Ground to a Halt

My beloved Krups grind-and-brew coffee maker stopped working over the weekend. Everything was fine on Saturday; on Sunday it ground the coffee beans as usual, but when I turned on the brewing cycle nothing happened. I'm guessing this means that the heating element has given out. I wish I had the ability to repair it, but that's not the case. It lasted six years, which I suppose isn't so bad for a kitchen appliance. I've had other coffee makers that worked for much shorter periods of time. The Mrs. has a french press she used to use at work, so at least we were still able to make coffee.

I spent some time thinking about what I wanted to get to replace the Krups. I briefly considered replacing the machine with one just like it, but to be honest it had become something of a pain to use. The coffee it made was delicious, but the ground coffee never got fully expelled from the grinder, so each day I had to pick up the unit and bang on the side to get all the coffee into the filter (otherwise it wouldn't be strong enough), then add the water. It also made a mess in general, spraying ground coffee dust on the counter when the lid snapped shut.

At first I thought I might take the minimalist approach and get a Chemex pot, which is basically a manual "pour-over" version of a drip coffee maker. It's a beautiful object to look at, plus it's relatively inexpensive (around $40), and there's also a version with a handle. You still have to boil water, but otherwise it's much less fussy than a french press. But then I noticed that the Chemex pots require a special type of filter that costs $8 for a package of 100, which is four times what I pay for cone filters at Trader Joe's or Market Basket. It might seem silly to fret about that, but cost of use has to be considered. Sorry, Chemex.

A Chemex would also require getting a separate coffee grinder, which I'm fine with, since I'm far too entrenched in the pleasure of drinking coffee made from freshly ground beans to revert to buying pre-ground coffee, but those little cylindrical blade grinders that cost $20 are terrible; a burr grinder, which uses plates to crush the beans, is the way to go, and they are large enough that you can grind a larger quantity of coffee beans at one time if you wish. I can grind beans two or three times a week and store the ground coffee in an airtight container.

So I decided I would find a decent drip coffee maker and a decent burr grinder. I still want a coffee maker that uses cone filters, which is harder to find than the kind that uses basket-shaped filters. I settled on a Melitta unit with a thermal carafe, made by Hamilton Beach, because it had good user reviews and because it was available through my credit card reward program by using points I had already accrued. (The Krups was also obtained with gift cards which I exchanged reward points for.) It's already on the way and will arrive Wednesday.

I looked at a lot of grinders, and I noticed that a lot of the negative reviews were from people who said they couldn't get a grind fine enough for espresso. I sympathize with them, but I'm only interested in regular coffee that's going in a drip machine, so I actually want a coarser grind. If you filter out those reviews, the picture can be quite different. I asked a friend what grinder he uses, and it turns out he has the one I was thinking of getting. It's by Cuisinart and is nothing fancy (it's not too difficult to spend more than $100 on a grinder alone), but it will do the job and I can purchase one in a store nearby.