What's your favorite coffee maker?


 
Kevin - we use one of these at the office. It's a small office with only 14 employees but we probably make 20-30 cups a day - not including need for hot water for tea, etc...

Overall the Keurig works well and produces a decent cup of java. However i don't think it's intended for the volume we demand. Our first unit needed replacement after about 4 months and since then we've had to repair the current unit twice as the flow of water decreases to the point where i can go to my desk, check email and then go back and get my coffee. We do the usual cleaning, etc...but this doesn't seem to affect the water flow.

Usually i would tear into something like this and get it fixed but since it's at the office....someone else takes care of this so i don't really have any details.

mike
 
Originally posted by K Kruger:
Have any Keurig fans had any problems? I am frequently at Bed, Bath and Beyond for one reason or another and many times have witnessed other customers returning their Keurigs for either a replacement or a different brand. I've not overheard the problem(s) experienced, but have seen this at least half a dozen times. All were relatively new.

Anyone?
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I was at BB&B a week or two ago and there was a lady returning one...her third. But she still swore by it.
 
Originally posted by K Kruger:
Have any Keurig fans had any problems? I am frequently at Bed, Bath and Beyond for one reason or another and many times have witnessed other customers returning their Keurigs for either a replacement or a different brand. I've not overheard the problem(s) experienced, but have seen this at least half a dozen times. All were relatively new.

Anyone?
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We had one for about a year. I would be willing to bet the reason those are coming back are because people don't realize there is a water filter that needs to be replaced. If you don't replace it, all of the sudden you look down and your coffee cup has got about 25% less coffee in it than it should.

Just for the record, we really really wanted to make the Keurig work for us, but it just didn't. The coffee is good because there are hundreds of options and eventually everybody can find something they like and the convenience is unmatched, but there is something about the fast brewing process that results in a noticeable limited amount of caffeine versus a normal cup of coffee. That may be good for some people but for us it ultimately was the reason we switched back to a regular coffee maker. No matter which flavor we tried or thick we brewed it, neither of us felt it was getting us going in the morning.

However, we did realize how convenient it was to have hot water on demand (one of the great things about Keurig) so we bought a regular coffee maker with a hot water dispenser for tea or french press and have been extremely happy with the set up.

Having said that, if you are more caffeine sensitive and don't mind paying 45 cents per cup, the Keurig is awesome!

Just remember to change the filter.
 
Thanks guys.

I happened to be in BB&B last week and a woman was doing a Keurig demo. I got a cup. Of course she gave me numerous choices - but I dislike flavored coffee so that knocked the choices down considerably. I had whatever Italian roast she had. It was good but not remarkable.

I like the idea of the single serve almost in an instant, but I doubt I'd like the coffee choices much.
 
At Work, we replaced our automatic drip unit (died, plus people were lazy about cleaning it out & made it too weak or too strong)....

With a Large, Commercial-Duty (Model B150) Keurig Brewer.

I was skeptical at first. But it has gown on me.

So far, it has been very reliable (Zero break-downs or malfunctions)

PROS:
-Never have to drink "old" coffee
-Brews quickly (about a minute)
-Easy operation (ours has a nice touch-screen)
-Clean-Up is a snap
-Good Consistency
(each cup of the same coffee tastes the same)

CONS:
-Cannot adjust brew strength*
-LOTS of different / good coffees available
-Coffee Price #

* Although you cannot alter / select / adjust the strength of each cup, with the Model that we have, you CAN alter the amount of water (Cup Size selection). If a coffee is too strong in an 8-ounce selection, it may be about perfect when brewed at a 10-ounce size.

# (It's a little on the high side, but when you weigh-in the benefits and buy coffee on sale, it's not too bad.)

If you do not have a large retailer near you, like Bed, Bath & Beyond (they seem to have the best selection), your choices in coffee may be limited or you may need to mail order.

It sometimes takes a while, but once you find a few coffees that you like and "tweak" the cup size to your preference - it's hard to beat the convenience.
 
Chalk me up as a diehard Keurig lover. I would be completely lost without mine. Believe or not, we bought 2 in case we had problems with one. One of them lives in my office at the school. While not the cheapest coffee on the market, we find the lack of wasted coffee a big plus as well as the fact that my wife likes decaf/half-caf and I like full strength.
 
A Weber!
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An RK Drum Roaster!
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Green Beans from Sweet Marias!
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Ground on a Rancilio and pushed through a Gaggia Classic (for now)
 
For all the Keurig and Starbucks fans out there, Starbucks now offers K-Cups in a variety of flavors!
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I have had several autodrips but the absolute best cup o' coffee I have ever had came from a .50 cent Corningware electric peculator I picked up at a yard sale 3 years ago on a whim. I have used it daily ever since. If you ever run across one pick it up, I promise you wont regret it. The downside is they were recalled and discontinued in the late 70s I believe so you'll be hard pressed to find one. I picked up a second one at a yardsale in case this one ever craps out but so far thats not happened.
 
I'm on the Keurig bandwagon. I've had to cut down and I'm presently at three cups/day. SWMBO will drink another cup or two through the day. Making a pot at a time just wasn't optimal. SWMBO surprised me with a Keurig brewer and I've never looked back. I had already been buying coffee by subscription from Green Mountain so I just switched my order to K-Cups. We tried a bunch of different varieties and settled on the Double Black Diamond and also add one package of Barista French Roast to each order.

I'm probably more of a common sewer than a connoisseur when it comes to coffee, though I do occasionally find a cup of coffee that I don't care for. (I'm sometimes reminded of the punchline to the ancient joke: "Well it was ground just this morning sir." The joke is of course "Waiter, this coffee tastes like mud!") I'm entirely satisfied with the cup of coffee I get from our Keurig B-60 using the aforementioned blends and making the largest size cup.

As far as durability goes, I've set up a calendar reminder to descale twice/year. I've just completed the second procedure so we've had it a year and with no difficulties. Our kids have the same model - a little older I think - and it is no longer working. I've heard that there was a problem with earlier versions of some models and that Keurig will cheerfully replace or repair them when they malfunction. Our water is from Lake Michigan and is about 135 ppm hardness which is between hard and soft. It is much better than the well water we used to get that had about 450 ppm hardness and with lots of iron and sulfur. I suspect that water hardness and number of cups/day both factor into the longevity of these brewers.
 
Old thread, but just got a Technivorm as a gift.

My wife preferred to grind the night before and use a timer as she gets up at 5 am. Now with no timer we put the beans in the hopper of our burr grinder and fill the water the night before. She wakes up, grinds, dumps and turns it on.

It makes really great coffee, but I am not sure I would have dropped the money on it. It was a gift so I am more than happy with it!

Also we have a Keurig at work, but I don't often drink coffee throughout the day. It went unused for a few weeks and now doesn't work well at all. Our other office also uses them and they are on their 3rd unit, making sure to maintain it.
 
Since I live in a place the power can go out if a mouse farts, I quickly learned to prefer a "French Press" or "Press Pot" since it doesn't use electricity. There are other similar ways of doing coffee that don't involve glass container with a press, but I have come to love my coffee made that way. I just boil the water (propane stovetop), pour it over the coffee, wait four minutes and bingo, great coffee. I do mean great.

They say the Technivorm is just as good as a French Press though, the "they" in this case being Cooks Illustrated who rated the KBT741 model as their top choice for a coffee maker.
 
I was always nervous about getting a Keurig because I worried that if the company went out of business I'd have a useless coffeemaker. Once I found out there are refillable K Cups I made sure to put one on my wedding registry.

I have both the refillable K Cup from Keurig and one from Ekobrew (http://www.ekobrew.com/) I prefer the Ekobrew one because I don't have to take anything out of the Keurig. It works great, is easy to clean, and lets me use whatever coffee I want.
 
French press and a kettle. Like the convience of the disposable cups but like with anything, with a little time and patience can't beat simplicity.
 
Sometimes you can get a good deal on Capresso auto-drip machines. That's what I'm currently using and it works very well. They say the best are Technivorm, which brew using the correct water temp and can be fitted with a showerhead to saturate all the coffee. Of course there's french press, chemex, etc. Chemex is very good for pour overs.

Also important is to have a good grinder. I use a Kitchen Aid Proline Burr Grinder, with a very consistent grind. This grinder will last forever.

I also roast coffee at home, so I get the freshest (and best) coffee possible.

Roasting coffee in an RK Drum on the back deck -
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Dumped into the cooler just into 2nd crack -
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My favorite means of course is pulling shots from the Pavoni. Unfortunately it is in need of a major overhaul as I've worn it out :)
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Crema -
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J. Galford said:
Bunn....nuf said. ;)
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I'm right there with you. We have a Cuisinart Keurig machine, and it's great, but the ancient Bunn is a lot cheaper and makes great coffee. We also have a French press which makes a great cup with a lot of work, but that mainly gets used for cold brewing iced coffee now.
 
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