Aquach Cold Brew Coffee Maker In-depth Review
Overall Verdict
The Aquach cold brew coffee maker is a beautifully designed product. The appearance of the decanter, the quality of the silicone seals, and air tightness are great. The super-fine laser-cut filter looks impressive but shows its flaws in practice. It seems the design doesn’t allow for enough permeability to produce a brew that’s both strong and complex. The Aquach may not be the brewer for a connoisseur, but we still appreciate its style and versatility.
Things We Like
- Stylish decanter
- Lid design
- Decanter handle
- High-quality filter
- No plastic parts
Things We Don’t Like
- Poor brew quality
The Aquach is a stylish cold brew coffee maker with minimal plastic parts. It’s made from borosilicate glass with a stainless steel laser-cut filter. The brewer also has an airtight and dust-proof lid. Aquach units come in 34 oz, 51oz, and 68 oz pitcher sizes. We tested the 34 oz version. It’s quite similar to other cold coffee brewers, but read our hands-on review below to see how it ranked.
7.2 Brew Quality
As with any immersion filter brewer, the filter needs to be permeable enough to infuse sufficient flavor into the brew while keeping sediment contained. Unfortunately, the Aquach didn’t quite succeed here as our test results revealed it failed to produce a strong brew and it lacked a complex flavor. The brew ratio is also not the best.
7.0 Bouquet
When testing the bouquet, we noted that the steel decanter lip provided the perfect chamber for sampling the coffee’s aroma. The concentrate had an understandably medium-strength bouquet. Notes were not harsh or even roasted. Instead, we detected a light chocolatey note with a sweetish overtone.
7.0 Drinkability
The final drink, diluted at a one-to-one ratio, was comparatively weak. That’s not to say that it was unsatisfying. It lacked a complex body, but had a sweet overtone. Without dilution, a roasted and nutty flavor came through, but still, the aftertaste was not so rounded.
If you prefer a weaker brew with a milder taste, the drinkability of the Aquach is not bad at all. The brew ratio would suggest the coffee should be drunk as it is and not diluted. You could brew using the hot blooming method, brew at room temperature and for a longer time, or add flavor enhancers for a more robust drink.
8.0 Sediment
The Aquach, with its super-fine filter, produced little sediment with only fine granules. Although it didn’t measure up to our leading brewer with a bottom tap filter, it was pretty comparable. For an immersion filter, however, this suggested a lack of permeability contributing to a weak brew.
9.2 Design
The Aquach has one of the most aesthetically pleasing and practical designs for an immersion cold coffee brewer. There’s very little not to like about it and the materials are first rate. However, the filter, as we suspected and our tests revealed, is not the best design for a high-quality cold brew experience.
In the Box
- Fully assembled unit
- Brew guide & manual leaflet
The Aquach comes in a nice box with key parts labeled on the side.The box is double layered, but we felt the decanter was a little overpackaged with three layers of plastic bubble wrap. The brew guide and manual were inside the decanter, and there were instructions for brewing tea as well as cold brew coffee.
Decanter
One way in which a cold brew coffee maker can distinguish itself is with a stylish decanter. Aquach does pretty well here. On the side is a measurement scale in milliliters and cups. The base, however, is a little wide, so it may not fit some fridge doors.
The flattish handle is very nice to grip, and the stainless steel lip and stopper are also very pleasing. Although the black silicone seal looks like any others, it’s better quality than we’ve seen on most brewers.
10 Stopper / Lid
The nice thing about this brew decanter is the filter which simply lifts out of the container and its resting base remains as it is. This means there’s little difference in how the stopper fits with or without the filter present. The silicone seal is better quality than what we’ve seen on other brewers.
8.0 Filter
The Aquach filter design is quite unique. For one, the filter has a convenient handle. It rests on the stainless steel lip so you can simply lift it up. The filter is smooth with no sharp edges. There are also holes on the bottom of the filter.
What surprised us, however, is how finely it filters. The tiny laser-cut holes are arranged in small rectangles. Our brew tests showed that the high quality filter design was a little too fine to allow a good brew to develop.
10 Build Quality
The Aquatch Cold Brew Coffee Maker is a really well-designed product. It looks very stylish, the handle is easy to grip, and the filter design is practical. The stainless steel lip and lid work well together and the silicone seals are of good quality too. We also loved that there are no plastic parts except for the knob on the lid. However, as our tests revealed, the fundamental flaw comes from the actual design of the filter rather than the overall quality of the build.
9.0 Ease of Use
Because of its practical design, the Aquach is one of the easiest cold brew coffee makers to use. Not only that, but the hole at the bottom of the filter makes it easy to drain all remaining brew. For the most part, cleaning is also effortless.
9.0 Brewing
The brew filter takes around 80 g of coarse-ground coffee (14-16 tablespoons). We had to weigh the grounds, but they filled the filter to about an inch from the top. First, however, you should fill the decanter with water to the 600 ml mark — a third of the way up. Then, you insert the filter filled with grounds and continue pouring water until the water rises to the ‘Max’ marking.
We found it best to pour slowly and to leave the filter handle up until the pour is complete. The base of the brew decanter may be a little wide for some refrigerator doors, but it fits well in a standard crisper box or on a roomier shelf.
9.0 Decanting
As with any immersion filter brewer, decanting is as simple as removing the filter. The Aquach brewer has a really comfortable design. The high-grade stainless steel filter has a little flip-up handle so you can pull it out.
Not all immersion filters have holes on the bottom. We found this design quite favorable to brewing and faster at decanting. After decanting, you should rinse any grounds from the filter lip before inserting it again with the stopper.
9.0 Cleaning and Storage
The Aquach has a total of six parts. Including two silicone seals. The filter was a little long for hand cleaning, so we recommend a non-abrasive bottle brush. Because the filter is very fine, you’ll periodically need to descale it. This you can do by soaking it in a solution of water and baking soda, vinegar, or citric acid.
For the decanter, we were able to reach inside and hand wash it comfortably. However, all parts except the silicone seals can go in the dishwasher. It stores fully assembled, but check the complete dimensions to make sure you have space for it.