Coffee & Espresso Makers Tips

Cuisinart DGB-600BC 10-Cup Coffee Maker Product Technical Details102102557 Key FeaturesTypeCoffee MakerBuilt-in Water Filt...

If you are thinking about buying a new coffee maker….Read This. Cuisinart DGB 600 10 Cup Coffee Maker This Cuisinart DGB-600BC Grind and Brew Coffee Maker is really a great buy. The Brushed Chrome look is fantastic. ...

The Cuisinart DGB-600BC is a sleek-looking, fully-programmable, revolutionary coffee maker that takes 99% of the guesswork out of brewing a good cup of coffee. It perfectly grinds the beans and even carbon filters the water right before brewing. The coffee is stored in a thermal carafe that keeps the coffee hot and fresh for hours without the need for a warmer.

It’s one glaring weakness is one that is shared by 99% of all home coffee makers, the brew temperature is too low. The average consumer won’t care, but coffee fanatics will be disappointed.

There are five keys to making great coffee and in reverse order of importance they are:

5. Good water

4. Good beans

3. Right grind just before brewing

2. Right proportion of ground coffee to water

1. Correct brewing temperature

You have to buy your own beans and if your tap water is horrible, no amount of filtration is going to make it perfect. But the Cusinart DGB-600BC will help clean up your water before brewing and will help you to absolutely nail numbers 2 and 3 on the list above, grind beans perfectly right before brewing and get the right proportion of water to ground coffee.

The coolest feature of this coffee maker is the built in grinder. The grinder consists of a motor and a removable two piece grinder assembly. The motor stays in the coffee maker and the removable assembly fits into a pocket that allows the motor to engage the grinder blades. The assembly has a lid that fits over the bean hopper. At the bottom of the bean hopper are the grinder blades, and along the side is rough mesh screen covering a chute which leads down to the brew basket. The secret of the whole deal is the screen which prevents any bean or piece of bean from leaving the bean hopper until it’s the right size. This means you’ll end up with perfectly ground coffee in the brew basket every time. It also means that the bean hopper is easy to take out and clean. And if you don’t have beans, but only pre-ground coffee, the machine has a no grind brew option, so you can just fill the brew basket with ground coffee and go.

The next nice feature is the commercial style gold tone filter that fits into the brew basket. I like these type of filters, because they are completely re-usable and you don’t have to keep buying paper filters. However, if you like paper filters about any standard coffee filter will work with this machine.

Another plus is the carbon water filter, which helps remove any impurities that may be in your tap water. They don’t last all that long though, Cuisinart recommends changing them every 60 days (a package of 12 costs $34.95 on Cuisinart’s website =>

http://www.cuisinart.com/parts_accessories/parts.php?item_id=34&product_id=14&cat_id=3)

If you have good tap water or use filtered or bottled water for brewing your coffee you don’t need filters. But it’s nice that they are there.

Finally, one of the most important features is the thermal carafe. The only problem with a thermal carafe is that you can’t see how much coffee is left, but that pales into insignificance once you see how nice having your coffee stored in a thermal carafe is. It stays hot for a good long time with no need for a warmer to keep it hot. I usually make 1 pot of coffee every morning, and when I dump out the old coffee the next morning, it’s still hot enough to steam. It also means you never have to wonder 4 hours after you left your house, if you turned off the warmer before you left. There is no way I’d ever go back to a glass carafe after using this coffee maker.

Finally. the sleek styling, brushed stainless steel exterior and cord storage make this coffee maker look at home in any great kitchen.

Now let’s talk about the #1 key to making great coffee, and that’s brewing temperature. Virtually every home coffee maker fails miserably when it comes to brewing temperature and the Cusinart DGB-600BC, for all it’s cool features and revolutionary design, is no exception.

Properly brewed coffee is made with water just below a boil, 195 to 205 degrees Fahrenheit (91-96 C). A fresh brewed pot of coffee should be no less than 190 degrees Fahrenheit (87 C). You must have that high of a brewing temperature to extract the flavor from the beans.

Either most consumers don’t care for coffee that hot, or manufacturers of coffee makers won’t make machines that brew coffee that hot for fear that a malfunctioning coffee maker could start a fire. I’m not sure what the reason is.

But a cup of coffee poured out of a Cuisinart DGB-600BC immediately after brewing comes in at a puny 152 degrees Fahrenheit. And this is even after following Cuisinart’s recommendation of rinsing out the carafe with hot tap water to raise it’s temperature before brewing a pot.

Yes, the thermal carafe keeps the coffee warm and fresh for several hours, but if the coffee was brewed at the right temperature in the first place, it would be much better to begin with.

Most consumers won’t care, they will still get a better cup of coffee out of this coffee maker than they would with 90% of the home coffee makers on the market. But coffee fanatics that want a great cup of coffee will be disappointed.

This coffee maker is makes it simple to routinely brew good coffee, but it is completely incapable of making great coffee.

The only other minor weakness is that it only makes 10 five ounce cups of coffee instead of 12 like most home coffee makers. And if they’re not great cups, at least they’re good cups.

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