Review on OXO Brew Compact Cold Brew Coffee Maker: Optimal Solution for Delicious Cold Brew Refreshment by Sara Lutz

There is currently an issue with Cold Brew. There's a rapidly closing gap between the taste and value of homemade and store-bought. Remember, a long time ago the only place you could get a cold drink was at a hipster cafe near downtown (the one with good music and a tip jar with a funny sign). That being said you had no choice but to make it yourself and because it wasn't common you basically made a super crappy toddy style system using a Home Depot bucket and gauze because you didn't know what you were doing did . Everything is different now. Cold beer has become popular with the general public and enjoys great popularity (and with good reason!). However, here lies the problem. People assume that like traditional coffee, it's much cheaper to make it at home. While this is true to an extent, it's a far cry from the economic benefits you might see from making a pot at home compared to a $3.50 macchiato from a green-and-white mermaid lady. Another problem is that hot coffee at home is very easy; Add water, add filter, add ground coffee, press button. Cold beer is easy, but not that easy. This leads to the biggest problem with cold beer — making it at home is quite a hassle, no matter how fancy your IV system is, and the big boys at the supermarket selling gallons of clear, filtered, smooth cold beer right next to cream cheese and orange juice handle the task just fine. let's count This cold brew system costs $30, which is pretty negligible if you're going to be using it for more than a couple of weeks. True value comes in the form of reasons. This system requires 6 ounces of ground coffee and 24 ounces of water at a time to brew "5 to 7 servings." I have NEVER taken seven full servings of him. If you're caffeine sensitive or the size of a housecat you might get a full seven, but I almost always get five, sometimes four when greedy. I buy plebeian mid-range coffee in 12-ounce bags for $6.50. That means each brew using this system uses $3.25 worth of ground coffee for five servings, meaning each serving costs 65 cents each (not counting the cream and sugar or other gimmicks you add to your drink). It's not bad. 65 cents is cheap, and drinking two cups a day on land for a year costs only $474.50. You can spend that much at Starbucks in about 130 days on just one drink, or about $1.5 in the middle of a college semester ($1.1 if you're a STEM student). made a cold drink, a famous brand sells 32 ounces of concentrate for $8.99 (let's say $9). Both OXO and this ready-to-use brand recommend diluting 1 part concentrate with 2 parts milk or water to get roughly the same strength. If 24 ounces of OXO is 5 servings, then 32 ounces is 6.6 servings. That means the finished meal costs $1.30 per serving. If you had exactly the same amount of instant coffee, you would spend $949 over the course of a year. Now, the difference of about $470 over the course of a year seems significant, and for many it is, but consider that you'll also be spending $30 on OXO in the first year. Is it worth $440 to you for the whole year? May be. Is the time spent arguing, waiting for the soak, filtering, and then enjoying it worth the time? It's really up to you, but it's something to consider. My review of OXO is, if you have a very SPECIFIC coffee in mind that you want to turn into a cold beverage, go for it. When you buy pre-made beans you are dependent on which beans the company selects, while when you make them yourself you have complete control. However, total control comes at a price. Grinding your own beans, waiting for the brew, and filtering takes time. In my case, the built-in metal screen doesn't do a good job of removing sediment, and I often find myself running the concentrate through a paper filter to get it completely through. Each finished concentrate is virtually 100% scale free. Using the wrong coffee or coffee that is ground too fine will also slow down the drainage process as the filter is completely clogged. Making sure your soil is good and big will help with this, but if you buy pre-ground be prepared for it to get messy. Do I like this product? Yes. Would I buy it again if it broke? no He has good aesthetics(TM) and that's it. The big toddy filters that places like Starbucks and such use are ugly as hell but work wonders. Traditional cold brew bottles and jars (the ones with a strainer that fit a large water bottle) are fine, but they're big and leave residue everywhere. It falls somewhere in between and doesn't have all the good parts either, but it doesn't sacrifice everything for design. I want you to be happy. I want you to drink great coffee that energizes and revitalizes you. If you're happy with a pretty little cork-topped bottle in your fridge, go for it. If you just need to make a cold drink yourself, I would recommend the toddy system. If you just enjoy the taste of cold beer, buy it pre-brewed from one of these big corporate brands.