Cuisinart DGB-550BK Grind-and-Brew 12-Cup Automatic Coffeemaker
Buy at Amazon for $80. Normally $185.
The Good
- Grinder Included
- Easy To Use (Program, Pour, etc)
- Makes Good Coffee
The Bad
- Blade Grinder
- Grinder Doesn’t Hold Enough Beans
- Lots Of Parts To Clean
The Cuisinart Grind And Brew Coffeemaker testing is complete and the results are in. There’s a few drawbacks, but overall I like this coffeemaker and use it daily.
Good
The good starts with the carafe. While I miss the thermal carafe of the Zojirushi Coffeemaker that I reviewed earlier this month, this Cuisinart carafe is easy to fill and almost never dripped or created a miss.
The water reservoir inside of the coffeemaker is easy to pour into and it has easy to read markings so I knew exactly how much water I poured into the chamber.
The Cuisinart comes with a grinder inside of the coffeemaker, so you don’t need a separate grinder. All you need to do is put the beans into the basket and it does the rest of the work.
If you want to use ground coffee or grind the beans separately, there is a setting that allows you to do that.
Cusinart supplies paper filters for this coffee maker, but it also comes with a gold tone filter. I used the paper filters once, but I haven’t looked back since then. I love the gold filter. It may take a couple seconds to clean, but I like it better than using a single paper filter over and over.
The machine is very easy to program. I didn’t even need the instructions to figure out how to set it. And for a guy that hates to ask for directions, that’s exactly what I like.
I like the idea of the 1-4 cup setting, but the coffee addict in me doesn’t see myself using it that often. However, for testing purposes I did give it a shot. It did seem to heat the water higher temperature, compared to other coffeemakers, bringing out more of the flavor.
I had zero problems with the brew and pause feature making a mess, in fact I’ve pretty much become addicted to using it so I can get that hit of caffeine even sooner.
And when it’s all done, it beeps to let you know that it’s finished. I don’t exactly need it because by then I’m usually hovering around the coffeemaker, waiting my next caffeine fix, but it’s nice to have.
Bad
The first real flaw of this coffeemaker was the grinder and basket for the beans. It’s a blade grinder and while it’s better than buying ground coffee, the blade grinder isn’t as effective at grinding the beans compared to a burr grinder which is much more precise.
The one thing that I really didn’t like about this coffeemaker was that the grinder basket didn’t hold enough beans. They recommend one scoop per cup of coffee, which makes some pretty weak coffee. I like one and a half or two scoops per cup. Twelve scoops barely fit into the grinder and when I tried to put more, it just wouldn’t grind all of the beans.
Then they provide a brush to clean out the grinder basket. It’s a nice concept, but in reality during the coffee brewing process, the chamber fills up with steam so the remaining dust attaches itself to the basket and cover. Then I have to take the grinder out and rinse it in the sink to truly clean it.
It’s not just the grinder, there’s just lots of parts to clean. It’s probably not more than cleaning a separate grinder and coffeemaker, but it does take a couple of minutes to clean properly after each use.
The grinder is also pretty loud. It’s slightly quieter than my other blade grinders, but it’s loud enough where I can hear it another room, even with the door closed.
Overall, I like the Cuisinart Grind And Brew. It made great tasting coffee and made making coffee a lot easier. It’s a major improvement over the cheap Mr. Coffeemaker that I was using before. I just recommend using it just for 6-8 cups of coffee. I’ve been using it just about every day since I took it out of the wrapping paper. However, if you want to spend more money, there is a higher end version of this coffeemaker that has a thermal carafe, a burr grinder and more space for beans in the grinder basket.
Disclosure: Thanks again to my friend and blogging arch nemesis Jen from Stiletto Sports for getting me this coffeemaker for Christmas. She didn’t ask me to review it, the only purpose of the gift was so that I would get rid of my aging Mr. Coffee coffeemaker and replace it with something a lot better.
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