Breville Iced Coffee Maker Review
A quick way to make iced coffee
Verdict
Featuring markings on the cup, the Breville Iced Coffee Maker takes some of the mystery out of making iced coffee. That said, most important with iced coffee is choosing the right type of bean, for which you get no tips with this machine. For most people, then, experimenting with the machine they already have will make more sense.
Pros
- Easy to use
- Clear markings on cup
- Works quickly
Cons
- Designed for one person
- Doesn’t help with coffee choice
Availability
- UKRRP: £39.99
Key Features
- TypeThis is an iced coffee maker: it brews hot coffee and pours it over ice.
Introduction
Ttraditionally drunk hot, coffee can make a great cold drink on a hot day, too. Iced coffee is great to quench your thirst, but getting the right mixture of ice, water and coffee can be a bit of an art. This is where the Breville Iced Coffee Maker comes in.
Providing everything you need to make iced coffee, with handy markers on the included travel cup, the Breville Iced Coffee maker takes the mystery out of the process. It’s quick and simple to use, but those who already own a coffee machine may be better off experimenting with their machine.
Design and features
- Cup marks out all the levels you need
- Easy to fill and use
- Basic build quality
The Breville Iced Coffee Maker is effectively a single-serve filter coffee machine, making hot coffee. That may sound bizarre, given that it’s a machine for iced coffee, but the truth is all iced coffee starts off as hot coffee.
Using heat is a quick way to extract flavour from the coffee. The ice comes in after the brewing process to cool the coffee down straight away.
As such, the trick to making an iced coffee is ensuring you get right amount of coffee, water and ice. That’s really what the Breville Iced Coffee Maker does, with its 625ml travel cup marking out levels for water and one for ice.
Simply fill to the water level, then tip the water into the base of the coffee maker. There are internal marks inside the coffee maker so that you can see where the fill line is, too.
Next, you drop the filter basket onto the top, placing the filter inside. I can’t say that either part feels particularly premium; in fact, the Breville Iced Coffee Maker feels like a budget machine. With the filter in place, you can add the coffee. Breville recommends using one of its provided scoops (you’ll want a coarsely ground coffee), although you can opt to increase this to two scoops if you want to increase flavour.
That done, the coffee machine is ready to go. Pop the lid on top, open the tap on the front – with the cup in place, filled to the ice line – and you can hit the Start button. This brews coffee, dripping hot water through the grounds into the travel cup, cooling it down as it hits the water.
At the end, you can turn off the tap to prevent any dripping, and then drink your iced coffee directly from the travel cup. This is handy, but if you want to make an iced coffee for someone else, you’ll need to empty the cup out so you can reuse it.
All the internal components of the Breville Coffee Maker can be put in the dishwasher for cleaning, but the travel cup, lid and straw must be washed by hand.
Technically, you could put a mug under the spout to make hot coffee, but I found that coffee didn’t drip out straight; with a smaller mug than the provided travel cup, there’s a risk that you’d get coffee everywhere.
Performance
- Works quickly
- Taste depends on the type of coffee you use
There’s no denying that the Breville Iced Coffee Maker works quickly, brewing hot coffee thats poured over ice, cooling it immediately. Using the provided measurements for ice, coffee and water, you get a travel cup filled with coffee.
However, the taste will be highly dependent on the type of beans you use. In most cases, it’s worth opting for a darker roast with a more intense flavour. Even then, it can be hard to get the right blend, with the end result rather bitter. Yet, it’s this step for which the Breville offers no guidance.
Get the right type of beans, and the final cup of coffee will taste great. Is it worth buying a dedicated machine to make iced coffee, then? For simplicity, yes; but for most people I’d say it’s worth brewing coffee in the normal way and pouring over ice, experimenting with how much water you need to add.
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
If you want everything laid out for you to get the right ratio of water, ice and coffee, this is a convenient way of making iced coffee.
If you already have a coffee machine, then you have the means to make iced coffee – although you’ll have to experiment with how much ice and water to add. Alternatively, cold brew coffee will produce better results.
Final Thoughts
Iced coffee can be made using any coffee machine, pouring the hot brewed coffee over ice directly, straight out of an espresso machine, or indirectly, pouring a carafe of filter coffee over ice. In both instances, you then top up with cold water. It’s really a question of choosing the right type of beans and adding the correct level of water.
Chossing the right bean is the difficult part, which is the reason companies such as Nespresso make iced coffee varieties when it’s hot. My personal preference is to make cold brew coffee, such as with the Asobu Cold Brew Coffee Maker. Since cold brew uses cold water, the process takes longer, but you get a smoother finish and the choice of beans isn’t quite as important.
How we test
Unlike other sites, we test every coffee machine we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main coffee machine for the review period
Tested for at least a week
We roast our own beans for regular coffee machines, so we can fairly compare each machine; pod machines are tested with a variety of compatible capsules
Depending on capabilities, we test each machine’s ability to make espresso and cappuccino
You might like…
FAQs
Technically, yes, although you may find that it makes a mess if you don’t have the right-sized cup.
It brews it hot but pours it over ice to cool it down.
Full specs
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
