No Bitterness Here - a Fine Coffeemaker!

I am a real coffee lover and have been searching for years for a coffeemaker that can deliver a (near) Starbucks level brew at home. However, I am also somewhat frugal ;-) and never wanted to re-mortgage the house to buy a high end brewer. When my last decent machine died I just went out and bought a $10 cheapie at Target to carry me through while I searched for a new, decent machine.

A couple of weeks ago I broke the carafe on the cheapie so I headed out to look for a new one. In one store I happened to run across the Cuisinart DGB-300 on sale for about $50. It looked like a great deal so I bought it.

I got the machine home and read through the manual, got it set up, and looked forward to my first pot. The next morning I broke out a brand new bag of Starbucks coffee beans, loaded up the grinder, hit the button and, RRRRRRRRRRRR, waited for the brewer to do it's thing. A few minutes later - beep, beep, beep - the machine let me know the coffee was ready.

Next it was time to taste the results. I can tell you that this was definitely one of the best cups of coffee that I have ever brewed at home. Not quite Starbucks shop level but really good - excellent flavor. What really struck me was that there was not even the slightest hint of bitterness. According to the manual, the Cuisinart "Coffee Bar" system sends only a portion of the hot water through the grind and then diverts the remaining hot water directly into the pot. This is supposed to yield less bitterness and I really can tell the difference.

I like my coffee fairly strong and I will say that the coffee came out milder than I like. However, I am not sure if this is the result of the brewer or it is because the beans that I bought were a mild blend. I am going to buy a bolder blend next time and see if that makes a difference. You can turn off the Coffee Bar system if you like and the machine will send all of the water through the filter same as a standard machine. This may increase the strength but may also result in some bitterness. I think I will do some experimentation with this feature!

I have read a lot of the reviews here and many of the people complained about the coffee being weak. I am wondering if they read the manual and are properly setting the Coffee Bar system. They should try turning it off and see if that improves the strength.

I know that the longer you leave brewed coffee in the carafe on the warmer, the worse it gets. However I was really surprised that even after a couple of hours on the warmer, the coffee was still very good and not bitter at all! I think this may be due to the fact that the lid on the carafe has a little cover that seals the mouth when it is down and opens up nicely when you pour it. It works very well. I also noticed that the coffee pours out without spillage, even if you pour it quickly - this was a problem in many of the other brewers I have owned.

I have only owned the machine for about a week so I cannot speak to the reliability, but it looks to be sturdier than most of the basic machines I have owned.

Cleaning is a complaint I have seen in a number of reviews. There are 3 parts that must be removed and cleaned (in addition to the carafe). They come out easily and can be quickly washed with soap and given a rinse - no big deal really. You do have to make sure that the parts are dry otherwise the coffee grinds will stick in the chute and not flow into the filter properly - just common sense.

One last thing: if you use the timer to brew a pot in the morning you won't need an alarm clock when the grinder kicks into gear! :-)