A Taiwanese bakery hopes to one day rival Starbucks’ dominance in California.
85c Bakery is a chain of 24 bakery locations statewide (with over 300 locations in Taiwan), and it is using its delicious coffee with sea salt added in to build business.
"85c sea salt coffee" is espresso, ice, sugar, full-fat cream, with sea salt that they require you shake up to enjoy. The sea salt brings out the flavor of the coffee. For health-conscious coffee drinkers, omitting the sugar will not hurt the flavor too much, either.
While the sea salt coffee has been a part of 85c Bakery’s success for years, the coffee craze has risen to the point where unique flavors of the brew are starting to catch on with consumers.
"It's really unique," says Stephanie Peng, manager of the company's flagship U.S. store in Irvine, Calif. "The sea salt's in the cream, the foam part, so it just brings out more coffee essence."
The bakery promotes a special Monday deal that drives a great deal of traffic on that day of the week. The sea salt coffee is available at all sizes for 85 cents.