Very convenient, and a real money saver

Author's Rating:

Pros: Timed operation, integrated grinder, reliable, thermal carafe

Cons: I hate cleaning it!

The Bottom Line: 
I like using the timer to make my early-morning coffee. The results taste good, and the carafe keeps the coffee hot!

Author's Review
Right next to my office is an electronics store with a cafe inside. The daily ritual is to go there almost every day with a co-worker and buy a cup of coffee. Sometimes it's just the lousy house coffee, or a mediocre mocha. At $1 for a coffee, or $3 for a mocha, you can see how this can really add up over the years.

When my wife and I were registering for our wedding gifts, I thought it would be a good idea to get a coffee maker. Not only would it save money every day, but it would also complement the occasional after-dinner dessert quite nicely. When I eat something sweet, like a cheesecake, nothing goes with it like a nice cup of black coffee.

However, the problem is that I want my coffee to be nice and hot when I leave for work. I leave for work quite early in the morning, and there's no way I'd ask my wife to get out of bed to make some for me! I am also always rushing out of the house in the morning, and I don't want to deal with the preparation and waiting around before I leave. So what is the solution?

Meet the Cuisinart Automatic Grind and Brew Thermal, model DGB-600BC! This coffee maker is by far one of the nicest machines I've seen in the stores. It elegantly integrates a coffee grinder into a traditional coffee maker, but also offers a nice thermal carafe. The unit is made out of pretty sturdy black plastic, but has stainless steel panels attached to the outside. It matches our stainless steel refrigerator well. It's just unfortunate that we don't have any other stainless appliances to go with it.

Operation is very simple. Flip open the top lid, and you'll see the bean container on the left side with a clear cover, and the water reservoir to the right. Measure out your beans and place them into the container. I usually make 10 cups of coffee since my in-laws like it, so I just fill the carafe up to the top with water, which is exactly 10 cups. If you only want to make 1-4 cups, just fill the carafe half way and pour up to the correct cup indicator in the water reservoir. In poor lighting it can be difficult to see where the water is, but if you look from the right angle, you can tell when it gets to the desired water level. If you are making 1-4 cups, be sure to remember to push the "1-4 cups" button on the front panel, so that your batch of coffee will taste as good as a full pot. However, to this day I still haven't used this feature so I honestly can't tell you if it really works or not.

Next, you need to put in the coffee filter. This coffee maker ships with a gold filter, which is supposed to be better because it aids with the infusion of the coffee bean oils into the water. However, I personally find it a pain to clean well, so I just use a standard #4 paper filter and have been pleased with the results.

You can also optionally use the included water filter. Since the water I use for my coffee is already filtered by the refrigerator, I don't use the filter. After all, it's one less thing to have to replace!

Finally, put the top on the carafe and reinsert it into the coffee maker. Press the "on" button, and away it goes! The insulated carafe is an excellent feature, and keeps the coffee hot for hours after the initial brewing.
My favorite feature is the timer -- I can prepare the machine the night before, and set it to start grinding at 5:30AM. By the time I leave for work, my coffee is ready and hot! Remember not to hit the "on" button after you program the time; the act of programming the machine is all you need to do. If you press "on", then the machine will start grinding immediately. Grinding is pretty noisy, and I always feel badly about it going off so early in the morning, but most of the time no one hears it. If you are using pre-ground coffee (maybe you accidentally bought the wrong kind), you can turn off the grinding feature and dump the grinds straight into the filter. Sometimes, I think this could be nice because it would be one less thing to clean.

In fact, cleaning is the only thing I really dislike about the Grind and Brew. Of course, I'd probably dislike this about any other coffee maker, so I can't really knock off points for it. There are six components to clean: the clear bean grinder lid, the bean grinder blade assembly, the filter holder, the filter holder lid, the carafe, and the carafe lid. Ground-up coffee makes such a mess! In my opinion, the worst parts to clean are the bean grinder and the carafe. The bean grinder is a pain because you need to clean around this silver metal plate with holes punched in it. I don't know what it's for, but I guess it's to keep any unground coffee beans from making their way into the filter (this hasn't ever happened to me, though). Whenever I clean around the plate, I feel like I'm grating my nails on it. The only reason why I don't like cleaning the carafe is because I have to use a bottle brush to do it. :) You should also periodically clean inside of the machine under the bean grinder, because the steam gets in there, and sometimes if you get the fine coffee particles in there, it turns into a gross sludge that should be removed.

Reliability-wise, I've been very pleased with this machine. I haven't had a single problem with it in over two years, and it gets pretty regular usage. My mother has a similar model (the white one without the thermal carafe), and her bean grinder has a small crack in it where they glued the assembly together. I haven't had this problem, yet.

If you drink coffee regularly and want it hot and ready for you before you go to work, I highly recommend looking into the Automatic Grind and Brew Thermal!