Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
“It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
That old adage, often spoken in jest with a hapless shrug of the shoulders, speaks to a day that begins like any other day where one ill-fated decision causes everything to fall apart, a veritable misplaced pebble cascading into an avalanche. That cold, bleak, wintry Sunday morning at the cafe was just such a day.
I’d arrived early to open the cafe for the day and my three employees had shown up soon thereafter. It was a Sunday, so expectations were very low. We typically didn’t get much traffic and, usually, I’d have to start sending people home early to save on labor costs. But, you never know how things are going to go. So, you’ve always got to be prepared.
About an hour after opening, a young man walked in with a camera in one hand and a trophy in the other. Upon stepping to the counter, he asked to speak with me, and the story he told me was so unusual that I will never forget it. His name was Ty and he was a Youtuber with a following in the millions. His passion was traveling to various, random cities, visiting their local establishments, and providing them with exposure on his channel. On this particular day, his mission was to see who could prepare him the costliest item, which he’d pay for. Then, whoever had managed to make the costliest item, he’d award them with $1,000 in cash and the trophy he’d brought in with him.
“Why not?” I thought. It was a pretty slow day, and I figured if we won, I’d split the $1,000 amongst my employees. So, I readily agreed, and we got to work. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Spoilers: it was a terrible idea. While we were busy trying to concoct the most ungodly coffee-based abomination known to man, customers began showing up. Then more customers began showing up. A line began forming inside. Cars began piling into the drivethrough. I had to ask myself whether things would have gotten so out of hand if we hadn’t spent so much time on just one single order.
We were in the middle of a genuine coffee rush, and there was no end in sight.
Overview
In the game of Coffee Rush, players take on the roles of baristas caught in the middle of a busy day at the cafe. On a player’s turn, they will be tasked with taking new orders, collecting ingredients, and trying to finish their existing orders in a timely fashion so their customers don’t get angry and leave them bad reviews. Orders completed in a timely fashion lead to high ratings while orders that take too long lead to negative ratings. At the end of the day, the player with the highest overall rating wins.
Of course, this is a gross oversimplification of how Coffee Rush is played. If you’re just interested in knowing what I think about the game, feel free to skip ahead to the Thoughts section. Otherwise, read on as we learn how to play Coffee Rush.
Setup
The action in Coffee Rush centers around two areas: the central Ingredients board and each player’s Player board. During setup, each player chooses a color and receives the Player board, the Upgrade tiles, and the meeples of their chosen color. The Upgrade tiles are placed deactivated side up. Players also receive three of the tiny, plastic cups. Then, each player takes turns placing their meeple onto the Ingredients board, receiving the ingredient they covered up, and adding the ingredient to one of their cups. The ingredient they choose to begin the game with will largely be driven by the demands of their starting Order cards.
Coffee Rush includes a deck of 80 Order cards. A number of these will have been dealt out to the players during setup, where they will be placed face up next to the 1 and 2 Order tabs (more on this later). Each Order card contains several pieces of information: the name of the beverage, an illustration, a list of ingredients needed, and a “Specialty Menu” banner (if the drink qualifies, more on this later as well). The other ingredients—the trays that hold the various ingredients and the Rush tokens—are placed off to the side within easy reach.
After selecting a start player, they are given the Starting Player token, which is set to the ‘Open’ side. Now, you’re ready to play Coffee Rush.
How to Play
A game of Coffee Rush is played in turns until the deck of cards runs out at which point, players continue the round until it would be the starting player’s turn again. Then, the points are tallied to determine the winner. Each turn is divided into several steps: Activate Upgrades, Move, Pour Ingredients, Process Order, and Turn End. The last two steps are broken down into several phases which we’ll discuss momentarily.
At the start of a player’s turn, if they have three orders which they’ve successfully completed, they may discard those completed orders to turn one of their Upgrade tiles to its activated side. They will gain its benefits immediately, and the tile will be worth two points at the end of the game. These Upgrade tiles change the way the players can move their meeples during the Move step as well as how many ingredients they collect. If they have six completed orders, they can activate two tiles. Nine orders would allow them to upgrade three, and so on. It’s important to note here that every single completed order will earn the player a point at the end of the game, so each Upgrade tile is costing the player a point whenever they choose to activate it.
After activating their Upgrade tiles (or not), the player will then move their meeple up to three steps on the Ingredients board. For each Ingredient a meeple passes over (including the one on which the player’s movement ends), the player collects the Ingredient in question and places it into their playing area. Meeples move orthogonally and may pass through spaces containing other player’s meeples. However, they may not end their movement in a space containing another meeple. The movement restrictions and the amount of ingredients gained during the movement step may be altered by any Upgrade tiles the player has activated. It is also worth noting here that any Rush tokens (more on these later) the player has collected can be spent to gain extra movement during this step.
After moving and collecting ingredients, the player may pour the ingredients into their plastic cups to work on fulfilling orders. Each Order card displays the ingredients needed to fulfill it along its right-hand side. Players are trying to fill their cups with the ingredients needed to do this. If there’s a cup holding ingredients already and the cup is needed for something else, the player has the option to empty the cup to make room for new ingredients. Ingredients emptied in this way are returned to the supply. Also, with activated Upgrade tiles, it is highly likely players will wind up collecting far more ingredients than they need. They’re not required to use them, but they don’t get to hang onto them when their turn ends. Unused ingredients are also returned to the supply.
The process order step is broken down into several phases. In the Order Ready phase, you’ll place your cup of ingredients on top of whichever Order card you’re intending to fulfill. In the Order Complete phase, your opponents will check your work and, if you’ve got the right ingredients, you’ll return them to the supply and move the Order card from the right side of your board to the Completed Orders section on the left side of your board. In the Too Many Orders phase, you’ll count up the number of orders you were able to fulfill and then other players will have to draw that many cards from the deck and add them to the topmost row on the right side of their board. The deck of cards running out during this phase is one of the two end game triggers.
The final step, end turn, is broken down into two phases. In the Flow of Time phase, the active player will move each row of cards on the right side of their board down one row (row 4 falls off, row 3 moves into row 4, and so on). Any Order cards that fall off are placed on the left side of the player’s board in the penalties section. This is the second phase. The player will earn a single Rush token for each card that falls off. Any player accumulating five unfilled orders is the second end game trigger.
Regardless of which end game trigger was reached first, players will finish up the round and then the game comes to an end at which time the scores are tallied to determine the winner. Each fulfilled order is worth a point. Each penalty is worth minus one point. Each activated Upgrade tile is worth two points. The player with the highest score wins.
Thoughts
My initial impression when I opened the box for Coffee Rush the first time was one of wonderment. I was immediately enamored with the tiny plastic coffee cups and the various bits that you can plop into them. This game is very cute. The production quality for this game is top notch. If I were grading Coffee Rush on production value alone, I’d give it a dazzling five stars.
But, that isn’t how things are done. A game is more than just its components. Sadly, that high quality doesn’t extend to the gameplay.
Reading the description on the back of the box, I envisioned a scene straight out of the popular Diner Dash video game: a bustling cafe, customers tapping their feet impatiently, loads of pressure, and non-stop barely-controlled chaos. That is not what I got. What I got instead is an experience that does manage to capture one aspect of working the front counter of a busy establishment incredibly well… the part where you’re just wanting it to end.
The issue that makes everything feel bogged down morphs depending on how many people are playing. At three or four players, the feeling of being overwhelmed is there, and I think that’s the intention the game is going for. However, the second part of that equation, the chaos, is missing entirely. Here’s what happens: the player two seats to your right manages to fulfill a couple of orders, so two new orders get added to your player board. Then, the next player in line manages to fulfill an order, and yet another order gets added to your player board. Suddenly, you’ve got an extra three order cards to consider when you’re moving your pawn trying to collect ingredients. Because you’ve got so many orders coming in at an accelerated rate, each of your movement phases must be very deliberate and precise in order to obtain as many resources as possible if you want to have any chance of staving off disaster. This deliberation takes time, and that time gets longer with each card that gets added to your board.
At three or four players, the deck is stacked against you. You are going to fail, and you’re going to fail hard. Fulfilling orders is a miracle. When the dust finally settles after one and a half to two hours later, you’ll find yourself with a handful or fulfilled orders and almost as many failed orders. Average final scores are in the single digits, a demoralizing payoff for two hours of gameplay.
At three or four players, it’s all rush and no coffee. I think the issue at these player counts is one of too many orders and not enough coffee cups. Add another cup or two per player and I think you’d be able to end the game with a score that feels right for the amount of time you spent achieving it.
The two player experience is the polar opposite of the three or four player experience.
In the two player game, each player is given two meeples which they place onto the Ingredients board at the start of the game, collecting the ingredients they’ve covered. This means that each player begins the game with two Ingredients in hand. While that may not seem like much, there are several cards in the game which consist of exactly two ingredients. If one (or both) of the players is fortunate enough to begin the game with one of these in hand, then they’re in a position to begin the game with a fulfilled card right off the bat, a thing which is unheard of at higher player counts.
And this ease of order fulfillment is a theme which plays out in every two player game of Coffee Rush. Even though players are only allowed to move one of their meeples during the movement phase, the fact that there are two meeples on the board creates so many viable ingredient gathering paths that it becomes virtually impossible to fail at fulfilling any of your orders before they fall off your board. That means the game can only end when the deck runs out of cards, and therein lies the rub. The deck of cards is 80 cards thick and the game doesn’t compensate for the lower player count by having you remove any of them. So, if you want the game to end, you’re going to have to play through 20-30 rounds of the same thing, over and over, seemingly without end. My wife and I have tried the two player mode four or five times now and, in every single game, we’ve decided to call it quits before even reaching the end. Our average scores upon bowing out were in the twenties.
At two players, it’s all coffee and no rush. The only things I can think of to address the issue would be to decrease the size of the deck and/or eliminate the second meeple to increase the chances of failure.
I really wanted to like this game, but it just hits all the wrong notes at every player count. Like a muffin in a display case, Coffee Rush is pleasant to look at, but not very pleasant to ingest.
Coffee Rush details
- Designer: Euijin Han
- Artists: Siwon Hwang
- Publishers: ADC Blackfire Entertainment, Asmodee, Broadway Toys LTD, G3, Games7Days, Gém Klub Kft., Gémklub, HaKubia, Korea Boardgames, Korea Boardgames co., Ltd., Tower Tactic Games, Zvezda, 狗吠火車
- Release Date: 2023
- Player count : 2 - 4
- Age range : 8+
- Time range : 30 minutes
- Mechanism(s): Contracts, Grid Movement, Simulation
- BGG Geek Rating: 7.09238 - converted to Meeple Mountain scale: 3.5.
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