Oxo Brew 8-Cup Coffee Maker review: Oxo’s latest coffee maker is our new favorite drip machine

A top quality drip espresso maker should really brew rapid and very hot, but it should not scorch your grounds. Number of espresso machines can pull off this fragile balancing act, but the $a hundred and seventy Oxo Brew eight-Cup Coffee Maker is 1 of the scarce machines that does. For $20 significantly less than the nicely-highly regarded $a hundred ninety Bonavita Connoisseur, the Oxo Brew delivers SCA Golden Cup-rated espresso that tastes just as superior.

Oxo’s newest electric espresso maker also will come with a thermal carafe that, not like the Bonavita’s, is not prone to messy drips and spills whilst you pour from it. The Oxo espresso maker is compact, less complicated on the eyes than the Connoisseur, and it feels sturdier, too. All that tends to make the Oxo Brew eight-Cup an remarkable buy, and ample to make our Editors’ Preference award for drip espresso makers in 2020.

Little and sleek

Bodily, the Oxo Brew eight-Cup is all the things its beefy Oxo twelve-cup and nine-cup predecessors weren’t. Individuals machines had been massive and bulky monstrosities, in particular the Oxo Barista Mind twelve-Cup Brewing Procedure, which towered around other tiny kitchen appliances and ate up useful counter house. 

The Oxo Brew eight-Cup is equivalent in dimensions to the Bonavita Connoisseur. The two espresso makers are compact ample to tuck away under kitchen cupboards when they’re not in use. Simply because of the Oxo’s sleeker strains, in addition a lot of open up house among its various parts, the Brew eight-cup seems downright svelte up coming to the chunkier Connoisseur.

Aesthetics aside, the Brew eight-Cup is set up like numerous other superior-efficiency drip espresso makers. A heating unit tower and water tank (forty ounces, or one.two liters) sits on 1 side of a prolonged base. You can come across a double-walled thermal carafe throughout from that. A funnel-formed brewing chamber life immediately above the carafe.   

Using the Oxo Brew eight-Cup

Creating espresso with the Oxo Brew eight-Cup is a uncomplicated procedure. Very first, fill the espresso machine’s water tank. Its highest (and default) dimensions is forty ounces. That’s the exact water capability as other top quality espresso makers these types of as the Technivorm Moccamaster KBT 741 and the Bonavita Connoisseur.

Subsequent, flip open up the brewing chamber lid. The filter basket within that accepts regular 8-cup dimensions, flat-bottomed paper filters. Release the basket by swinging its deal with arm upwards Then fall a filter within, incorporate your floor espresso, and location it again into the machine. 

Make guaranteed the swap on the brewing chamber is set for a entire carafe. Furthermore, hit the electric power button and faucet the button labeled “5-eight cups.” If you would like to brew significantly less there is certainly also a two-four cup button for that objective. Oxo also consists of an optional brew basket designed in particular for solitary-cup brewing. It accepts Kalita wave filters (Kalita 185).

I do have 1 small gripe listed here. The Oxo’s filter basket does not sit flat on countertops. That created it tricky to fill with grounds unless of course I held it in 1 hand. The Connoisseur’s filter basket has a flat base, so is less complicated to fill whilst it can be resting on your countertop.

General performance and style

The two the Bonavita Connoisseur and its predecessor, the BV1900TS, done extremely nicely on my exams. So did the Oxo Brew eight-Cup Coffee Maker. In terms of raw brewing speed, the Oxo Brew was able to fill its pot in an common of six minutes, eight seconds. That’s shut to the brewing speed of the BV1900TS as nicely as the Technivorm Moccamaster KBT 741 (each coming in at 5 minutes, forty five seconds), and a lot quicker than the Connoisseur (six minutes, twenty five seconds).  

As outlined in the manual, I employed a brewing ratio of forty ounces of water to two.26 ounces (64 grams) of medium floor espresso. I also tested with my standard entire bean exam espresso sourced from Costco (Kirkland Colombian Supremo).

No matter, the Oxo Brew eight-Cup’s brewing time is nicely under the eight minutes or significantly less the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) suggests for superior drip. 

Speed is not all that’s necessary to brew excellent espresso. Precise water warmth amounts are also important. Specifically, the proper water temperature variety (197 degrees Fahrenheit/92 Centigrade to 205 F/96 C) is crucial to generating remarkable espresso. I can ensure that the Oxo espresso maker saved its water temperature inside a extremely limited variety. 

In the initial moment of brewing, the common temperature within the grounds was a hundred ninety.3 F (87.nine C), according to thermocouple readings. That’s a lot quicker than the Connoisseur, which had a lower common temperature at the one moment mark (147.nine F, 64.four C). At two minutes, the temperature within the Oxo’s brew chamber remained rock reliable, at 189.four F. By moment 3, the temperature crept up to 197.six F, then to 199.3 F at moment four. From listed here warmth amounts had been continuous, scarcely expanding far more than 3 degrees.  

Our refractometer, which actions the sum of espresso dissolved in the liquid, showed likewise dependable efficiency from the Oxo. Throughout three runs employing the Oxo-suggested 64 grams of espresso grounds, the Oxo Brew eight-Cup notched carefully grouped TDS (overall dissolved solids) share outcomes (one.four, one.5, one.six%). These numbers translate to an common extraction share of twenty five%. 

That’s a little outside the house of the perfect variety, typically held to be among eighteen and 22%. The Oxo Brew’s manual also indicates employing a significantly less exact “8 scoops” of espresso with the bundled plastic scoop. When I measured 8 scoops of my exam espresso, it weighed out to exactly 69.six grams. Soon after brewing once again with forty ounces of water, I recorded a TDS share of one.3. This calculates to an extraction share of 19%, which falls squarely within the SCA variety.  

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The espresso was robust, sophisticated, balanced, and had no trace of bitterness. The drip I created with fewer grounds (64 grams) tasted great too, just a small weak. I also created espresso at a robust ratio of eighty three grams of espresso to forty ounces of water. Bold, intense, and super-concentrated, this was my most loved pot. With an extraction share of 23%, it was also a hair outside the house golden cup variety. No matter of the ratio, the Oxo brewer created espresso that was never bitter and extremely drinkable. You may possibly have to change the espresso and water ratio to your actual preferences, but Golden Cup-territory is extremely achievable with the Oxo brewer.

Related to the Connoisseur, the Oxo’s thermal carafe can continue to keep liquid within it very hot for hours. I recorded 3 hours, forty five minutes just before espresso in the container dropped beneath 150 degrees F (66 C). That’s a little shorter operate than the Bonavita 1900 which hung on to its warmth lengthier (virtually 4 hours), though the thermal carafe winner is still the Moccamaster (six hours).

A new possibility for far better drip

I have to say I am extremely amazed with Oxo’s newest electric drip espresso maker. The $a hundred and seventy Oxo Brew eight-Cup performs nicely, whipping up pots of tasty joe swiftly. It’s also compact, and attractively styled. I also like that it will come with a solitary-provide accessory for generating automated pour-around, 1 cup at a time.

All this stacks up favorably from the competitiveness. Right up until now, my drip espresso maker of preference has been the $a hundred ninety Bonavita Connoisseur. Even so, the Oxo Brew eight-Cup brews just as nicely and a lot quicker, and looks far better accomplishing it. It costs $20 significantly less too, and does a small far more. That’s why it can be evidently exceptional in my ebook, and the winner of our Editors’ Preference award.