kristinafh's Full Review: Cuisinart DGB-500 12-Cup Coffee Maker
Preamble
I hate coffee.
I don't drink coffee.
I avoid the smell of coffee when I can.
But then, I married a man who loves coffee almost as much as he loves life itself so I have learned to live with coffee.
For many, many years, he has been using several different versions of the Mr. Coffee coffee makers. I thought that they were on the flimsy side and they seemed to be very difficult to keep clean.
About five months ago, he finally admitted that he needed to get himself a decent machine. I threw out a couple of ideas to him - including an all-in-one machine that grounded up the coffee and then brewed it. He was skeptical but willing to approach the whole situation with an open mind.
What This Is Cuisinart came out with their Grind and Brew coffee maker sometime in 2002.
The coffee maker is approximately 16 inches tall and weighs about 10 pounds. This particular model is white but Cuisinart also offers it in black and titanium. The white is very attractive and fits in well with our kitchen decor.
When it's shipped to you, you'll discover the following pieces (in addition to the main coffee maker):
* 12.5 cup Glass Carafe
* Gold-tone, commercial-style filter
* Charcoal filter
* Measuring scoop and brush
* #4 Paper Filters
Close your eyes for a moment an imagine what a coffee maker looks like. On top of the Cuisinart Grind and Brew is a place for you to open up and place your whole beans. In the front, there's a tray area you pull out to insert your gold filter. Across the front is a couple of different buttons that can start, stop, and pre-program the functionality of your coffee maker.
The purpose of the coffee maker is to allow the coffee mak-ie, the opportunity to create that perfect pot of coffee in very easy steps.
How?
For example, you can dump your coffee beans into the grinder part, pre-set when you want it to run, fill the tank with water, and walk away. The coffee maker kicks in at the appropriate time and brews (according to my husband) the perfect pot of coffee.
If there's only one coffee drinker in the house, chances are they are not going to drink 12 cups at once. That's why Cuisinart has this handy-dandy 1-4 cup feature. What does that do for you? It improves the coffee maker's ability to extract and heat your beans and water which translates into a delicious cup of joe.
My husband loves the gold filter. Did you know that the gold filter (as opposed to the paper filters) allow for the natural oils of the coffee beans to merge with the water? I mean, is that frickin' cool or what?! Oils of a coffee bean...I never knew that this was so important to an individual person :).
And if you've got an impatient spouse, then they can start the brewing process and pause it before the 12 cup carafe has filled up. Yup, that's right. They can pour themselves a cup of coffee before the entire process is completed AND without making a large mess.
What if you run out of beans? Gasp!!!! And all you have is pre-ground coffee? Gasp!!!! That's okay, you can still use your Cuisinart Grind and Brew. You just skip the grind step and place your grounds into the filter.
One of the pluses for me, the non-coffee drinker is that the grinding part of the coffee maker is much more quieter than the one he was using. Every time he'd grind in the morning, it was like fingernails on a chalkboard for me.
Clean-up is very easy. Although it says that you can wash the parts in the upper-area of your dishwasher, my husband thinks that this is a barbaric way to treat his new toy. Nothing but hand washing for his baby.
You just lift the filter out and run it through warm water. Same with the grinding mechanism. It just lifts out of the top, rinse with water and dry.
The carafe is like many other ones you see (except that when pouring - it doesn't have dripping issues) and it should get a healthy dose of cleaning with soap and water.
The Verdict
My husband loves this. I have grown to appreciate it. So far, it's living up to all of it's expectations. Highly recommended.
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