Cuisinart Fully Automatic Burr Grind & Brew 12 Cup Coffeemaker Review

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(More customer reviews)Review for: Cuisinart Fully Automatic Burr Grind & Brew 12 Cup Coffeemaker
First a heads-up... the product's picture shows a "black" carafe which might lead you to believe it is a thermal carafe. This is not the case, it is actually a glass carafe filled to the brim with coffee. As such, be forewarned that this product does not include a thermal carafe (I was fooled, but it's interesting to note that Amazon suggested I include "thermal carafe" when "tagging" this review.) Instead, it ships with a glass carafe and features a hot-plate that has a programmable auto shut-off.
My disappointment with the carafe aside, this product has worked marvelously (received it three weeks ago.) It houses a burr grinder as opposed to a cheap blade grinder. It cleans up very easily compared to my old "Melitta MEMB1 Mill & Brew" (less than two minutes to rinse the carafe and filter-chamber/cap; after drying it's ready to be loaded with a new filter in less than 30 seconds.) The bean-hopper has a good seal to it, although I am unsure as to whether the clear plastic used offers UV protection (I would prefer to see a shaded plastic used to protect the beans inside; but I suppose the clear plastic offers a better design-element and the functionality of being able to see the level of beans inside.) And, in terms of the most important aspect, it makes great tasting coffee! (My girlfriend still marvels daily at how good the coffee is.)
Having owned and operated a coffee shop a few years back, I thought I might emphasize the importance of buying a burr grinder vs a blade grinder (for those of you who are interested and new to the art of making gourmet coffee.) First, burr grinders do not produce nearly the level of heat that can be produced by blade grinders. Heat denatures the delicate flavors of the beans (which is also why I was disappointed by having a glass carafe that sits over a direct source of high-heat.) Second, burr grinders ensure that each particle of ground coffee is consistent in size; meaning flavor extraction can be truly optimized and achieved with consistency... The flavor of your coffee is based on the contact time between the beans' chemicals and water; varied sizes of particles means the chemicals are exposed to water for varying amounts of time, and the chemicals have varied distances to travel to escape the fibers of the bean particles. A blade grinder results in variably-variable sizes of particles... meaning variable flavors escaping the clutches of the bean fibers. If you are planning to spend the extra money to buy high-quality beans, it is important to both preserve the chemicals inside (destroyed by heat, light and oxygen) and to extract them in a reasonable manner that enables isolation of the chemicals responsible for "good" flavors.
If the science of coffee interests you, Scientific American had a great article written by Ernesto Illy in June 2002, titled "The Complexity of Coffee." At only 6 pages, it's a pretty quick read and well worth the time. Here's a link: [...]

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