The convenience factor is another reason why it’s my preferred way of brewing coffee. All you need to do is add some beans and water the night before and set the time for when you wake up. This feature is also helpful if you’re hosting guests for dinner. The Cuisinart can brew up to 10 cups of coffee in a single-serve. So if you have a big family with high caffeine tolerances, then you can satisfy everyone’s craving with one brew. This is by far my favorite benefit since I can prepare the machine the night before, and when I wake up, all I have to do is pour a cup of coffee.
The coffee maker has an LCD display that allows you to choose the grind setting, grind time and number of cups to make. There are eight strength settings, along with the option to use pre-ground coffee for those times you don’t have whole beans on hand. This sleek coffee maker from OXO is decked out with high-tech features to help you make a better cup of coffee.
The Cuisinart Grind & Brew 12-Cup Automatic Coffee Maker sports a modern design with a brushed metal console and black accents. I found that it looked elegant, and it fits in well with my other kitchen appliances. It’s also rather compact, measuring only 7.48 by 11.2 by 15.16 inches.
Still, it was somewhat heavy and unwieldy, and the top was tough to remove, which could present a safety issue if still hot. Finally, this kettle’s boiling speed wasn’t great—5 minutes 40 seconds for a liter of water. Like the buttons on the Cuisinart CPK-17, each preset button on the Breville IQ is marked with both the temperature and the beverage it’s used for .
But the biggest problem was that after boiling, the water had a slight plastic taste and smell. The KitchenAid KEK1722 Electric Kettle was a runner-up pick previously, but after long-term testing, we were beyond irritated by its excessive Cuisinart Coffee beeping. Also, the kettle always defaults to Celsius; for Fahrenheit temperatures, you have to change the settings every time you use it. For our 2022 update, we repeated the boil speed tests , as well as the temperature accuracy tests.
The Coffee Center also has a couple of features to conserve energy. There’s an auto off feature on the drip brew side that’s adjustable. This lets you decide when the coffee maker will shut off and can be set for up to four hours after the brew cycle is finished. First, the 60 ounce reservoir for the drip brewer is not removable. You’ll need to have enough clearance above the coffee maker to pour in your water. Not only that, filling the water tank takes a steady hand seeing as there isn’t much of an opening to aim for.