A few months ago, our inexpensive but functional coffee maker's carafe broke. Rather than look for another inexpensive maker or a replacement carafe, I pulled the trigger on an OXO Brew 8 Cup Coffee Maker, and I'm so glad I did. I'd been wanting to upgrade but couldn't justify replacing a perfectly functional coffee maker; now I had my excuse!
OXO Brew 8 Cup Coffee Maker is SCA-certified
At some point, I researched higher-end coffee makers that appealed to more refined tastes than mine at the time.
One organization that came up was the Specialty Coffee Association. As part of their worldwide, full-value-chain mission, they have a certification for home-brewing equipment that meets quality standards for consistency, extraction, and other technical factors.
The OXO Brew 8 Cup Coffee Maker is one of the makers that is SCA-certified, so I knew going into the purchase that it had these standards going for it.
Justifying a fairly pricey coffee maker
I could have replaced my coffee maker for a tenth the price of what the OXO Brew 8 Cup Coffee Maker cost me.
(And I also acknowledge that people can justify anything they want, but hear me out, haha!)
A large part of it was an experiment. I figured, considering the certification, it wouldn't be a bad coffee maker, but I was curious if it could be that much better than the one that just died.
That, and I knew it wouldn't take me long for the machine to pay for itself. Let's look at 100 brew cycles (pots). The cost of the machine was $200, and the cost of coffee going into it was maybe $0.50 or so per pot. The first 100 pots, then, were $2.50 each averaged out. One cup from Starbucks is more than that. One cup from Sheetz is almost more than that. And I got a full two Venti-size cups out of it for that.
It takes a lot of expense to overcome Richard Bach's Latte Factor!
What I like about the OXO Brew 8 Cup
The coffee brews quickly. Love the way that the OXO pauses at the beginning of the brew cycle. The water showers, uniformly, over the grounds a little bit, and then there's a pause of about 20 seconds or so before the rest of the water is dispensed. I think what this does is it allows some time for the water to get through the initially dry grounds and soak the filter. Then the water will go through faster.
When I heat up the carafe beforehand (more on that below) the coffee pours hot. “Unexpectedly hot,” as Blue Shirt Guy would say.
My favorite part of the OXO Brew
This is a little thing and it's probably the biggest reason I chose the OXO Brew over others.
One thing that had bugged me about the carafe on my older coffee maker was that it was a trick to pour out the coffee without having it dribble down the side. The glass carafes invariably have a tiny little pinched area that can wick the water down the side of the carafe and onto the floor unless you pour it just right (usually meaning pour it out really slowly). Even then, it's not difficult to screw even that up.
Check out this video of how the coffee pours out of the carafe. There was no wicking, just a nice, easy, smooth pour regardless of how fast it was coming out. It solves my major annoyance with the old one, so that's a win.
Preparations for keeping the coffee hot for longer
The OXO Brew 8 Cup Coffee Maker doesn't have a heater. The carafe is insulated so that keeps the coffee warm for longer by itself, but I do some extra preparation to keep it hotter for longer.
I'll dispense a single cup of hot water from the Keurig machine right next to it. I'll pour the hot water into the carafe and swish it around to get the inside hot.
If I'm headed to work, I'll transfer that water into my Stanley Vacuum Bottle to heat that up. (Mine has a stamp “04” on the bottom, indicating that it was manufactured in 2004. These last!)
Then, I'll take the warm carafe and brew the coffee with the OXO. When it's done brewing, the coffee will be piping hot. I can then discard the water from the Stanley and transfer the coffee into it, or just leave it in the carafe if I'm home for the day.
Either way, that coffee will easily stay hot all day.
Wait … so the Keurig is just a water heater now?
Getting the OXO Brew has made me appreciate my Keurig a lot more, actually.
The temperature of the water coming out of the Keurig is pretty hot, actually. It was hotter than what the old drip coffee maker would do. I didn't give that part nearly enough credit.
And no, it's not just for hot water. We still use K-cups when we don't want to brew an entire pot.
How do beans vs. national brand ground coffee perform?
At the same time we bought the OXO Brew I bought a Cuisinart Burr Coffee Grinder to upgrade the grinding experience.
We had used a smaller grinder but it was tougher to measure a consistent amount of coffee, and it took a couple of loads of beans in the grinder to get enough. The Cuisinart we purchased has an adjustable grind setting, grinds a consistent amount of coffee, and can hold a half-pound of beans in a reservoir.
Having said all of that, the OXO brews both freshly ground beans and pre-ground Folgers just fine, and both kinds of coffee are perfectly good to my taste. Another way of saying that the OXO made even mass-produced coffee perform fine.
Descaling the OXO Brew 8 Cup Coffee Maker
We didn't descale our old coffee maker, and to be fair that could have contributed to it not producing hotter coffee.
The OXO Brew 8 Cup Coffee Maker has a cleaning feature. A light comes on after 90 cycles and the cleaning and descaling procedure takes about 25 minutes or so.
I took a chance and got some non-oxo descaling solution. It was about a quarter the price of the oxo brand and it seemed to do the trick.
Prior to this, we had cleaned some of our makers with vinegar (acetic acid). It took a while for the vinegar taste to get out of the maker. The active ingredient in the descaling solution is citric acid, which is natural and doesn't have the strong taste that vinegar does.
As much as we use the OXO now (and as much as it costs) we'll keep on top of the descaling with a proper solution.
Ultimately, do what brings you joy
I certainly don't hold it against people who like their Starbucks drive-thru in the morning. People are free to allocate their income how they choose to the extent they're able. If you plan for, and look forward to, your Starbucks, have at it!
I've drunk coffee since before I went to college, and I like the taste of it. Overall I haven't been terribly picky; there have only been a few times when the coffee I've gotten from somewhere was so bad that I couldn't drink it.
Upgrading my coffee maker to an OXO Brew 8 Cup Coffee Maker has been an affordable way to make my home-brewing coffee experience noticeably better.
Cover Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
