Brewing Coffee Manually

Better coffee. One cup at a time.

Year: 2020 (Page 1 of 3)

OXO 8 Cup coffee maker with stainless thermal carafe

Need a New Coffee Maker?- OXO 8 Cup Coffee Maker Review

December 14, 2020 / / 22 Comments

When OXO approached me about sending me their new 8 cup coffee maker for review, I was a little leery. This is a manual brewing blog after all and I have been championing manual brewing methods for the last six years. After some deliberation, I decided a sponsored OXO 8 cup coffee maker review could be fun. The auto drip coffee maker scene has seen some changes since I last visited the subject in 2014. Let’s see what this new wave of automatic brewers is all about. 

2026 Update: Five Years Later, I’m Still Brewing with the OXO 8 Cup Coffee Maker

I originally published this article in 2020. After using this machine pretty consistently, I wanted to revisit my thoughts on the brewer and share some observations from years of use.

It has been more than five years since I first reviewed and the OXO 8 Cup Coffee Maker and I have to admit that it has occupied a spot on my counter for most of that time (see What Gear Earned a Spot on My Coffee Counter for Five Years?).

My overall evaluation of this coffee maker remains mostly unchanged. It has proven durable and reliable through years of consistent use. Surprisingly, I have rarely used the single-cup brewing option. In fact, I’m not even sure where I put the single-brew attachment. I appreciate that single-cup brewing is an option with this machine, and it might persuade some people away from K-cups. If I am making one cup of coffee, I would prefer to make a pour-over instead of setting up the machine for single-cup brewing.

One issue that I have encountered a few times involves the thermal carafe. Because the opening where coffee enters the carafe is relatively small, it can occasionally become blocked by coffee residue, oils or a haphazardly placed coffee ground. A few times, this has resulted in my coffee overflowing onto the counter instead of flowing properly into the carafe.

The solution is pretty simple. The opening needs to be kept clean and clear for the carafe to function properly. My personal workaround has been even simpler. When brewing, I usually remove the carafe lid entirely and switch the brewer to single-cup mode. This disengages the automatic stopper in the filter basket while eliminating any possibility of the carafe opening becoming blocked.

After brewing hundreds of pots of coffee with the Oxo 8 Cup Coffee Maker, I can still recommend it. It remains one of the better automatic coffee makers I’ve used and continues to brew an excellent pot of coffee with the push of a button.

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gifts for coffee lovers

A Guide to Coffee Gifts- How to Buy Gifts for Coffee Lovers

November 24, 2020 / / 5 Comments

Buying gifts for coffee lovers can be a bit overwhelming . The coffee gift space is vast. It runs the spectrum from punn-y cat mugs to the super obscure Bripe, a manual coffee brewing pipe. How do you find the right gift for a coffee enthusiast? Hopefully I can help.

How to Buy Gifts for Coffee Lovers

Finding the best gift for a coffee enthusiast starts with some observation. Not all coffee lovers are the same. Some are really into espresso, some are into pour-overs, some just really love good coffee. There are coffee nerds, coffee snobs and the ‘everyman’ coffee lover. You can start by observing what your gift recipient values.

A great way to make these observations is to turn a conversation towards the coffee sphere. Most coffee lovers will like to talk about their passion, so ask them a few questions. These questions can be simple, direct or more covert.

Where do you go from there? The more you know about the person you are buying a gift for, the easier it will be to pick a gift.

If you don’t know much about your coffee enthusiast, don’t despair. Here are some ideas from a wide range of the spectrum. From coffee subscriptions to coffee artwork, the Brewing Coffee Manually blog has you covered.

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mud coffee in a garden

How to Make Mud Coffee- What even is Mud Coffee?

November 17, 2020 / / 24 Comments

While I was doing some research for another post, I got lost down a somewhat obscure rabbit hole (something not unusual for me). I came across some information on a style of coffee most commonly referred to as “Mud Coffee”. It was intriguing. Mud coffee meets the basic definition of a manual brewing method so I felt compelled to head to the brewing coffee manually labs and do a little experimenting. 

I should mention that mud coffee is not the same thing as the popular coffee substitute, Mud\WTR.  

Let’s get one other thing clear. There is no mud in this beverage. Please excuse the misleading nature of the cover photo.

Well, what is mud coffee and how do you make it? I will give you my version in the post below. 

What is Mud Coffee?

Mud coffee is manual coffee brewing at its most basic. To make it,  combine hot water with ground coffee in a mug or glass. Drink your coffee once it cools and the grounds have (hopefully) sunk to the bottom.

It is pretty simple. 

There are quite a few origin stories surrounding mud coffee. The Polish, who call it “Kawa Plujka,” claim it was a result of learning to make do with what you have. In Indonesian, it is called “Kopi Tubruk.” They add a little sugar to the mix. People have also referred to Turkish and Greek coffee as mud coffee, although they use an Ibrik and also include sugar. 

Since brewing mud coffee is about the simplest form of making a cup of coffee, I am not surprise there are a few cultures who claim it’s origin.  

For the purpose of this post, I am going to be exploring the Polish, “Kawa Plujka” version. I put my own mark on the recipe by nailing down some important parameters like coffee dosage, water temperature and grind size. 

Kawa Plujka roughly translates to “Spit Coffee.” This is a reference to the fact that if you drink a cup of this coffee down to the dregs, you will get a mouthful of coffee grounds and have to spit it out. (Something you may have already experienced if you get a lot of drive-thru coffee.)

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