today we're going to talk about two
different Brewers now this isn't really
a head-to-head they're doing things a
little bit differently but they have
something in common they're both
designed first and foremost as travel
Brewers so here we have the umph which
is a kind of weird name I'm going to be
honest it's a weird name and then the
Calphalon o go brew it's their latest
product now quick note I reviewed the
compressor from Calphalon Oh
previously and I did say I would like to
see the maths behind their claim of nine
bars and then they left a comment with
the maths in it on the video so if
you're curious go check that out I'll
leave a link in the description below
now both of these are crowdfunded
products this booth went on IndieGoGo
for about 27 pounds and then the
Calphalon oh it's currently I think
retailing at about $36 so actually
almost identically priced I feel like
the world travel coffee brewers got
really distorted by one successful thing
and that is the Aeropress
it's been an undeniable success story of
coffee and people like it for a whole
bunch of reasons one of which is that it
travels well it's light its unbreakable
you can sort of fit a little hand
grinder inside it often it's very easy
to travel with however I think a lot of
people have looked at the coffee brewer
market and seen the success of the
Aeropress
and said oh it's a travel brewer that's
why it's successful that's what people
like it let's make travel brewers and
that isn't really the case I would say
most arrow presses are used most of the
time at home it's bought and it's loved
because it's a good coffee brewer that
has the bonus of traveling well but if
you build something from the beginning
to be purely travel well then you're
likely to build in a bunch of handicaps
and problems and actually the number of
occasions that people will want to use
your product is way less than building a
great Brewer that travels well I might
travel and make coffee 10 maybe 20 days
a year
but the rest of the time I'm probably
brewing coffee at home so if I'm buying
a travel focused brewer I'm almost never
going to use it
then if it isn't optimized for brewing
that's the question so let's look at
both of these Brewers because like I
said they're super super different to
each other and we'll start I think with
the slightly weirder of the two which is
the UM the o'the is not easy to explain
I guess the best thing I could say is
it's kind of like an arrow press with a
travel cup built around the brewer
itself I should take it to pieces so
you've got your main plunger piece which
is also the drinking piece I'll explain
and then you have your sort of main
brewing chamber so your coffee and water
go in the top and at the bottom there is
a little sort of mesh filter that
there's no paper filters in here you're
just going to use a reusable mesh filter
now you can take it apart further which
is kind of necessary to explain where
the coffee goes when you press so when
you push the plunger down through here
and the the coffee is pressed out from
this filter at the bottom it goes into
this main chamber here and obviously
there's a small gap at the sides around
the broom chamber and it runs up the
sides and then it actually flows back
into the top of the brewing chamber now
the reason it doesn't just recirculate
is at that point the piston has come
down and it's actually going to flow and
sit on top of the piston inside the
brewing chamber right so it's kind of
recirculated up around and back in and
it's separated from the grounds by the
plunger piece I'm terrified that this
makes absolutely no sense so what we'll
do is is let's let's brew some coffee
with it and try and make a bit more
sense I'm going to brew about a third of
a liter and I'm going to dose a little
heavy exit is an infusion bro thing and
a brewer it's 75 grams a liter a third
of that is 25 grams so 25 to 30 33 but
sake of argument is what I'm going to do
a relatively short steep time because
there is going to be this percolation
phase where you push the liquid through
the ground to separate them and and
we'll see what we get we're ready to
brew and I'm going to add my coffee in
here I'm going to add 25 grams
I'm now gonna add my third of a liter
stop my little timer
now what's slightly distressing to me is
that somewhat it inevitably does flow
through the filters and it has brewed a
little bit but it is pretty much out of
the brewing process for the most part it
will have extracted something from the
coffee but it's not going to be taking
part in most of the brew with an arrow
press people conquer this by brewing
either inverted or by just popping the
top of the plunger on to create a vacuum
to prevent the liquid flowing through
the coffee prematurely here we don't
really have that same way of doing
things so we're going to get on give it
a little stir and give it a plunge
so at this point you can see the liquid
is flowed through the bed back out
around it a reasonably pleasing sort of
you know nice pleasing hiss and then you
can lock it into place and thusly we
have made coffee go in a little lid fits
on top of the brewer and now we're done
I can take this with me it is it is
obviously still got the ground coffee in
there but that brewing process has
finished there grounds are separated
from the liquid and I can drink my
brewed coffee now this is heavy well
this still weighs 950 grams just shy of
a kilo to carry with me 280 miles of
coffee I'm not sure I'd take this with
me on a train on a commute
it's just so bulky I'm not sure it would
fit into most cup holders unless you've
got you know the big cup holders but in
in this country we don't have very big
cup holders so it probably fits but
it'll be a little squeezy in terms of
the construction obviously you're taking
with you a brewer full of hot liquid
because it's water tight there are a
couple of little gaskets in here that
can be a little bit fiddly if they get
loose when you're taking the whole thing
to pieces to clean it properly to give
it a good deep clean I got my gaskets
loose I had to reset them that was just
a little bit of finicky kind of work I
get that they're necessary to make this
water tight to make it safe but there
are to me a frustration in the design
and the fact that I can't really use
paper flows through this is a shame I
just prefer paper filtered coffee so we
could drink it from this or we could
treat it as a sort of thermos and just
pour it out into a little cup
test is okay interesting to me is that
obviously this has already lost more
heat than a thermos would have done so I
don't think this is gonna keep your
coffee hot for a particularly long time
if that's something you're interested in
like I said the coffee tastes okay but
that's because there's good coffee in
there good water and I got the grind
setting right so now let's talk about
the Calphalon Oh
go brew and hear they've tried to do
something a little bit clever which is
have a nice portable bottle that happens
to be like a little coffee transformer a
home brewing setup so how does it work
well let's take off the lid to start
with as our lid and then we've got the
sleeve now this sleeve clicks slides up
and clicks now that's going to act as a
way to suspend what is in fact not just
the lid of a bottle but a little filter
brewing cone so this pops on the top now
quick note there's a couple of fins here
to hold it in place and I wish they'd
done three instead of two because it's
possible to have this at a slightly
funny angle which it isn't great for
brewing you really want this to be flat
for the best possible outcome so I wish
they'd done three fins just to make sure
it was always gonna be perfectly flush
and stable the burr itself takes the
supplied little wave style filters they
pop in the top but it does create a
pretty narrow brewing environment so
here it is we're gonna brewing this
thing copies going to brew at the bottom
into the bottle we can throw away the
coffee afterwards put our lid on we're
good to go so I'm gonna brew with this
but I'm gonna brew 1/3 of a liter again
but because this is just a percolation
just a pour over I'm gonna use 60 grams
per liter so I'm going to use 20 grams
of coffee to my third of a liter of hot
water or a third of a kilo if we want to
rehash that conversation from a previous
video but let's not get into it right
now let me grind some coffee for this
let me get this brewed so 20 grams in
and what's notable to me is that 20
grams that's a pretty full filter basket
there's not a lot of space left in here
for water for brewing it's going to be
pretty pretty slow pause now I'm brewing
with a domestic cattle because I'm
imagining this is a travel scenario
where I don't have
a pouring kettle with me I'm likely in a
travel scenario not to have specialists
pouring equipment let's begin little
bloom give it a stir to make sure it is
sufficiently agitated and then let's
brew so I don't really have much choice
here then to do several little pause and
so now we have a bottle of coffee
alright so lid goes back on so I think
we're about max capacity
there's probably 280 mils of liquid
inside that's about that's about all
we're gonna get I think now in previous
efforts I'd had a small issue now
previously had had a small issue in that
there's a little gasket that seals the
lid to the main body and that had gotten
loose which meant that when I poured my
coffee out into my cup it leaked which
was not good and I've gotta be honest
gaskets are necessary in this design or
a gasket and they're necessary in the
design of the earth but in both cases
they're fiddly flaws to me right there
there are points of failure point of
frustration points of disappointing user
experience now I would expect the copy
to taste absolutely fine here again good
coffee good water the right grind
setting the brewing environment is okay
as far as I'm concerned the little wave
filter shape is okay and it took quite a
sort of compact syndra chol bed rather
than a wide flat bed or a cone-shaped
bed it should make perfectly good
tasting coffee and it does it does it's
fine it's totally fine I haven't drunk
out of the bottle itself yet which I'll
try now
but fine study fine
for me with both Brewers there's just
that lingering question of why when
where do these have real strength over
something I might already own if I had
to pick one of the two I would guess I'd
probably pick the Calphalon oh it's
paper filtered and weight wise it's just
a little over half a kilo full of coffee
compared to nearly a whole kilo for the
earth so a big difference there
it doesn't make dramatically better
coffee than me on fear if you prefer
paper filters then you'll probably
prefer the coffee out of one of these
but that primarily about filtration
rather than brewing they both brew okay
right but I'm not sure where they really
hands-down win
where do they beat an arrow press and a
thermos where do they beat a v60 and a
reusable takeaway cup I don't think I
have a good answer for that and for
travel brewers this is really the
question to answer right like the arrow
press is a good Brewer that travels well
though it kind of breaks my mind that
the New Era press that they're releasing
is travel focused they fixed the one
thing that wasn't wrong with it you know
like it already traveled really well
except now they put a lid on the whole
thing so you can't put a grinder in it
it just seems like a weird bunch of
decisions that I don't necessarily
understand that aside this was my
thoughts on a couple of travel Brewers
the oomph and the Calphalon ago brew if
you're looking for a travel Brewer I'd
be really interested to hear your
thoughts do you really want something
specifically for those few instances a
year when you are traveling do you want
something that you use everyday that can
also travel well did you buy one of
these too did you back these on on
crowdfunding do you have one do you
still use it I'd be really interested to
hear your thoughts thank you so much for
watching I hope you have a great day