Russell Hobbs 22630 Brew and Go review

• Max fill level indicator tricky to see and can cause the machine to dispell all its water

Star rating: 3.5/5

Read our round-up of the best coffee pod machines, as well as our overall review of the best coffee machines.

If coffee bags or Easy Serve Espresso (ESE) pods are an option you’d like to explore, the Russell Hobbs Brew and Go could be a suitable coffee machine to get you started. For a very reasonable price, it gives you the capability to brew drinks with coffee bags, tea bags or ground coffee, as well as providing a smart takeaway cup for hot drinks on-the-go.

Best of its features is the timer function, which can be used to make a drink at a certain time of day. Simply make sure a coffee bag and the right quantity of water are loaded into the machine and set a time.

The coffee produced is more like a filter coffee than an Americano, so do bear that in mind.

Photo: Alice Ostapjuk

Unfortunately, there are a few drawbacks. For one thing, it’s nowhere near as foolproof as most other coffee machines sold for home use these days.

The max fill level of the in-built reservoir can be hard to spot in dim light. If you overfill it, water will pour straight out of a spout on the back of the machine. It also dispenses every drop of water inside when it makes a drink, which can, at best, mean a very diluted coffee, and at worse, an overflowing drinks vessel.

These issues can be avoided by filling the machine using the vessel you want to make a drink for – but really, we believe future versions of the Brew and Go, or at least its instruction manual, should be more carefully designed to prevent accidental overfilling.

With that said, the Brew and Go can be a really useful machine once you’ve got the hang of it. It’s reliable, easy to wipe clean, and has a tiny footprint that makes it a cinch to store in the kitchen. You’ll need to keep it on standby at all times if you want its clock to stay accurate.

Star ratings
Functionality: 3.5/5
Results: 3.5/5
Ease of cleaning: 3.5/5
Value for money: 4.5/5
Overall rating: 3.5/5

Specifications
Supported pods: coffee bags, ESE coffee pods, tea bags, ground coffee
Tank capacity: 400ml (important – see review)
Milk frother: no
Power: 650W

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