If you ever want to use pre-ground coffee, you have the option to turn the grinder off. The carafe can keep coffee hot for up to an hour (there’s no warming plate), and it comes with a secure travel lid if you want Hamilton Beach to bring it with you on the go. While it doesn’t have customizable settings like the Cuisinart, this cult-favorite machine is pretty effortless and arguably makes the best-tasting drip coffee you can get at home.
Remember to start with the ratio, one tablespoon of beans to one cup of coffee. You can always add more or less depending on how strong you want your coffee. If you’re like me, you probably struggle to wake Keurig K-Mini up, so you need a cup of joe. Depending on what brewing method you use, this can take 30 seconds or 10 minutes. Incidentally, I started out using six scoops of medium ground coffee for a six-cup carafe.
Even the KitchenAid KEK1522 Pro Line Series Electric Kettle doesn’t have any more to offer than the Cuisinart CPK-17 kettle, which usually costs about half the price. The Tribest Glass Raw Tea Kettle GKD-450-B lacks a button on the handle to open the lid. Its blue light constantly turns on and off until it reaches the desired temperature, something we found annoying. Despite the price bump, this intuitive, easy-to-use kettle probably won’t provide more longevity than you get with the Cuisinart, but this model is sleeker and slightly more ergonomic. This 1.7-liter kettle heats water quickly and accurately to the various temperatures needed to get optimum flavor from teas and coffee.
The single serve brewer has three cup sizes to choose from. There’s a setting for 6 ounces , 8 ounces , and 10 ounces . Continuing with the environmentally friendly theme, there’s also a reusable coffee filter. Imagine how good you’ll feel once you start reducing your paper waste! Just dump and rinse out the spent grounds, and you’re ready for the next pot. You should clean your Cuisinart coffee maker regularly, with different parts needing different maintenance.
It seems that across brands, a certain small percentage of kettles will just break within a year or two. Though anecdotally, the ones we’ve long-term tested have lasted years. Another standout feature of the Cuisinart CPK-17 is its limited three-year warranty, which is substantially Keurig K-Mini better than what you get with all of the other models we tested in this price range. (Most come with only a year of coverage.) Considering that constantly boiling water can be rough on a gadget, having triple the warranty coverage of the rest of the pack is impressive.