Starbucks is launching a gourmet drink

Fact of the day: Starbucks is launching a gourmet drink you've never heard of — here's what you need to know 

Starbucks is ready to win over coffee snobs with two new cold beverages this summer.

The chain will begin to roll out its Nitro Cold Brew, a beverage that infuses Starbucks cold brew with nitrogen to create a cold, creamy coffee with a texture similar to a dark beer, like Guinness.

"What makes nitrogen so different than CO2 is that the bubbles are so small," Starbucks' coffee education specialist Mackenzie Karr told Business Insider. "It's kind of this foamy, creamy flavor without adding anything to it — it's super textural."

"We wanted it to be an experiential beverage," says Karr. "We wanted to highlight that our baristas are hand crafting this beverage in our stores every day."

Nitro Cold Brew will be available at more than 500 Starbucks locations in major cities including Seattle, Portland, New York, Chicago, and Boston this summer.

The launch of Nitro Cold Brew, and the Cold Bar more broadly, represent a continuation of Starbucks' campaign to double down on coffee-snob approved offerings all year round. Beverages such as the Flat White and the Latte Macchiato similarly draw from what Starbucks calls "coffee-forward" beverages with roots in craft coffee shop culture.

The launch of cold brew in 2015 signaled that Starbucks would be expanding its appeal to coffee snobs to cold beverages.

Starbucks is perfecting the balancing act of marketing itself as an authentic, high-quality coffee chain, while simultaneously selling endless super-sweet treats, like the Frappuccino.