Entrepreneurs Need To Drink…

Coffee, that is!

Our current coffee pot at home is a Melitta Mill & Brew. It has the following problems:

1. Doesn't brew coffee hot enough, so the full flavor is not achieved; it's blah


2. Pot is made of glass, so the coffee doesn't stay hot after brewing


3. Warmer under the glass pot continues to cook the coffee after brewing, which quickly detracts from the flavor over time


4. A plastic piece which holds the grinder in place broke off some months ago, but that has not affected the brewing, until...


5. Another plastic piece broke off that holds the coffee filter in place. I "fixed" it, temporarily, but we knew the time would come to replace it.

So, I spent the day, well, really, almost the whole day on Saturday researching coffee pots. One day of my life consumed in the quest for better coffee. Such as it is. Results of my hard work gladly shared with you below.

Core requirements were:

1. Brew temperature of 195+ degrees F (ideal is 195-205)


2. Quality construction


3. Thermal carafe (with vacuum seal ability)


4. Automatic timer to start the brew going in the morning


5. Under $200 (the Melitta can be had for $60, so we were willing to spend more)

Having a grinder was a nice-to-have, but not required. We also didn't need some fancy $3,000 espresso, cappuccino, latte, fancy-shmancy unit. We just wanted good, basic coffee that brewed at the right temperature and stayed hot for a few hours (while I blog and drink!). For espresso, we would just buy a dedicated espresso machine later. For the other stuff - well, we don't care.

After reading a ton of reviews, I determined that there was no perfect model. Everything had quality control issues. Also, the addition of the Thermal Carafe apparently causes a number of design problems in these units, resulting in coffee spilling out onto the cabinet and the floor if you don't place the carafe perfectly back in the unit. This seemed to be universal among all the models. I chose to accept the risk so I can have my coffee hot in the pot and not cooked to crap in the glass.

Under $100, there were two that caught my eye:

• Zojirushi EC-BD15
  The Zojirushi looks to be the best value. You can find it for $75 on NewEgg. Most of the complaints surround the spilling problem I mentioned above, and the fact that the unit seemed to fail in some way after 9-12 months of service (lots of quality problems). On the plus side, it seems to brew at the (correct) hottest temperatures, and the carafe appears to hold the heat. Ignoring the quality complaints, this appeared to be a really good "value" coffee maker. I was tempted by this one, but chose to pass because of the rampant quality problems and reports of spilling.


• Cuisinart DTC-975
  The Cuisinart also had plenty of spills reported. I could not get any feel for whether the coffee brewed at the proper temperature. However, the Cuisinart received very high marks for the Thermal Carafe itself - they may have the best one out there. Unfortunately, quality problems plagued the lid on the carafe, making it very hard for folks to line everything up perfectly - spills galore. I felt good about the carafe, but without confirmation of the brew temperature and the quality issues, I decided to pass on this one too.

Above $100, the following didn't make the cut either:

• Cuisinart DGB-600 Grind-and-Brew
  This one runs about $148. It does include a coffee grinder, whish would be a nice plus. However, 2 family members already owned it. After talking to them, this one was quickly removed from the list. Doesn't brew at the right temperature and doesn't keep the coffee hot. We didn't hear any spilling complaints.


• Capresso CoffeeTEAM Therm
  This one runs about $299. Also includes a coffee grinder. However, the grinds are fed into the filter through an elaborate swing-arm motion of the filter basket. It looks cool, sure, but that's way too many moving parts. And, the reviews confirmed my instinct. Keep it simple, guys. Good reports on coffee quality, however. And, it was well beyond what we wanted to pay. TWIT Review here.


• Capresso ST600
  This one runs about $230. It's beautiful looking, no grinder, and a bit beyond our price limit. I would have given it serious consideration, but there just weren't enough reviews posted to make me comfortable spending that much for a coffee maker. Capresso does seem to know how to brew coffee at the correct temperature, however, so i feel like I would have gotten a decent coffee maker. I just had no way to know. Pass.

So, who won the business?

We decided to purchase the Capresso MT500 (Model 440.05).

Capresso seemed to consistently make good coffee. This unit seemed to have fewer complaints of spills and quality problems (but it certainly did have its share). It runs about $169, so it is certainly not cheap, but it is in our price range. The Thermal Carafe does not appear to be as good as the Zojirushi or the Cuisinart DTC-975, but I think it will be such an upgrade compared to what we have now, that I am not worried.

The coffeegeek site included a nice review on this unit, but the review is a bit dated.

Placed the order on Amazon on Saturday evening. It arrived today. I will do a follow-up report with full stats on brewing temperature and carafe thermal capabilities.

Venture Capital Note: The process of finding and reading user-generated product reviews is really painful and time consuming. Nobody has found a way to build a great social networking site around reviews which attract, rate, build a reviewer's reputation, and rewards them for their contributions. Or, a site that aggregates the reviews of the hundreds of shopping sites with proprietary review engines. Add a note in the comments if you think I should try and comment on a better review engine for consumer products.

Tags: Coffee, Coffee Makers, Cuisinart, Zojirushi, Capresso, Melitta, Reviews, VC, Venture Capital, Brian Berliner, brianberliner