Pros: Space-age looking appliance, Convenient and Easy to use, virtually no cleanup
Cons: Can be pricey without coupon, plastic flavor, bitter & luke-warm coffee
The Bottom Line: This is a great single-cup coffee maker that is easy to use but makes bitter, luke-warm coffee. Consider the Senseo machine, but the price makes this hard to beat.
lovesgadgets's Full Review: Black & Decker HCC100 Home Cafe Single Serve Coffe...
The Black & Decker Home Cafe is an individual coffee maker for those that prefer making one cup at a time rather than a whole pot. It is simple and convenient to use, with little cleanup required. Although a bit pricey, Black & Decker has been issuing great discounts and you can snag one of these popular machines for less than $30 if you are lucky.
Being a "gadget guy", I asked for one of these machines as a Christmas gift. I'm not a big coffee drinker, but my finance loves the stuff. There were too many mornings that I would wake up in the morning and see a whole pot of coffee go to waste, simply because I didn't want a cup. Solution? A one-cup coffee maker.
For Christmas, I didn't get the Home Cafe. Instead, she purchased a Brookstone Single Cup machine. I thought this would fit the bill, but after cleaning up her coffee grounds every morning, I knew something else had to be done. The Brookstone uses ground coffee in a reusable filter. So with each use it had to be emptied, rinsed, emptied, and finally rinsed again.
Before Christmas, I received a coupon from B&D for $20 off a Home Cafe. Then, in late January, Wal-Mart had the units on sale for $48.00. Considering I was done cleaning up after my finance, I picked one of these units up. For $28.00 I now had the latest in the home coffee brewing craze. (addendum: fits personal gadget need for the week) The unit came with a bad of pods, and I also purchased Foldgers Classic Roast and Foldgers Classic Decaf. The bag of pods (16-18) runs roughly $4.50, which isn't that bad considering how many full pots of coffee you get out of a standard tub of ground coffee. This is a little more pricey, but in my opinion is made up in convenience.
THE MACHINE: This sleek space-age appliance looks great in the kitchen. It makes your other counter top appliances looks pale in comparison. Although very "plasticky", it still manages to look professional and top-of-the-line. The unit will work with a variety of coffee mugs, including most travel mugs. Our biggest mugs do not fit without spillage, but anything under 14oz. should work great. In operation, cups sit on a removable slotted stainless steel grate, which allows for easy cleanup.
THE OPERATION: This is the best part of the machine. It operates under the principle that steaming pressurized water makes better coffee than traditional drip. Therefore the unit injects high pressure water into the coffee pod, which filters through the drip and into your cup. Filling up the reservoir is easy and simple to do. The plastic tub is very accessible. However, replacing the sub into the back of the unit requires some fidgeting to find the groove. There were times that I didn't know if it was secured or not. The top opens with ease by using a black plastic pull lever. Simply choose the shallow filter side (for a small cup of coffee) or the deep filter side (for a 14oz cup of coffee and also two pods as opposed to one) then hold the top down and pull the lever toward you to seal the pod for brewing. This process seams to cause a lot of people problems. I'm not sure if my unit has been redesigned since initial launch, but with the exception of one time, it has always been fluid and easy to accomplish. My finance doesn't have any problems with it either, and that is more proof than I could ever offer. :) I believe the trick is making sure you hold the top down securely before pulling on the lever.
THE RESULTS: So does it work? That was my biggest question before buying one of these gadgety units. The simple answer is yes. But does it make the "best cup of coffee you'll ever taste" as B&D's marketing claims? I would say no. I still enjoy Tim Horton's coffee better. But it does make good coffee and it's fun to use. The first two weeks that we used this machine, I would continually make coffee that tasted like plastic. Not quiet sure what causes this phenomena other than the whole unit being made of plastic, but most coffee makers are fabricated this way. I decided to run a whole reservoir of 50-50 vinegar solution topped off with a run of clean water and this eliminated the plastic flavor. The flavor of the coffee now tastes like a perfectly brewed pot of regular coffee in my old drip machine. My finance says she couldn't taste the plastic, but it drove me nuts. Cleanup is as easy as taking the filter out and dumping the pod in the trash. Then replace the filter. That's it.
UPDATE: It has been a few weeks since I wrote this review and my conscious would not let me get away without updating my stance on this product. First off, after a few days of brewing the plastic flavor has returned, albeit that it is not as strong as the original problem. However, the worst part about this machine is the very strong bitter flavor of the coffee. What gives here? I'm not sure if this is a problem with the machine or the coffee. Perhaps the way the machine brews the coffee? Regardless, the bottom line is the machine brews a bitter, luke-warm, cup of coffee. I've considered taking it back to Wal-Mart, but my fiance like the convenience of this machine too much. Perhaps the Senseo would be better. I'll have to check the reviews on this machine. Sorry, B&D, you just have to work a little harder next time.
Update #2 (05/17/2006): We no longer use this machine. It sits in a box in our garage.
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