Cold beverages have become an increasingly prominent part of coffee culture, but NitroPress founder Jack Hatfield sees a gap between what consumers are drinking and the appliances available to make those beverages at home.
That gap is where he and Hatfields, the London-based company behind NitroPress, are looking to make their mark.
Hatfield worked in engineering, including a position at McLaren Automotive, before starting Hatfields in 2018. He and a fellow engineer developed NitroPress to bring the nitro beverage experience into the home, with the goal of creating a new category of beverage appliance rather than another take on a traditional coffee machine.
The original NitroPress used single-use nitrogen cartridges and found an online audience, including in the U.S., where it was sold primarily on Amazon. As the company built a D2C following, it also began hearing from consumers about the expense and waste associated with the cartridges.
The feedback sent Hatfield and his team back to the drawing board.
“We put our heads together and we’re like, ‘Okay, there must be a better way to do this. Can we build a device that uses zero cartridges to deliver the same result?'” Hatfield said.
The resulting cartridge-free NitroPress DS was introduced on Kickstarter in 2023 with a single prototype. The campaign generated nearly $1 million in preorders from some 2,300 backers, according to Hatfield. Unlike a coffee maker, NitroPress doesn’t brew the beverage itself. Users fill the canister with an already-prepared beverage, which the machine then forces through a fine nozzle under pressure, infusing it with air, which is about 78% nitrogen. The process creates fine bubbles, a creamy texture and the cascading effect associated with nitro beverages without requiring the nitrogen cartridges used by the original NitroPress.
“There was all this pent-up demand for the product that didn’t exist,” Hatfield said. “Suddenly we filled that hole and boom, we’re off.”
Hatfields then spent about 18 months developing its supply chain, conducting quality control and preparing the product for production before fulfilling the initial orders.
The process reflects Hatfield’s engineering-first approach to building the company. The current machine is roughly the 15th iteration, he said, while the first 14 never made it into the public eye.
After several years focused largely on D2C, Hatfields is now working to build its presence in U.S. retail.
The company offers the $399 NitroPress DS for home use and the $499 NitroPress Pro for commercial applications. Both feature die-cast aluminum and stainless steel construction and are positioned at the premium end of the market.
Jack Hatfield, founder of NitroPress
NitroPress DS
Hatfield said the premium positioning is intentional as the company works to establish the nitro beverage appliance category at retail.
Jim Pabst, general manager of North America for Hatfields, is leading the U.S. expansion. The company has established a distribution center in Indiana and is targeting independent kitchen and appliance stores and premium national retailers as it builds out its omnichannel business.
NitroPress also recently went live on Zola, a platform Pabst said aligns with the younger consumer demographic the company is targeting.
That consumer is increasingly reaching for cold beverages, according to Hatfield, who pointed to the growing share of cold beverage sales at major coffee chains. Millennials are currently a key demographic for NitroPress, while the company sees an opportunity with Gen Z as those consumers age into homeownership, wedding registries and greater purchasing power.
“There is demand, but the gap’s just there in retail,” Hatfield said.
Hatfields is looking to bring that cold-beverage shift into the home, positioning NitroPress as an alternative to the hot-beverage appliances that have traditionally dominated the category.
The product also extends beyond coffee. NitroPress can be used to make nitro cold brew, matcha, cocktails, wellness drinks and other cold beverages, giving retailers an opportunity to merchandise it across several growing beverage occasions.
Pabst said the company’s early conversations with retailers have been positive, particularly as merchants consider how to expand beverage assortments that remain heavily weighted toward hot coffee appliances.
“When the teams walk in and I’m doing my presentation, most everyone that walks in that conference room has an iced coffee in their hand,” Pabst said.
For Pabst, those meetings illustrate the shift already taking place among consumers and an opportunity for retailers to drive sales in the cold beverage category.
Physical retail also gives Hatfields an opportunity to demonstrate NitroPress and explain a product that may be unfamiliar to consumers. Pabst said the company is being selective about its early retail partners, focusing on stores that can display the product, demonstrate how it works and communicate its cartridge-free design and range of uses.
“Once people know about NitroPress, when it comes to cold beverages, the market’s already there,” Pabst said, adding that the company’s focus is on making NitroPress accessible to retailers and, in turn, their consumers.
As Hatfields expands its U.S. retail presence, the company is also looking beyond its current NitroPress lineup.
Hatfield sees two paths for future growth: building out the nitro category with products ranging from commercial applications to potentially more accessible mass-market offerings, and applying the company’s engineering background to adjacent beverage categories.
CarboPress
CarboPress, the company’s sparkling water maker, is the next step in that expansion. Longer term, Hatfield said the company could move into additional beverage categories, including espresso.
“There are two kinds of arcs with the future of the business,” Hatfield said. “Arc one is depth in the nitro category. This is what we really want to be known for.”
The second is to use the company’s engineering experience to innovate in adjacent categories, with Hatfields serving as the broader brand for NitroPress, CarboPress and future products.
In the near term, the company is focused on building its premium U.S. retail infrastructure ahead of The Inspired Home Show in March 2027. Pabst said Hatfields plans to have a full display at the show, which he called a key milestone for the company’s retail expansion.
For Hatfield, the larger goal is to establish NitroPress as the defining product in a category he believes is only beginning to develop at retail.
