Pensacola's cold brew queen, Mrs. Jones Cold Brew, opens first cold brew bar and bookstore

Stephanie Jones has been Pensacola’s longtime queen of caffeination since bringing her handcrafted cold brew coffee elixirs to the Pensacola area in late-2016.

Although her bottles of concentrate have no sweeteners and are flavored solely by extracts, Jones has pushed the boundaries with creative flavors and recipes, now with over 40 unique cold brew flavors under her belt. Some of the standouts being the Red Velvet, German Chocolate Cake and a butterscotch-caramely Butterbeer. Now, she will be able to sell a variety of her rotating flavors by the glass at her very-own cold brew bar located at 1449 W. Nine Mile Road Unit 17, which opens to the public on Sept. 28.

“We're trying to elevate cold brew in Pensacola to an unexpected place,” Jones said.

Jones’s catchphrase of “be your own barista” holds true to her business model, in helping people to make extraordinary cups of coffee easily in their own kitchen. When she would work as a Palafox Market vendor, selling her bottles of coffee concentrate, she would also whip up cold brew lattes on the spot, which would essentially serve as demos for how to use the products at home.

For the mixed drinks, she would enhance her cold brew base with milk, flavor syrups, whipped creams and edible toppers to transform the base into a fancy-beverage, with a different “special” on the rotation each week. One memorable drink topper was an entire Little Debbie's oatmeal cream pie.

“So when we first started Palafox, we were trying to sell the bottles of elixir and we were just giving out samples and then when we realized — I don't know why it was this aha moment — like, ‘let's sell drinks!” Jones said. “Then everything just took off.”

Now, with her own brick-and-mortar cold brew bar, the possibilities are endless.

Cold brew bar and bookstore combined

In addition to having her cold brew on tap for her customers, the space will also double as a used bookstore led by her employee, Precious Murphy.

About 2,500 of the books came out of Murphy's own home collection crammed into her apartment, ranging in genres and price points. However, the majority of books will fall in the $5-$7 range.

Now, customers will be able to find a comfy seat nestled within Jones’ eclectic assortment of art and furniture with a delicious drink in one hand, and a good read in the other.

“It's a launchpad for their book business, to try to get that off the ground in a way that other places have allowed us to get our business off the ground by carrying our products,” Jones said.

It will also provide plenty of inspiration for fun events, like drink and book pairings, along with blind book dates.

Customers will be able to walk up and place and order at the bar, where she will have a variety of flavors on deck. But for those who aren’t cold brew lovers, Jones will also have hot coffee options, such as a French press “experience” where the French press is delivered on a tray with a timer set, so the customer is able to brew it themselves. She will be sourcing her coffee from Pensacola’s De Luna Coffee International and other regional roasters.

Supporting other local businesses continued to be at the forefront of her mind, as she has a local baker crafting cake pops that will top her signature lattes, and Sweet Jackson Tea and Big Jerk Soda stocking her to-go fridge.

Mrs. Jones' early beginnings

It has been a long journey for Jones, who started out by dropping off bottles of her elixir to local businesses for free to get her name out, and now has it stocked in over 20 retailers across the Panhandle. She has sold over 12,000 bottles to date, amounting to about 100,000 cups of cold brew. At Palafox Market alone, she sold over 7,500 crafted cold brew beverages.

How Mrs. Jones came to be: Mrs. Jones and her cold brew coffee look to conquer Pensacola

But having a comfortable, specialty cold brew bar was always her end-goal and reason to keep grinding.

Even though customers will now be able to get a signature drink on-site, she still encourages her customers to recreate the drinks and home and will even educate how to make it on the spot.

“We're doing some crazy things and then we're going to do (coffee) flights. That's kind of a work in progress right now. One of them will be a nitro flight, and one of them will be a fancy flight with those same specialty drinks,” Jones said.

Follow the Mrs. Jones Cold Brew Facebook page for more updates and information.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Mrs. Jones Cold Brew opens brick and mortar cold brew bar, bookstore