OXO Good Grips Cold Brew Coffee Maker Review
Smooth, low-acid cold brew at home with zero mess and a clever one-switch release.
Smooth, low-acid cold brew without the wet paper towels, the soggy bag, or the coffee grounds floating in your fridge. This is the device that made home cold brew worth the counter space.
What the OXO Cold Brew Coffee Maker actually is
It's a countertop brewing system that makes a concentrate you dilute with water or milk. You add coarse grounds to the top brewing container, pour water over them with the included rain-maker lid for even saturation, let it steep 12 to 24 hours, then flip a switch. The concentrate drains through a fine metal mesh filter into a glass carafe below. That carafe holds the equivalent of several days of cold brew for one person.
Price runs roughly $45 to $60 on Amazon, which puts it well above a mason jar and below the fussy glass-tower contraptions. It's solidly in the home-kitchen sweet spot of useful, not precious.
How it performs day to day
The headline feature is the one-switch release, and it earns its reputation. Instead of straining grounds through a sieve or wringing out a bag, you flip the switch and walk away while it drains. That single design choice is the whole reason to buy this over a jar. Less mess, fewer steps, no coffee silt in the bottom of your cup.
The brew quality is genuinely good. The metal filter produces a clean concentrate that owners consistently call smooth and low in acid, which is the point of cold brew in the first place. The rain-maker lid sounds gimmicky but it does wet the grounds evenly so you're not left with dry clumps that never extract.
Cleanup is where it shines and stumbles at once. Dumping the spent grounds is easy. Rinsing the fine mesh filter takes a real effort, and you'll want to do it right after every batch before grounds dry into the screen. The carafe is glass, so it's nicer to drink from but it's also the part most likely to break if you're careless.
Pros and cons worth knowing
Pros: the switch-release mechanism is legitimately clever and saves the messiest part of cold brew. The concentrate is strong and consistent, the glass carafe looks good in the fridge, and the whole thing stores reasonably flat. OXO's customer support has a good track record if a part fails.
Cons: the mesh filter clogs and needs prompt rinsing. The brewing container is plastic, which some people dislike for steeping coffee. It takes up more cabinet room than a jar, and at this price you're paying for convenience, not magic coffee. If you forget and let grounds dry on the filter, you'll be scrubbing.
Who should buy it and who should skip it
Buy it if you drink cold brew regularly and you're tired of the jar-and-sieve routine. Daily and near-daily drinkers get the most out of the convenience, and the concentrate format means one brew lasts most of a week. It's also a clean, low-effort option for households where two people want different strengths.
Skip it if you make cold brew once a month or you're happy filtering a mason jar through a nut-milk bag. At that frequency the convenience doesn't justify the counter space or the cost. Skip it too if you want hot coffee gear that doubles up. This does one thing.
The verdict
This is the cold brew maker we'd point most people to. The one-switch release solves the actual annoyance of making cold brew at home, the concentrate tastes clean, and the price is fair. Keep the mesh filter rinsed and treat the glass carafe gently, and it'll quietly earn its keep. Casual drinkers can stick with a jar. Everyone else gets a real upgrade for not much money.
Frequently asked questions
- How long does cold brew last in the OXO carafe?
- The concentrate keeps well in the sealed glass carafe for up to about two weeks in the fridge, though most people finish a batch in under a week. Diluted cold brew is best within a few days.
- Do you need paper filters for the OXO Cold Brew Coffee Maker?
- No. It comes with a reusable fine metal mesh filter, so there's nothing to buy. Some owners add a paper filter when decanting if they want an even cleaner, sediment-free cup, but it isn't required.
- Is it better than just using a mason jar?
- For regular drinkers, yes. The switch-release drain skips the messy straining step a jar requires. If you only make cold brew occasionally, a jar and a strainer do the job for far less money.
Marcus has spent over a decade testing consumer tech and gadgets. He cares about whether a product earns its price in real life — not on a spec sheet.
