Bloomberg Businessweek USA - 02.09.2019

7

N

Nitrogen

8

O

Oxygen

23

◼ Nitrogen $0.10 / kg 99.99% Grade B liquid

◼ Oxygen $0.17 / kg 99.6% Grade A liquid

◼ Fluorine $1,528 / kg Swix high-fluoro wax

Bloomberg Businessweek / SEPTEMBER 2, 2019 THE ELEMENTS

COFFEE: GETTY IMAGES. SKIING: JAKE STANGEL

I

became a real cross-country skier a decade ago, on the

eve of a big race. I stood before the register at my local

ski shop, coveting a matchbook-size, yellow sliver of ski wax

priced at $5 a gram, feeling my pulse race, my fingers quaver-

ing as I thrilled over the glory and speed this little wafer of

magic could bring once I ironed it into the base of my skis. I

laid down a hundred bucks for that wax, and I’m almost cer-

tain I covered 50 kilometers a few minutes faster thanks to it.

How could I not have? Fluorinated ski wax is so eerily effec-

tive that, in describing it, fellow skiers at times drift toward

the rhetoric of religion. “It’s the most joyous thing I’ve ever

experienced,” Andrew Gardner, until recently the head coach

of Nordic skiing at Middlebury College, says of gliding on

fluorinated boards. “It’s so completely unnatural.”

The fastest fluoro wax contains a synthetic fluorine-based

compound—perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, which boasts

eight fully fluorinated carbon molecules in its long back-

bone. The compound’s star is fluorine. This element forms

By Bill Donahue Fluorinated wax makes skis move

faster. But its harmful effects on

the environment have made it an

outlaw in Europe—and, maybe

soon, in the U.S.

9

F

Fluorine

By Kate Krader

There’s not much that can

change how you make a cup

of coffee, pumpkin spice

notwithstanding. Beans are

roasted, ground, and then

steeped in water with or

without pressure. But in

recent years, there’s been a

major update to your basic

cup of joe: pumping odorless

nitrogen gas into brewed

coffee to add frothiness and

the tiniest hint of sweet-

ness. A good nitro cold brew

will look like an inviting beer,

with a soft, foamy top. Since

the first one flowed from

an Austin tap around 2012,

according to the most popu-

lar origin story, it’s become

a staple forcoffeeheads

and a driver in the $4.1 bil-

lion ready-to-drink coffee

category.

Stumptown Coffee

Roasters Inc., the Portland,

Ore.-based national chain,

first offered cans of nitro

brew in 2015 after experi-

menting with draft versions.

With sales of about 2mil-

lion cans a year, it’s the

company’sfastest-growing

product. Early on, says head

brewer Brent Wolczynski,

“the process was very DIY.

We would put cold brew in a

keg, hit it with nitrogen at a

really high pressure, and just

shake it around.”

Now the process is the

equivalent of a marvelous

science experiment: Each

can is equipped with a small

plastic widget that encloses

the nitrogen. Cracking open

the can exposes the brew

to atmospheric pressure,

pushing the nitrogen out

and through the coffee. The

result is a cascade of tiny

bubbles as you pour.

La Colombe Coffee

Roasters, another premier

brand, includes nitrogen’s

periodic table mate, oxygen,

in its version. The draft latte

is made with nitrous oxide

(N 2 O), a compound more

famously known as laugh-

ing gas, that’s also used to

animate canned whipped

cream. A customized valve

delivers the kind of foam

typically found in a hot latte

into the cold beverage. N 2 O

bubbles last longer than

nitro’s and create an extra-

creamy texture with a more

pronounced sweetness.

La Colombe has even pat-

ented its can.

Another big name in

coffee, Starbucks Corp.,

has announced that its

nitro cold brew will be sold

on tap nationwide by year-

end. No surprise, it will

be available in several fla-

vors and finishes, like one

with a “cascara cold foam”

and another with “sweet

cream.” There’ll even be a

pumpkin cream cold brew.

NITRO

POUR

Wax

Panic