ActiveCoffee

This is a fantastic coffee maker that makes great tasting coffee but what if you are debating between this and an “all in one” unit that will grind your beans and brew your coffee at the same time (that I will refer to as a “Grind-N-Brew”)? below are my reasons for not giving into the “all in one gimmick”:

1. Grind-N-Brew makers require just as much work as having a regular coffee maker and purchasing a separate grinder. When a grinder is built into the coffee maker, it tends to get wet from the steam each time you use it (unless the grinder is far enough away from the brewing portion of the machine. a few models do this but then some of them still have you manually transfer the grounds from one part of the machine to the next so what’s the point?). because the grinder get’s wet from the steam, you have to clean it more often. Some models even require that you clean it after every brew!

2. with a separate grinder, you can grind the beans the night before (when you set the coffee maker) so there is less noise in the morning to wake you up.

3. this maker has a cone shaped filter instead of the bucket shaped ones that tend to come with the Grind-N-Brew models I’ve found (not sure why this is).

4. with a separate grinder, you can get better quality grinding. Seems like the built in grinders that I saw in the stores were a little on the dull side like it would make pretty course grounds (?).

5. Some Grind-N-Brew models pre-determine how much grounds you will use but if you buy a separate grinder, you can determine how strong you want your coffee.

WHY CHOOSE THIS SPECIFIC BREW-ONLY COFFEE MAKER MODEL:

Because it makes fantastic tasting coffee and, for the price, it feels solid, looks great, and is of good quality (compared to other makers I’ve seen for the same price). To me, the coffee tastes like I went to a coffee shop everytime I use it. it has a warming plate (and you can set it to high/medium/low). it also has a cleaning feature (which I thought was pointless until I found that it will actually alert you if it is STILL dirty after you’ve cleaned it (meaning you haven’t cleaned it enough) which might be a neat idea. you can also set it to shut off after 1-4 hours and it has a 1-4 cup setting (which will heat the coffee up more then normal since you’re making a smaller cup). the coffee is hot (burnt my mouth the first time) and tastes great.

1) yes, with this model (and many other Cuisinart models), there is the issue of the 5 beeps that it makes when it completes the brewing cycle. It’s not terrible unless you are sleeping in the room. the beeps sound like a generic wrist watch alarm and you’re microwave will probably make more noise then these beeps so it shouldn’t really deter you from purchasing this unit unless you are a delicate sleeper or have a studio apartment…etc.).

2) no outside water meter (so you will want to just keep track of how much water you put into the unit-which could be a downside to the thermal carafe option). it is possible to tell how many cups of water there are inside the unit by looking down the well positioned in the back (it has a measure inside there) but who wants to do that-just measure beforehand.

3) yes, the hole in the back to pour the water in is more on the small side (about the size of an orange, I guess), so you will probably want to have full access to the back of the machine (maybe be able to slide it away from a wall so you can fully open lid to the machine and get the carafe to pour the water well.

4) the carafe lid snaps on and off so everytime you want to rinse it and put water in it, you have to snap off the lid (not a huge deal but not as nice as the attached lids). I’m getting pretty good at flicking off the lid with my thumb.

All in all, a great buy at a great price! I would highly recommend it for this price range.

Cuisinart 12-cup Coffee Maker – Black Chrome Series CBC-00SA3 …