The OXO Fast Brewer is designed to rapidly and simply brew each cold and warm espresso focus. Photograph by Howard Bryman
Whether or not for cocktails, frappes, baked items or speedy mornings, coffee-as-ingredient is huge enterprise as of late. The variety of bottled concentrated espresso merchandise is on the rise in shops and on-line, and with the Fast Brewer, housewares model OXO delivers a easy means for anybody to create their very own contemporary scorching or chilly focus utilizing any espresso at house, in minutes.
For aficionados who prioritize high quality over comfort, the Fast Brewer can be a tremendous alternative, able to producing a nuanced presentation of any bean or mix dialed in on the machine.
It simply achieves OXO’s acknowledged aim of brewing in a rush. And for these keen to discover past the bounds of OXO’s directions, there’s additionally outstanding potential for glorious longer-style brews by means of an revolutionary technique utilizing the Fast Brewer. At $39.99, with all these choices plus its light-weight, sturdy and transportable building, there’s nearly no motive to not give it a attempt.
The OXO Fast Brewer is light-weight, sturdy and transportable. Photograph by Howard Bryman
It’s not with out its faults, although these are simply overcome — chief amongst them being that not solely will OXO not inform you tips on how to do the longer brews, however components of the Fast Brewer’s design are literally a hindrance to this potential.
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 taught extra concerning the brewer because it stands, together with the place it got here from and why.
OXO Then & Now
A traditional American story of ingenuity and success, OXO was based in New York in 1990 by the daddy and son crew of Sam and John Farber, whose aim was to create easy-to-use and ergonomically nice kitchen instruments.
The Farber household ultimately bought OXO to the Basic Housewares Company, which, in 2004, bought it once more to Helen of Troy, one other family-founded American firm born in 1968 in El Paso, Texas, the place its operations headquarters stay to at the present time.
By way of electronic mail, OXO advised me the Fast Brewer was developed over a latest interval of 18 months by means of a collaborative inter-departmental course of involving product engineers, advertising and marketing employees, industrial designers, espresso consultants, and others. The chief of the devoted crew overseeing the venture was Affiliate Engineering Director Chris Diskin.
Diskin, a New York-based engineer, has been rising within the ranks at OXO for greater than eight years. The corporate stated he “has been instrumental within the creation of lots of our espresso merchandise,” including, “We additionally collaborated with professional baristas to make sure the brewer meets the best requirements of espresso brewing.”
Certainly, OXO has confirmed that it takes espresso significantly. Its electrical espresso makers are licensed by the Specialty Espresso Affiliation (SCA), and the corporate makes each guide and electrical grinders; its Chilly Brew Espresso Maker is beloved by critics and prospects alike, and the corporate additionally makes the Pour-Over Espresso Maker with Water Tank, a lifeless easy software for efficient guide brewing at house. Why make one other guide brewer?
“We needed to create a brand new guide brewer that would ship an much more versatile and speedy brewing expertise,” OXO advised me. “The Fast Brewer provides extra versatility since it may be used to make chilly brew and scorching brew — and it could actually brew focus, which can be utilized to make lattes, cocktails, or different specialty drinks.”
Fast And Candy, Proper Out Of The Field
Intuitive and forgiving, the brewer is straightforward to make use of, clear and retailer. With espresso floor a bit coarser than espresso-fine and tamp with the included tamper, a 5-minute chilly brew within the Fast Brewer is a clean and fragrant deal with. Extra time may be higher, however 5 minutes will get it finished.
The water chamber (and its carafe) is small however means that you can obtain a fairly latte-esque expertise. Photograph by Howard Bryman
The concentrated scorching brew it produces stands up effectively as a “bypass brew,” i.e., one thing akin to an Americano with further scorching or chilly water added after brewing.
On the spot gratification followers can even love how a splash of cool water on high of the recent brew not solely fleshes out the drink to fill a mug but additionally instantly drops the temperature into the optimum sipping zone — no want to attend for that first morning cup to chill.
Including scorching or chilly plant-based or animal milk yields a fairly latte-esque expertise, and there’s definitely no hurt in quaffing the Fast Brewer’s straight shot. It’s much less intense and fewer demanding than espresso, and I had a number of coffees glow on this preparation with a vibrant punch of taste and the complete physique typical of brews by means of metallic filters.
Nice In A Dash, However Not With out Hurdles
Of the five-piece system comprising the pump, water chamber, filter chamber, tamper and carafe, one piece — the pump — can’t be submerged. As it’s threaded onto the highest whereas brewing, it takes some mindfulness to recollect to take away it and never merely place the whole equipment within the sink after brewing.
The OXO Fast Brewer’s pump can’t be submerged in water. Photograph by Howard Bryman
In the meantime, the one piece that doesn’t thread or in any other case connect to the system is the carafe, and woe be to the person who misplaces it. OXO designed the Fast Brewer to relaxation securely on its included carafe — and solely this carafe.
I’ve tried positioning the brewer atop all kinds of mugs, tumblers and cups, and it’s someway both wobbly or too huge or small for nearly all of them. (Tune into Espresso Evaluation’s Instagram for a easy hack that helps match the Fast Brewer onto extra mugs!)
Sized particularly to accommodate OXO’s concentrated recipes, the carafe can be fairly small and, due to this fact, prevents experimentation with bigger recipes.
The Fast Brewer’s Secret Superpower
As luck 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 reveals itself to be neither its velocity nor its chilly capabilities.
It’s really leagues extra versatile than even OXO would have you ever imagine: It’s a zero-bypass pour-over press!
Past the confines of OXO’s directions and the Fast Brewer’s tiny carafe, my favourite method to make use of it shifts the baseline recipe as much as a coarser grind (within the mid-to-larger finish of typical single-cup guide pour-over vary) and a pour-over-style coffee-to-water ratio of 1:16, 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 convey a quick and gently pressurized finish to the brew. (Tune into Espresso Evaluation’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 Success
Notably in these long-form brews, but additionally proper out of the field, I’m discovering that vibrant, juicy, vividly fragrant and full-bodied brews are simple to realize with the OXO Fast Brewer, a software I’m genuinely excited to proceed exploring.
Professionals:
- Nice for decent or chilly brew
- Extremely versatile
- Straightforward to make use of, clear and retailer
- Inexpensive
Cons:
- Pump is just not waterproof (can’t be submerged)
- Carafe is small and dangers being misplaced
- Lacks compatibility with different mugs/receptacles
The OXO Fast Brewer could be bought on the OXO web site. Espresso Evaluation doesn’t obtain commissions or referral charges for any gross sales that could be generated from our tools evaluations. Nonetheless, in some instances, merchandise had been reviewed as a part of our fee-based service choices.
