Freshly ground coffee beans yield a fresher and more flavorful drink. The Breville Grind Control Coffee Maker has a built-in burr grinder that processes beans right before it makes your brew, resulting in the freshest coffee possible. It has six grinder settings, and in addition to brewing into the 12-cup stainless steel carafe, the machine can also dispense a single serving of coffee directly into a travel cup or large mug.
If you’re not a coffee or tea aficionado, you may want a no-frills basic model that simply boils water. In either case, an electric kettle also works for people who hate the alarming sound of whistling kettles and want a fast, more automatic path to their morning cup of caffeine. It’s also useful for those who don’t have easy access to a stove, such as students living in a dorm. The Cuisinart CPK-17 PerfecTemp Cordless Electric Kettle has been our top pick since 2013 because of its consistent performance and easy-to-use interface. In our tests, we found very little variation in the amount of time it took to bring a full kettle of water (1.7 L) to a boil—about 7 minutes on average. We were also impressed with this kettle’s accuracy in holding water at a set temperature.
In all honesty, I probably wouldn’t use the K Cups side myself. Okay, I take it back; I might use it to whip up the occasional instant Cuisinart Coffee hot chocolate. Still, if you’re a fan of single cup brewers, make sure the single use coffee pods you use are biodegradable.
I found this to be a lot of extra work compared with other coffee machines, and it didn’t seem worth it in the end. Flush the system three to four times Cuisinart Coffee with water afterward (unless you’re into Russian coffee). To use dish soap, you will need to be able to disassemble your whole machine, including hoses.
The maker is a machine worth getting if you love good coffee but not the process of making it. The grinding and brewing process is automatic, and you can set it to start brewing ahead of time. You also don’t need to heat up your water or worry about your coffee going cold.