38 out of 38 people found this review helpful.
Coffee snob meets her match in the Braun Aromaster
Date of Review: Nov 19, 2006
The Bottom Line: Turns out I didn't need advanced bells and whistles. All I needed was the Braun Aromaster's basic features to finally make great coffee at home.
My name is Bugg and I'm a coffee snob. I regularly spend between $15 and $20 a week on Starbucks coffee. There. I said it. But it's just so darn good and I can't make good coffee to save my life! Really, I can't.
I've tried coffee makers with clocks, timers, gold filters, stainless carafes, you name it. During the dozen years I've been a serious coffee drinker, I've owned a dozen different coffee makers varying in price from $15 to $100, yet had very little luck making a palatable cup. It got to the point where if I held a family function or holiday dinner at my house, my mom would bring a big thermos full of coffee with her to serve with dessert. I'm just coffee challenged and resigned myself to being a $5 a day Starbucks junkie. A few months ago I was wandering around Linens N Things trying to decide what to buy with a gift card when I stumbled upon the Braun Aromaster coffeemaker.
From Braun.com:
The compact coffeemaker in the typical Braun design. This coffeemaker has been designed for those who demand regular quantities of coffee and basic features without compromising on essential aroma of freshly brewed coffee. Its capacity ranges from 4 to 10 cups providing standard features such as a swing-out filter basket with overflow protection, a Pause and Serve feature, an outside water level indicator and a cord storage compartment adding to the overall convenience.
There are absolutely no bells and whistles on this coffee maker but its beauty is in its simplicity of design and quality of coffee. The Aromaster is just plain white with an On button. It is small, plain and basic, but it gets the job done quite well. The fanciest thing about it is the reusable filter basket which fits inside the swinging basket compartment. To make a great pot of coffee simply fill the water reservoir to the desired level, put ground coffee in the filter basket, put the carafe in place, and push the on button. The Braun Aromaster brews a delicious pot of coffee quickly and with a terrific aroma.
The reservoir is in the back of the machine. To fill it up, simply lift the lid to expose the water gauge and fill with cold water. The water gauge measures from 4 to 10 cups and the opening is wide enough so that I don't end up spilling water all over the counter or down the side of the machine. The carafe is also very basic. It's clear glass with an attached white plastic lid. Although the lid is attached, it can be removed quite easily for cleaning. The spout on the carafe is shaped properly so that water or coffee pour out of it without spilling over and making a mess. My old and much more pricier coffeemaker had a carafe with an improperly shaped spout that was very difficult to pour cleanly from and it never failed to make a huge mess. The spout of the carafe on the Aromaster is just the right size and is slightly curved so that it pours just right. The other nice feature is the pause and serve feature which allows the impatient coffee drinker to remove the carafe from the base in mid-brew. Another nice feature is the cord storage compartment on the back of the machine. It's just a small hole into which the cord can be stuffed but it's nice to have that place to tuck the cord away so it's out of the way when not in use.
There are two small drawbacks about this coffeemaker but they don't really bother me. The first is that there is no automatic shutoff. The Aromaster stays on until you turn it off or unplug it so you have to remember to do one of those things. It's also kind of loud while brewing but it brews so fast and smells so good that I don't really even notice the sound.
So after years of being a coffee snob, I can finally make a great pot of coffee at home, much more cheaply than going out.
