The OXO Fast Brewer is designed to temporarily and simply brew each cold and warm espresso listen. Picture by way of Howard Bryman
Whether or not for cocktails, frappes, baked items or rapid mornings, coffee-as-ingredient is large trade this present day. The selection of bottled concentrated espresso merchandise is on the upward thrust in retail outlets and on-line, and with the Fast Brewer, housewares emblem OXO delivers a easy manner for somebody to create their very own contemporary scorching or chilly listen the usage of any espresso at house, in mins.
For aficionados who prioritize high quality over comfort, the Fast Brewer could also be a nice selection, able to generating a nuanced presentation of any bean or mix dialed in at the software.
It simply achieves OXO’s mentioned purpose of brewing in a rush. And for the ones keen to discover past the limits of OXO’s directions, there’s additionally outstanding possible for superb longer-style brews thru an cutting edge manner the usage of the Fast Brewer. At $39.99, with a majority of these choices plus its light-weight, sturdy and transportable development, there’s virtually no reason why to not give it a take a look at.
The OXO Fast Brewer is light-weight, sturdy and transportable. Picture by way of Howard Bryman
It’s no longer with out its faults, although those are simply triumph over — leader amongst them being that no longer handiest will OXO no longer let you know find out how to do the longer brews, however components of the Fast Brewer’s design are in reality a hindrance to this possible.
We’ll dive extra deeply into the brewer’s strengths — and its secret superpowers — in a minute. First, I reached out to OXO to be told extra in regards to the brewer because it stands, together with the place it got here from and why.
OXO Then & Now
A vintage American tale of ingenuity and good fortune, OXO used to be based in New York in 1990 by way of the daddy and son group of Sam and John Farber, whose purpose used to be to create easy-to-use and ergonomically delightful kitchen gear.
The Farber kin sooner or later offered OXO to the Basic Housewares Company, which, in 2004, offered it once more to Helen of Troy, every other family-founded American corporate born in 1968 in El Paso, Texas, the place its operations headquarters stay to this present day.
By the use of e mail, OXO informed me the Fast Brewer used to be advanced over a contemporary duration of 18 months thru a collaborative inter-departmental procedure involving product engineers, advertising personnel, commercial designers, espresso specialists, and others. The chief of the devoted group overseeing the mission used to be Affiliate Engineering Director Chris Diskin.
Diskin, a New York-based engineer, has been emerging within the ranks at OXO for greater than 8 years. The corporate mentioned he “has been instrumental within the advent of lots of our espresso merchandise,” including, “We additionally collaborated with knowledgeable baristas to verify the brewer meets the best possible requirements of espresso brewing.”
Certainly, OXO has confirmed that it takes espresso significantly. Its electrical espresso makers are qualified by way of the Area of expertise Espresso Affiliation (SCA), and the corporate makes each guide and electrical grinders; its Chilly Brew Espresso Maker is liked by way of critics and consumers alike, and the corporate additionally makes the Pour-Over Espresso Maker with Water Tank, a useless easy device for efficient guide brewing at house. Why make every other guide brewer?
“We would have liked to create a brand new guide brewer that would ship an much more flexible and fast brewing revel in,” OXO informed me. “The Fast Brewer provides extra versatility since it may be used to make chilly brew and scorching brew — and it could brew listen, which can be utilized to make lattes, cocktails, or different distinctiveness beverages.”
Fast And Candy, Proper Out Of The Field
Intuitive and forgiving, the brewer is straightforward to make use of, blank and retailer. With espresso floor somewhat coarser than espresso-fine and a just right tamp with the integrated tamper, a 5-minute chilly brew within the Fast Brewer is a clean and fragrant deal with. Extra time could be higher, however 5 mins will get it finished.
The water chamber (and its carafe) is small however permits you to reach a somewhat latte-esque revel in. Picture by way of Howard Bryman
The concentrated scorching brew it produces stands up neatly as a “bypass brew,” i.e., one thing comparable to an Americano with further scorching or chilly water added after brewing.
Fast gratification enthusiasts may even love how a dash of cool water on most sensible of the new brew no longer handiest fleshes out the drink to fill a mug but in addition right away drops the temperature into the optimum sipping zone — no want to stay up for that first morning cup to chill.
Including scorching or chilly plant-based or animal milk yields a somewhat latte-esque revel in, and there’s indisputably no hurt in quaffing the Fast Brewer’s instantly shot. It’s much less intense and not more challenging than coffee, and I had more than one coffees glow on this preparation with a colourful punch of taste and the entire frame standard of brews thru steel filters.
Nice In A Dash, However No longer With out Hurdles
Of the five-piece machine comprising the pump, water chamber, filter out chamber, tamper and carafe, one piece — the pump — can’t be submerged. As it’s threaded onto the highest whilst brewing, it takes some mindfulness to keep in mind to take away it and no longer merely position all of the equipment within the sink after brewing.
The OXO Fast Brewer’s pump can’t be submerged in water. Picture by way of Howard Bryman
In the meantime, the one piece that doesn’t thread or another way connect to the machine is the carafe, and woe be the consumer who misplaces it. OXO designed the Fast Brewer to relaxation securely on its integrated carafe — and handiest this carafe.
I’ve attempted positioning the brewer atop all kinds of mugs, tumblers and cups, and it’s in some way both wobbly or too giant or small for the majority of them. (Music into Espresso Overview’s Instagram for a easy hack that is helping have compatibility the Fast Brewer onto extra mugs!)
Sized in particular to deal with OXO’s concentrated recipes, the carafe could also be rather small and, due to this fact, prevents experimentation with greater recipes.
The Fast Brewer’s Secret Superpower
As success would have it, the brewer occurs to sit down securely sufficient atop my favourite pink porcelain mug. With this higher-capacity receptacle, the brewer’s actual superpower finds itself to be neither its velocity nor its chilly features.
It’s in reality leagues extra flexible than even OXO would have you ever consider: It’s a zero-bypass pour-over press!
Past the confines of OXO’s directions and the Fast Brewer’s tiny carafe, my favourite approach to make use of it shifts the baseline recipe as much as a coarser grind (within the mid-to-larger finish of standard single-cup guide pour-over vary) and a pour-over-style coffee-to-water ratio of one:16, or thereabouts.
It begins with a bloom pour, a swirl, after which the remainder of the water is added and drips till the time feels proper to safe the pump and produce a quick and gently pressurized finish to the brew. (Music into Espresso Overview’s YouTube channel for the recipe and a demo of the Fast Brewer as a mix zero-bypass percolation brewer with a uniquely pressurized finale.)
Pressed For Luck
Specifically in those long-form brews, but in addition proper out of the field, I’m discovering that brilliant, juicy, vividly fragrant and full-bodied brews are smooth to succeed in with the OXO Fast Brewer, a device I’m surely excited to proceed exploring.
Execs:
- Nice for decent or chilly brew
- Extremely flexible
- Simple to make use of, blank and retailer
- Inexpensive
Cons:
- Pump isn’t water-resistant (can’t be submerged)
- Carafe is small and dangers being misplaced
- Lacks compatibility with different mugs/receptacles
The OXO Fast Brewer may also be bought at the OXO site. Espresso Overview does no longer obtain commissions or referral charges for any gross sales that can be generated from our apparatus critiques. Alternatively, in some instances, merchandise have been reviewed as a part of our fee-based provider choices.
See our hands-on video of the OXO Fast Brewer.
