If you don’t follow new coffee maker releases and product descriptions the way I do, first of all, congratulations. You’re probably using your time wisely. But you may have missed the sudden influx to the market of coffee and espresso machines that now claim they can make cold brew or iced coffee in just a minute or two. I’ve tested a lot of those machines from brands like Ninja, Bosch, and De’Longhi over the last year, and whatever the machines’ virtues brewing hot coffee, the results of the cold brew have been…not great. That’s because if you want to make good cold coffee, you can’t just tweak the process around the edges, which is what a lot of these machines that make “cold brew” do. From what I’ve been able to tell, they make fairly modest adjustments to water temperature and pressure, and that just isn’t enough to get the job done. Cold brew is a fundamentally different brewing process, and if you want to shortcut the hours and hours it typically takes you too make it, you need a fundamentally different process too. That’s what the Cumulus cold coffee machine tries to do.
What is the Cumulus cold coffee machine?
The slim machine, which reminded me a bit of a giant Nespresso brewer in its sleek simplicity, comes from former head of Starbucks Innovation Mesh Gelman. The idea for a quick-brewing cold coffee maker took shape for Gelman when he saw data during his time at Starbucks that said 75% of all Starbucks orders were actually for cold coffee. The fact that the only fast way to get a cup of cold brew was to actually go to a coffee shop and order one, suggested to him that there was a pent up demand for cold coffee at home and he set about developing the Cumulus. The machine itself is a single-serve coffee maker that uses recyclable aluminum capsules currently available in several dark and medium roasts.
How does the Cumulus cold coffee machine work?
Unlike any capsule machine I’ve used, the Cumulus doesn’t use ground coffee in its capsules. Instead they are filled with a super concentrated liquid. I got to pop open a capsule and taste what was inside and, if you’ve ever eaten chocolate labeled as 100% cacao, expecting it to taste at all like a processed candy bar, that was my level of shock when trying it. The capsule liquid was bitter bordering on undrinkable, and it had little resemblance to the final drinks that come out of the Cumulus.
When you push the only button on the Cumulus, it begins the process of reconstituting the concentrate in the capsule, which takes about 75 seconds. Unlike most automatic coffee machines with cold brew or iced coffee settings, which use water that’s close to room temperature, the Cumulus uses cold water that it chills with a compressor. That means that when the coffee hits your cup, it is actually, well, cold; no ice required, meaning you don’t need to water down your drinks. I found the flavors of both Cumulus’s dark and medium roast coffees to be a bridge between the incredibly smooth, chocolaty taste I get with immersion cold brew and the fruity taste of a good espresso shot.
The Cumulus’s real secret sauce, though, is in the texture of its coffee. The machine has three settings that you set with the twist of a dial: still, nitro, and espresso. The still setting produces a thin tan cap on top of the coffee that sort of resembles crema on espresso. What I tasted from the espresso setting was a creamier, more concentrated version of what I got from the still one. It worked well topped with cold foam (and would probably make a great espresso martini, though I haven’t tried it yet). The nitro setting makes a smooth, thick cup of coffee that comes close to what I’d expect if I ordered nitro coffee on tap at a coffee shop. The actual process the Cumulus uses is proprietary, but it uses ambient air, which is 79% nitrogen, to do its thing. Gelman said he wanted to avoid a soda maker situation where users were constantly having to swap out a gas tank in order to use his machine, so it just uses ambient air.
Other features of the Cumulus cold coffee machine
Between the single button for making coffee and the huge dial for switching between still, nitro, and espresso, it is an incredibly user-friendly machine. It’s also very clean. After the Cumulus finishes dispensing coffee, it vacuums out whatever is left in the aluminum capsule so the capsule comes out clean and ready to toss in the recycling bin.
And, despite significant machinery, like the compressor, it was thoughtfully designed to fit comfortably in most kitchens. It has a front-loading water tank that’s easier to access than almost any single-serve coffee maker. It’s also almost exactly the proper height to fit under a standard kitchen cabinet (cabinets are typically 18" above the counter; the Cumulus is 16" tall), and on a standard countertop (counters are typically 24" deep; the Cumulus is 19" deep), and at only 6" wide, it doesn’t feel like a space hog.
What I didn’t love about the Cumulus cold coffee machine
There is no way to adjust the size of the Cumulus drinks. Regular cold coffee and nitro coffee are both 10 oz., whereas espresso is 2 oz. I didn’t find that too much of a limitation, but it does mean that if your preferred coffee cup is a six- or an eight-ouncer, it will overflow. If you don’t use it every day and it goes to sleep for an extended period, you will also need to wait 10–15 minutes for the compressor to cool down the water. Again, that’s not a major drawback, but in a world with Nespresso and Breville espresso machines that are always ready in seconds, it’s something to be aware of. Finally, because it is so new, the only place you can access Cumulus capsules is on the Cumulus website itself. That may change in the future as the company grows, but unlike Nespresso capsules or K-Cup pods, you can’t just pick them up at the grocery or kitchen store right now.
Is the Cumulus cold coffee machine worth it?
At $700, it costs as much as a good entry-level espresso maker and more than triple what a Nespresso machine costs. But it also does something entirely different than either of them. If you are part of the 75% of the Starbucks crowd ordering cold coffee every day, the Cumulus will pay for itself within the first year. It also makes better cold coffee than any of the other automatic machines I’ve tried so far that claim to have a cold-brew setting.