I love this no-fuss coffee maker that's perfect for student living — and it's currently just $33 at Amazon

Tom's Guide

2 days ago

It's been a good few years since I went to college, and my coffee-making options were limited to a French press. Moving on a couple of decades, and there's now a whole array of new and fandangled options to choose from.
However, if you're gathering your essentials to move into a student dorm room, you won't have the space for one of the best coffee machines with all the latest bells and whistles.
That's why I recommend the OXO Brew Rapid Coffee Maker; it's a compact device, and right now, you can save 16%, as it's reduced to $33 at Amazon.
I've recently tested OXO Brew's Rapid Brewer portable coffee maker, and apart from saving 16% at Amazon right now, it's a mean-making coffee maker.
Perfect for small-space living, OXO's Brew Rapid Brewer will serve up a fresh brew in 5 minutes. Plus, it's compact and cordless and can be packed up and taken on your travels. What's more, you can forget about buying paper filters as a stainless steel filter is built in, meaning less waste and less hassle.
Student funds are notoriously bleak, so as soon as you start dorm-living, you'll be counting those dimes. Picking up a takeaway coffee will begin to become a thing of the past when you realise just how much those take-outs add up.
The perfect solution isn't to buy an expensive, all-singing coffee maker or one of the best espresso machines, it's to become an expert barista and to make your own brew with a compact coffee brewer. Apart from being affordable, a compact coffee maker fits well into small-space living, and it requires no electricity except for heating the water.
This is why the OXO Brew Rapid Brewer is ideal for student living, it's perfectly compact and stores in one neat unit — without the muddle of its rival, the AeroPress, which I've previously compared side-by-side. And when storing them in my cupboard, I know there's less chance of parts from the OXO Brewer getting misplaced. Plus, unlike with the Aeropress, there's no need to buy filters, which can be a hassle and another expense.
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I find the OXO Brewer Rapid Brewer is incredibly easy to use. When I first tried it, I was pleasantly surprised, as for me, OXO's Rapid Brewer surpasses the AeroPress, although I'll let you decide on the taste test.
The only extra essentials you need are a cup, hot water, and coffee grounds. As mentioned above, you don't need to buy filters, as the gadget does this part for you. It comes with a carafe, pump, stainless steel coffee filter, water chamber and tamper, and the tamper fits inside the coffee basket for neat storage.
All you have to do is place your coffee in the coffee basket, tamp it down, attach the basket to the chamber, position it over the water chamber, add hot or cold water, wait a few minutes depending on whether you're making a hot or cold brew, and press down the pump a couple of times. You're now ready to enjoy your drink.
And for a real student experience, without the cost of a take-out coffee, you could keep it hot in Ninja's Perfect Sip travel mug — which will keep your homemade brew either hot or cold.
So, now you can enjoy a homemade brew — a quick caffeine fix to get you up in the morning, or to keep you awake in the midnight hours when you're meeting a last-minute deadline.