Coffee Rush Great at 3 or 4 Players, Not at 2

Coffee Rush was one of my most anticipated games – I originally saw it demoed at an event sponsored by Asmodee Canada and Lion Rampant Imports last year, and was instantly mesmerized by the interesting looking gameplay, but mostly the fantastic production of the game. Fantastic components only gets you so far, though, so let’s take a look at the game itself and whether it deserves a spot on your shelf!

Coffee Rush can be played at 2-4 players, and I’ve had the pleasure of playing it over a dozen times at different player counts. In Coffee Rush, players will be moving their meeple(s) around a central board collecting ingredients so they can fulfill drink orders.

At the beginning, players are limited to one resource per space the land on (moving 1-3), and their movement is limited to up and down, left and right. Upgrades are available throughout the game which will double some resource spaces and allow players to move diagonally.

There are also more rare resources on the board that only have one location, spread into the far reaches of the board. Moving around strategically takes a bit of work, and this is where I loved Coffee Rush as a 3 or 4 player game.

See, you have ot prioritize the drinks you get, because anytime someone else finishes a drink or more, you are required to take that many new drinks and put them in your level 1 space. As the complete your turns, any drink not completed shifts down to level 2, and 3, and finally 4. Any drink that doesn’t get completed within those 4 levels comes off the board and scores you negative points.

With only three cups to work with in Coffee Rush, prioritizing specific drinks is key to winning, and there is a lot more strategy here than I would have thought. Deciding where you want to go on the board so you can complete drinks is important, yes, but being in a good spot for your next turn is equally as important. Since there are only single spaces for some resources, which are on opposite sides of the board, it can be difficult to make everything work.

The biggest draw to Coffee Rush in my opinion is how easy it is to play and teach. It only takes a few minutes to setup and even less time to let people know how to play. The richness of the game comes in the strategic decisions that you will need to make.

While younger players can play this game, my nine year old son Lochlan struggled with some of the deeper decisions that needed to be made to attempt and maximize his score. Still, the game runs fast enough at 3 or 4 players that even if you do get beat pretty bad, it wasn’t a ton of time wasted, and playing with the great components and creating drinks is still really fun!

And Coffee Rush excels in the components department. The wooden meeples are fantastic, but the creme-de-la-creme of this experience is the coffee cups and ingredients. The little plastic cups are very cute, and filling them up with pieces of chocolate bars, coffee beans, tea leaves, and more is a lot of fun, and very immersive.

You are making the drinks after all, so it should feel that way! All of the components in Coffee Rush, despite being plastic, are fantastic. And this has a GREAT table presence, that will definitely have people looking over to see what you are playing.

Throughout this review I’ve referenced 3 to 4 player games positively. A 2-Player game, in my opinion, is not the way to go in Coffee Rush. You get two meeples to use instead of 1, which takes away a lot of the tough decision space as you can easily put one meeple on one side of the board and one on the other. I also felt there was almost no risk in losing drinks off the end of your board, and rarely had something move into level 4, and never had anything off the board. I think it’s playable at 2, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Overall, Coffee Rush is a very enjoyable experience that doesn’t take up a lot of room, but has a phenomenal table presence. The decisions you make are key to how well you will make your drinks, and I really enjoyed that. This is a great little gateway game that should be popular in 2024.

Trailer