It costs twice as much, is the coffee twice as good?

Author's Rating:

Pros: HOT cup of coffee. Quiet machine. Sleek design. Large water tank. Pulse brew tea cycle.

Cons: Small first cup. Higher price. Sometimes dispenses quirky amounts of water.

The Bottom Line: 
If you use good pods, it'll make a great HOT cup of coffee.

Author's Review
Well the Bunn costs about twice as much as some other pod brewers out there. So is the coffee it produces twice as good? Well..... No. Not twice as good, but it does make a noticeably better cup than the Senseo. It's warranty is twice as good though, two years!

Being a long time Senseo owner, I've heard and read about the Bunn MCP for quite some time now. Well after finding a fantastic deal at Amazon, I finally took the plunge. Since I've used the Senseo for quite a long time, I'll also make some comparisons between the Bunn and the Senseo in this review. You can see my Senseo review at http://www.epinions.com/content_209004105348

The unit comes very well packed, takes up a minimum amount of counter space, probably just a little bit more than the Senseo did. After unpacking it, you'll need to prime the unit. To do this, fill up the 46oz water tank that's located on the back of the unit. You can either remove the tank, or leave it in place and slide the top cover back to fill it. Place a large container under the spout, slide the adjustable brew size lever to 12 and hit the brew button. This will fill up the internal water tank. Once this is done, the water in the internal tank will begin to warm up. After about a minute and a half, the water heating light will go out and you're ready to brew your first cup.

Press the lighted Bunn logo above the pod holder to release it, place a pod into the holder and select your brew size with the sliding lever. Brew size can be adjusted between 4 and 12 ounces adjustable in 1 ounce increments (only brewer that does this). Hit the coffee brew button, and a cool blue glow turns on while the coffee is brewing. While it's brewing there is a slight whining sound that I've heard goes away after a while. You Senseo owners will be glad to know that the thunderous aquarium pump sound is gone. :-) OH NO!!! You left the brew selector on 12oz and placed an 8oz cup underneath the spout. Not a problem, hit the coffee brew button again to terminate the brew cycle.

Wait a minute, There's a good 7 inches of clearance for my travel mug. Yippie!! The old Senseo was only 4 inches of clearance, the new Senseo was 4.75 inches.

Being a commercial unit usually meant for offices, it goes into sleep mode after 6 hours and shuts off after 2 weeks. The Senseo would turn off after one hour.

So how is that cup of coffee? Well, it's much hotter than anything the Senseo ever produced. Up around the 195 degree mark, the original Senseo hit around 182-185, the newer Senseo was even cooler only hitting 179-181. The coffee also has a much better mouth feel. If you're wondering about that crema layer that the Senseo produces, your either in luck, or out of luck... The Bunn does not produce a crema layer. Actually, the Senseo is the only unit that does produce the crema layer. I personally don't miss it at all.

How about a nice cup of tea instead. Lucky for you the Bunn has a seperate tea brew button that pulses the water during the brew cycle so that the tea has some time to steep. You can either use tea pods, or you can go ahead and use your favorite tea bag. Just pull the string off of it.

So is the Bunn perfect? No, that wouldn't be any fun now would it. The first cup in the morning is usually much smaller. I've found out that this is because the water in the internal water tank evaporates. Simple solution, just run a quick 4oz brew cycle with an empty pod holder. I've also noticed that at times the Bunn seems a little quirky in the amount of water it dispenses. Haven't figured out yet if it's because of the pod I'm using, or if it's something else. I know that some pods absorb more water than others, but the cup size is much more variable than the Senseo ever was.

Bottom line: The Bunn MCP produces a great tasting, piping HOT cup of coffee. Of course, just as with the Senseo, you have to use good coffee pods to produce a good cup of coffee. I've tried over 90 different pods, and there are still more out there to try. Some pods were very good, some pods were very bad.