This Machine Is Dedicated To Making Cold Brew Coffee. But Are You?

Forbes

31-03-2025

A cold brew coffee machine for your kitchen
Cumulus Coffee
When Cumulus Coffee invited me to review its countertop cold coffee maker, I was intrigued. Had never seen a machine before dedicated to making cold coffee. Now you may be thinking what I was pondering: Why would I need this? After all, can't I just make a regular old cup of coffee and pour it over ice?
The answer is, of course you can. But I wanted to see if this coffee tastes different. After it arrived, I set it up in our kitchen. It honestly takes about a half-hour to get it from the box to the point it's ready to brew. Not only do you have to run an empty cleaning cycle, but then you need to give the machine 15 minutes to cool down the water to make your cold coffee.
It kind of looks like a tall and slender Keurig machine, with a streamlined silhouette and typical finish for a coffee maker of this type. But it looks nice on the counter and may even make a cool conversation piece. The control buttons are pretty easy and straightforward to navigate. It can make three types of drinks: still, nitro cold brew (which feels like a carbonated coffee) and cold espresso. Mine came with a starter pack of 16 pods. And yes, they not only look unique and very unlike a typical K-cup or Nespresso capsule but they are also the only thing you can use with the machine. So there's unfortunately no buying your own coffee and filling up an empty pod cartridge.
Regardless, once the machine is ready, you just slip the pod into the slot up top, press down the top lever, and dial your drink preference. There's no size selection. And then you press the start button. In 43 seconds, you have a cup of cold coffee – no need to add ice. It is nice and cold. All the while, the machine operates fairly quietly.
I tried the nitro first, and I was pleasantly surprised how creamy it made the coffee. There was a quarter-inch thick head on my cup, which was kind of cool. Next I made a cold espresso, which came out nice and what seemed like a little bit thicker tasting – which is great. It also had some crema up top. Finally I made a glass of still – which they also simply refer to as cold brew – and it came out with a nice texture, too. The foam was not as thick as the nitro.
Know up front that my preferred coffee is a dark roast from Starbucks, or the espresso roast from Trader Joe's. I mention this because I'm not a fan of flavored coffee, so my palette for exploring new blends and roasts is kind of thin. Thus I wasn't a huge fan of the coffee in this starter pack. It's not that it didn't taste good – the ones I tried were nice, rich and full-bodied – but I'm just not used to coffee with hints of chocolate and other flavors in it. Thus, I wish Cumulus would come out with a cartridge system that you could use your own coffee in.
My other issue is that when I do make iced coffee, I just as mentioned above pour regular coffee and sometimes extra-strong coffee over ice. No need to have an extra machine on my counter for that. Especially because every time you power on the machine, you do have to wait several minutes for the water to cool down.
But Cumulus does exactly what it promises, and it does it well. So if iced coffee is solely your thing, and you don't currently own a machine, maybe this would be a decent consideration.