Lovin' this coffeemaker!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Makes wonderful coffee, easy to use, versatile.

Cons: A bit of a pain to clean if you grind.

The Bottom Line: 
This coffee maker makes some of the best coffee we've had. It looks nice on the counter, it's easy to use, and keeps that delicious coffee hot for ages!

Author's Review
We registered for this coffee maker for our wedding, and have now been using it for about 6 months. My husband and I are both coffee junkies, and we love this machine!


Product Features are as follows (courtesy of the cuisinart website):

Classic Brushed Stainless Steel Design
Automatically Grinds Whole Beans Just Before Brewing
10-cup Double-wall Insulated Thermal Carafe
24-hour Programmability
Brew Pause Feature and Automatic Shutoff after Brewing
Separate Grinder Chamber and Filter Area
Charcoal Water Filter
1-4 Cup Setting
Gold Tone Filter and #4 Paper Filter Starter Kit
Instruction Book
Limited 3-year Warranty


Making Coffee
This coffee maker lets you make fresh coffee from beans, or from already ground coffee. If you choose to make your coffee from beans, you put the beans into the machine, add water, and hit "on." The machine will grind your coffee, move it into the basket and brew. If you chose to make your coffee with already ground beans, you add your coffee to the filter basket, hit "grind off" and then "on." The machine immediately begins brewing wonderful, fresh coffee either way. If you tend not to grind, there is a small learning curve with this machine, remembering to hit the "grind off" button- it startles you when you press on and hear the grinder spring to life!

There is a timer on this machine which allows you to set your coffee in advance to have it brewed when you wake up.
The machine will also shut itself off once it has finished brewing, since it doesn't require power for a heating element, thanks to the fab carafe.

This machine is easy to load up, easy to operate and relatively easy to clean. If you use the machine to grind your coffee, you'll have to do a bit more clean up. But all of the pieces you need to clean, whether you grind the coffee or not, are easy to remove, simple to rinse, and pop back into the machine without too much fiddling.


We generally just use already ground coffee, because it's easier, and we don't feel there is that much of a difference between the two in terms of taste. Using the grind option requires more cleaning of the machine after each use, but this is not excessive cleaning, compared to other machines that do the same.

You can interrupt brewing to pour a cup while the machine is still working, the flow will stop until you've put the carafe back into place.

The machine also comes with a gold tone filter, so that you never need to buy paper filters!

The Coffee

I have to say that this machine makes the best coffee we've ever had. The charcoal filter makes sure that the water going into your coffee is as pure as possible, and the fact that there is no heating element under the carafe makes certain your coffee never tastes burned or bitter.

In fact, the carafe is a wonderful aspect of this coffee maker. My husband is a very early riser, and will often get up on a Saturday and make coffee around 6AM. When I wake up at 8:30 or 9 am, I can go and pour myself a cup from the pot he made at 6, and it is still piping hot and fresh! It's also a very attractive, brushed stainless design, so you can leave it on the table when having coffee with dessert.


Overall

We love this machine. It is attractive in looks, easy to use, relatively easy to clean (piece of cake if you don't grind, a bit more work if you do), and makes fantastic coffee. The carafe keeps coffee hot for ages, and never allows it to burn. This is one of the more expensive coffee makers we have owned, but we feel it was worth every penny. If you drink coffee every day, you won't be disappointed with this machine!