This little puppy was a big surprise. Dash’s portable rapid cold brew device is among the many contenders that use pressure or agitation to speed up the classic, slow, many-hour process of making smooth, refreshing cold brew coffee. I had little confidence Dash would succeed where others failed.
And yet, here we are: This truly weird little device makes shockingly good 15-minute cold brew. There are a lot of parts, and it makes just one drinking-strength cup. But the results are admirably smooth, low in acidity, and free of the tannic bitterness that afflicts most quick cold brews. Basically, you put 8 to 12 ounces of water in the reservoir, fill up the little filter basket that drops into the device, then attach an additional tube and rechargeable vacuum device that buzzes like a vibrator. The Brew2Go will then create a vacuum to siphon coffee and release it, over and over, in a principle similar to the VacOne air brewer WIRED received positively a few years ago. You’ll see this visually as liquid is sucked up the vacuum tube then released back to the carafe. It’s wild to watch.
If you stick to 8 ounces of water, you can then rapidly cool the water with ice from room temp to chill and still have about 10 ounces of drinking-strength cold brew. The results are a little turbid: Some coffee fines get through the filter. But if you’re drinking immediately, this isn’t a problem. It’s mild, and quite pleasant—not as subtle or aromatic as the kind that takes 12 hours, but as good as most packaged cold brew.