Oxo French Press - review

We all love our coffee on a weekend morning (who has time for real coffee midweek?) so I was pleased to receive this beautiful looking French press from Oxo in the post. What makes this one different from all the others is the fact that it has a ‘Groundskeeper’. A little tray, squidged at the bottom on a stalk to pull up and empty the grounds after use.

Now in our house, the cafetière NEVER gets cleaned. It sits on the side after use until the next time someone needs it. The reason being, in my opinion, that no-one can be bothered to either, a) scrape out the grounds into the compost / bin, then swish the remaining ones out before cleaning or b) fill with water, empty contents down the sink, then try to capture stray grains that are clinging to all side of the sink. I was hoping that the Groundskeeper feature of this new one would solve that problem and my mum would no longer feel the need to write a poem entitled ‘Why does the cafetière never get cleaned?’

Unusually for me, I read the instructions, although the only main difference being to place the Groundskeeper inside before adding coffee and remove it once finished. This I did. I also warmed the French press, as instructed, something I would never normally bother with. Other tips enclosed included letting your coffee ‘bloom’ (adding a little hot water to cover the coffee, then stirring, before adding the rest), stirring in a ‘cross’ pattern rather than in circles, and breaking the crust to let most of the grounds sink before plunging.

This press makes coffee like all the others, there’s no difference there, but as I said, I was hoping the process of cleaning it may be easier than normal. So, when it came to it, I gently removed the tray containing the grounds (the Groundskeeper slid out easily, much more so than expected as it is quite a tight fit with a rubber seal) and popped them into my composting bin. I’ve also heard that if you tip them down your sink, they help keep the drains free, and that you can use the grains as an exfoliator…this would take some careful preparation though, unless you’re thinking of taking the Groundskeeper up to the shower / bath with you?! There were still a few grounds left in the bottom and around the edge, and these still needed to be swished with water and ended up, as usual, around the sink. In the end, the Groundskeeper ended up being just another part to clean, with the recommendation being to hand-wash every part.

As with all Oxo products, this is a very stylish press, and the Groundskeeper does it’s job fairly well, although if you have a few grounds left at the end that need swishing, you may as well swish the whole lot. This is now our ‘press of choice’ in the house, but the funniest thing was watching my husband attempt to use it for the first time without instructions – hilarious! He had absolutely no concept of the Groundskeeper, tipped the grounds out first, then removed the keeper!

Disclaimer: Although I was sent products to try for the purpose of this post, all views and opinions are entirely my own, truthful and honest.