Cuisinart Coffee Maker

Cuisinart Review

Back in December of 2008, I had some very complimentary things to say in our Cuisinart Coffee Pot Review. Weeks later, I complained that the Cuisinart Coffee Maker / Grinder product was too big and cumbersome, too difficult to clean, too difficult to pour and didn’t make the coffee hot enough. Since then, I’ve tried the Westbend Percolator and the Presto Percolator. Don’t get me wrong, both of these percolators do make a piping hot, good cup of coffee, but it’s not perfect. The taste does not measure up to the freshness at Starbucks. I’ve come to realize that the taste of the coffee out of the percolator is so darn hot that it almost fools me into thinking it tastes as good as Starbucks, but it does not. Also, as fun and festive as the percolator might be, it’s not quite as convenient and easy to use as a Drip Coffee Maker. One of the other complaints I had about my Stainless Steel Cuisinart Coffee Maker is that it only makes 10 cups of coffee as opposed to 12. For that reason, I purchased a 12 Cup Mr. Coffee Pot and I’ve been suffering with inferior coffee ever since. What’s wrong with the Mr. Coffee 12-Cup Coffee Maker?

My 12-Cup Mr. Coffee Maker brews the most plastic, weak tasting cup of coffee I’ve ever had. I forced and brainwashed myself to tolerate the Mr. Coffee after a while because it is convenient and easy to use and clean. Recently I noticed that the coffee being brewed from the Mr. Coffee seems to vary from one day to the next. One day it will taste slightly plastic-like; the next day it will taste extremely plastic-like – as if I’m drinking melted plastic right from the cup! I said to myself, enough is enough! With visions of a brand new, $100 Zorijushi Coffee Maker dancing in my head, I gathered up the pieces to my Mr. Coffee and brought it downstairs. Once there, I noticed the old reliable, but forgotten Cuisinart Coffee Pot sitting on my bar. The reflection of my bitter-coffee face glared back at me off of the stainless steel cabinet. “The Stainless Steel Cuisinart Coffee Maker really is a nice looking machine”, I reminded myself. And I remembered, “I never had a bad tasting coffee from my Cuisinart Coffee Pot.” Game over. I lugged the old Cuisinart Coffee Machine / Grinder upstairs back to it’s abandoned place in the kitchen. I meticulously cleaned out the little brewing cup, lid and grinder cup and dried them out with a dish towel. After reassembling the dried pieces back together, I poured a heaping cup full of coffee into the grinder compartment and closed the lid. I filled the reservoir up to the 10-cup market, plugged in the machine and set the clock and program timer for 6:20AM the next morning. I remembered thinking that if my alarm clock didn’t go off, The Cuisinart Coffee Maker Grinder would surely wake me up in time – it is very loud!

As promised, my Cuisinart Coffee Pot woke me up at exactly 6:20AM. By the time I was dressed and downstairs the Cuisinart Coffee Maker had already finished brewing and safely turned itself off while the coffee was being kept fresh in the thermal carafe. This was something nice about the Cuisinart I had forgotten. The Cuisinart brews Coffee in about half the time required of my Mr. Plastic, err., Mr. Coffee. The best part was tasting that first sip of coffee. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought I was drinking a slightly cooler version of a freshly brewed cup of Starbucks. The taste was enormously better than the Mr. Coffee and slightly better than the Percolator, though not quite as hot. The downside is that it is the stainless steel carafe is somewhat difficult and slow to pour. In order to finish pouring the pot into my coffee thermos for work, I had to remove the lid. To my surprise, I seemed to have as much coffee from the 10-Cup Cuisinart Coffee Pot as I did with the 12-Cup Mr. Coffee/Plastic Machine.

I won’t mind doing a little extra work cleaning the grinder and compartments of the Cuisinart coffee pot for a while. The taste is worth the extra effort, and the stainless steel structure does make any kitchen look like a Euro Espresso Bar. I will hold off on the expensive Zorijushi for now. This Cuisinart has earned its place back in my kitchen.