The Nitro Bar, which is known for its fun latte flavors and signature thick whip, popped up in N.Y.C. with Reese’s on Sept. 14 and 15
Credit: Reese’s X The Nitro Bar; The Nitro Bar/Instagram
NEED TO KNOW
- The Nitro Bar started as a hand-built coffee cart in 2016 and now has three Rhode Island locations and an N.Y.C. pop-up with Reese’s
- Co-founder Audrey Finocchiaro tells PEOPLE how the brand develops its viral drinks, including its signature thick whip
- The brand collaborated with Reese’s to create the Reese’s Pumpkins PB Whip Latte
In 2016, Audrey Finocchiaro and Sam Lancaster maxed out a credit card building a coffee cart in Finocchiaro’s parents’ basement.
10 years later, the founders served hundreds of lattes out of a shiny orange truck with the name of their viral coffee shop, The Nitro Bar, printed across for their first pop-up in New York City.
Finocchiaro tells PEOPLE how the quality of the brand’s coffee took them from that “really s—-y coffee cart” to a Reese’s collaboration, three stores in Rhode Island and a New York City pop-up (with a full location coming in 2027).
Finocchiaro jokes that she has “no idea” how the brand, which has over 220,000 followers on Instagram, has gone so viral. “I’m always like, how the f— did this happen?” she says.
However, the co-founder says part of the brand’s success likely has to do with the shop’s curated quality.
“I think that people are excited to see coffee done in a way that is using good coffee, using local milk, and also using fun syrups that we make in house,” she says. “I think a lot of the times it’s difficult to find all three of those things.”
In addition to its fun flavors like black raspberry and banana, The Nitro Bar is known for its thick whip, which is piped on top of its iced drinks.
Credit: Reese’s X The Nitro Bar
Finocchiaro says that a coffee shop in New York City initially inspired the whip. She and her team workshopped it for six months, she says, before landing on a recipe they were “obsessed with” that has since “taken off.”
The co-founder says the company looks at how it can do things “a bit differently and use real ingredients and not do it in this artificial way that I think so many people are used to.”
She says the whole Nitro Bar team, from her co-founder to her husband to their pastry team, is involved in recipe development.
She adds that in addition to the high-quality offerings of the shop, the brand “showing up online authentically and being ourselves” helps its popularity.
Finocchiaro is often featured on the brand’s Instagram, making seasonal drinks and showing off food offerings at the shop’s various locations. She says it’s a “balancing act” but that she gets a lot of help from her marketing team.
Following its viral success, The Nitro Bar partnered with Reese’s to create the Reese’s Pumpkins PB Whip Latte.
Finocchiaro says when Reese’s, her “absolute favorite Halloween candy” reached out to collaborate, her “jaw [was] on the floor.”
“We’ve been dying to do a peanut butter and chocolate moment, so this just felt like the perfect time to do it,” she adds. “We’ve been testing and trialing, and we finally got this amazing peanut butter sauce with this chocolate. And then we were like, we got to do the double layer whip with chocolate and peanut butter.”
Hershey Company representative Vivek Mehrotra tells PEOPLE Reese’s was involved in taste testing the drink along the way, with its food scientists helping to find the “perfect sweet spot” between “Reese’s Pumpkins and [Nitro Bar’s] infamous whipped latte” to “usher in the season” of Halloween.
Credit: The Nitro Bar/Instagram
PEOPLE had a first taste of the Reese’s Pumpkins PB Whip Latte and found it to be the perfect blend of Reese’s flavors and smooth notes of coffee. In particular, the thick whip piped across the top of the drink tasted just like a Reese’s and melted satisfyingly into the drink over time.
The Nitro Bar is hosting a pop-up in New York City on Sept. 14 and 15, serving 1,000 free Reese’s Pumpkins PB Whip Lattes a day before launching the drink at all Nitro Bar locations from Sept. 18 to Sept. 20, per a press release shared with PEOPLE.
The brand shared on its Instagram that the lattes sold out in two hours on Sept. 14.
“You have no idea how much today meant to us. thank you for always being there. we are constantly in awe of all of you,” the brand wrote in its caption.
The Nitro Bar is widely known online in part because of the influencers that frequent its locations.
Brigette McHale, known online as Acquired Style, recently celebrated her post-wedding breakfast at the shop.
Finocchiaro says McHale, who she’s been friends with for several years, was one of the first influencers to frequent The Nitro Bar.
“[She] was always so kind and supportive to us,” she says.
After chatting about how they could work together for McHale’s wedding, which took place in Newport, R.I., Finocchiaro says they decided, “Let’s host a whole damn breakfast.”
“It was so fun,” she says. “All of her friends and community [were] so kind and lovely, so it was such a great opportunity.”
Looking forward, the co-founder shares, “We’re so excited to open up in New York City,” adding that the store will hopefully be open in the next six months.
Of the new store’s address, she says, “We’re not really saying it yet because we’re trying to keep it a secret, but we have a spot and I’m obsessed with it. Every time I’m here I walk by so secretively.”
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