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I love making my coffee with fresh ground beans so I was definitely looking forward to purchasing a grind and brew system. There are a few small kinks with this Cuisinart system, but for the most part I am very happy with it.
Having a carafe was a necessity because I work from home and I like to bring the carafe into my office so I do not have to keep going to the kitchen to refill my coffee. The carafe is double insulated and keeps coffee hot for about 3 hours which is really nice. Also, the coffee brews very hot and does not seem to be cooled down at all by the cold carafe. Aesthetically the machine is very nice to look at with the brushed steel and looks great just sitting on my counter, definitely not an eyesore. The hopper is huge and holds enough beans to brew about 2 full pots of coffee which is definitely a convenience. I also love how the grinder spits out exactly the right amount of beans depending on how many cups of coffee you would like to brew. Another great feature is that I can specify if I like my coffee mild, medium, or strong. I like my coffee strong, but my husband likes his medium so it has been good for us to be able to choose per pot.
The only drawbacks with this machine are too insignificant for me to really have a problem with it. First of all, you can only check the water level from the back of the machine, which means I have to pull it out from against the wall to check it. Also, the grinder does tend to grind a bit coarse, but to remedy this I simply set it to grind 6 cups worth of beans, but only put enough water in for 5 cups. That tends to do the trick. The chute where the grinds come out does need to be cleaned every 4-5 uses I find, and it is slightly difficult to get in there, but I manage to get it all clean and clear within a couple of minutes.
I found that most grind and brew systems with carafe were in the same general price range, though this one seemed to be at the lower end. Overall I am very pleased with it and I do not think I could ask for anything better for the money that I spent on it. It has most of the same features of more expensive systems, but perhaps slightly less convenience. I will take that trade and I would definitely recommend this machine to someone looking for a quality grind and brew system for low cost.
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