Russell Hobbs Brew & Go Review
Reviewed by Louise Totton
I need a cup of coffee in the morning – I am not human until I’ve had at least one brew. At the weekend, my wonderful partner sneaks out of bed before I wake up and brings my coffee upstairs, but things are a bit less luxurious during the week! When time is tighter and we’re rushing about getting ready for work and getting the kids fed and ready for school, I very often end up leaving the house without having had my coffee, and my first drink of the day is at my desk at work.
I do like a proper cup of coffee too – filter coffee made from ground coffee beans is far superior to jars of instant, but it’s far more time consuming to make. We have a filter coffee maker in the kitchen, but because I’m the only one in the house who drinks coffee, and I can’t drink the large jug of coffee it makes, it’s only ever used if we have guests over. I also have a cafetière for making single cups, but it’s that time thing again – I can’t seem to find enough time on a busy weekday morning to manually make a proper coffee, so again, it sits in the cupboard.
We have been looking for household gadgets that actually do make your life easier at What’s Good To Do, and I was delighted when we were asked if we wanted to try out the Russell Hobbs Brew & Go machine, as it seemed like something that would genuinely make a difference to our daily routines.
The Brew & Go is a single-serve fresh coffee maker, with the added functionality of a 24h timer, meaning you can wake up to a cup of freshly brewed and steaming hot coffee every morning. It also comes with its own stainless-steel travel mug, and can dispense your coffee directly into it, so if you are really pushed for time, you can come downstairs and literally grab your keys, your coffee and go! This seemed like the solution to lots of my problems, so we said we’d be delighted to give it a go!
The Brew & Go is a very smart looking machine, the mixture of black and stainless-steel looks great in the kitchen. It has a pretty small footprint, so even if space is tight on the worktops, I would imagine most kitchens would have the space for one. It takes up significantly less space than a kettle, and fitted really nicely into the corner with the jars of coffee and the kettle. It is quite tall – we got ours under the kitchen cabinets, but it would be wise to check your space before you buy.
Setting it up was really easy. All it requires is the clock to be set and you’re good to go. The control panel has only four buttons – an hour and minute button for setting the clock and the timer, a timer button and a brew button for making a manual, untimed coffee. Setting the clock took less than a minute and the instructions in the guide were very clear and easy to follow. I then did as the instructions said and ran it through a cycle with only water to clean the system out.
Actually using the machine is really simple too. Because it is single serve, you just pour the water into the reservoir from the cup you want to drink from, so you will always have the right amount of water and your drink shouldn’t overflow. You then put the coffee in. the Brew & Go has a permanent filter, so you won’t need to continually buy paper coffee filters. The machine will either take ground coffee or the tea-bag style coffee pods. Whilst the latter are slightly more expensive, they do mean that you don’t have to clean the filter out after each cup, which I personally think is well worth it!
Whichever coffee you decide to use, to make your drink is as easy as popping the coffee into the filter, closing the lid and press the button. You do need to remember that this is a filter coffee maker, so the coffee doesn’t pour out, and a cup takes around five minutes to make. I don’t think this is a problem at all as we set ours for 7.15am, so the coffee is ready to have whilst the kids are eating breakfast, and if you decide to go for the pods, you can quickly set it to make another for the travel cup before you leave the house! You can even use it with the lid of the travel cup still on, so if you are a few minutes later coming downstairs, your coffee will stay warm for you.
If you use the normal filter coffee, you just need to scoop the grounds into the bin and rinse the filter out, so it’s not exactly time consuming but I do find it much easier not having to do that! The Brew & Go makes delicious, fresh coffee – I was really impressed with the taste of the brew as well as the convenience of using the machine. It doesn’t make the coffee with boiling water, as this scalds the coffee and affects the flavour, but the coffee is more than warm enough, in fact I’d say it’s the perfect drinking temperature.
This is one of the few gadgets that genuinely and effortlessly saves time in the kitchen, and I love mine. It’s great coming downstairs to the smell of fresh coffee and a steaming hot drink. The machine looks great, the taste of the coffee is great, and the convenience genuinely makes a difference.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £32.99
For more information or to buy visit russellhobbs.com.
