Coffee Maker Comparison

There are many different ways to make coffee. Since I really love good cups of coffee, here are my thoughts on different methods.

Automatic Drip-Brew

Currently I own Cuisinart drip-brew coffee maker. You need a filter and grinder (or you can buy ground coffee beans) to make a full pot of coffee in a few minutes. This particular type of pot keeps the temperature for a while, so it is good to enjoy with several friends. Of course keeping the coffee in the pot for a while would make the taste of the coffee go bad. After using this for a while, I noticed that the taste of the coffee isn’t so great and it gets worse as you use more. I tried changing filters, washing the machine using vinegar, tried washing inside the pot to remove coffee stains but still the taste wasn’t so great. The most effective thing was to cleaning the coffee stains inside the pot, but this is quite difficult. The way the pot is small at the opening and deep inside, you can not scrub hard at the bottom of the pot. Cause of the flat taste maybe due to the water not being boiled, or passing through paper filter. For the taste wise, this machine is B.

 

Tassimo coffee maker

This is actually great for one or two cups of coffee. I have used Keurig as well and they are both good for a single cup. You could also make cappuccino, latte, hot chocolate, specialty coffee etc. as long as you can find the disks. Major problem with this is that you can only make the types of drinks available in disks. I have to say that Keurig has wider variety of specialty coffee, but Tassimo is great for cappuccino. Making tea with this is actually a bad idea. It doesn’t taste good at all. Since I can’t seem to find great tasting coffee in Tassimo disks, I usually use it for cappuccino, latte, hot chocolate or espresso. For taste wise, this machine is A, but lack of variety makes this machine as “cappuccino machine” rather than coffee maker for me.

 

 

 

French Press

This coffee maker probably makes the best tasting coffee among these three methods. Adding freshly ground coffee and pour hot boiling water makes the best coffee ever. However this method is dangerous if you are not careful. Older version of French coffee makers sold in the market had issues with holding up the pressure. This causes unexpected splash of hot water when you are pressing it down. I had severely burnt myself twice in my arm resulting second degree burns. Since then, I was mostly using other methods of making coffee but recently I bought the newer version of French press that looked safe enough for me. I’m still very cautious using this machine and you need to make sure no children are running around when you are pressing this coffee. For taste wise, this coffee maker is A+, but not very safe to use.

 

 

Summary

If I were to live with a single machine, I will probably choose Tassimo, but if someone would make it for me, I would love to live with French press. Drip-brew is fine for serving many friends but I won’t use it for one cup of coffee.
As for the beans, you should buy whole beans and grind when you need. Even the best coffee beans don’t taste good if already grounded and not in sealed environment for a while.