as you can. It isn’t nearly lonely when you know who to direct the right questions to! Someone has always done it before, or can help you imagine a way to do something new, better.

For more information on Bottleshot, see here.