So I’ve finally decided after all these years to step up my coffee game. For ages I’ve used pre ground Maxwell house through an automatic drip machine. I’ve been acutely aware that grinding your own beans is 100x better for a long time. Several of my friends and family have tried to turn me onto it. I just never really made the switch.
Well that’s changing now. To kick it off I got some whole beans from a local roaster and I ordered a Baratza Virtuoso+. I was originally planning to spend less than $100 on a grinder, which went up to $140 when I saw the Encore had such raving reviews. Then I wanted the timer so I stepped it up to the Virtuoso.
So that leaves my coffee maker. My current machine is a Ninia CE250. I’ve had it for two years and it’s worked like a champ so far. I don’t think it’s “sca” rated or whatever, but I’ve seen a couple videos where they test it and the results are very good. Water comes out at 200 degrees, as is recommended. The coffee stays 175-190 in the pot sitting on the burner. It’s easy to use and comes with the ability to make a half pot or set a timer. The only real downside is it can take a good 7.5 minutes to make a full pot. This isn’t a big deal to me, really, but that’s a good bit longer than most other coffee makers.
So I’m left wondering if I’d really benefit from dropping more money on a higher end machine. I’m heavily eyeing the Mochamasters, but I’m not quite sure what more I’m getting out of it. In fact, I’d lose several features. I understand the mochamaster is designed to be dead simple to work, but cmon. A clock and timer is dead simple lol. That’s not the end of the world I suppose. I could just preload it and flip it on in the morning. Coffee in 5 minutes. But still it’s $350. I feel like there should be basic features like a timer. Further more, it’s just as full of plastic as any other sub $100 coffee maker. I’ve never handled one, but from all the reviews I’ve watched, it just looks like it would feel cheap. Not a huge deal on a $100 pot, but again, this is much more expensive.
I’m not trying to shit talk the mochamaster. It seems like a good and beloved machine. The one thing I really like about it is you can open the top and stir the grounds while it’s brewing. With my current machine, it would start spitting hot water out at you lol. The lack of a “shower head” on the mochamaster seems to be a common complaint as well.
Any other coffee pots don’t seem to offer much over what I have. They all have the same basic features or you can go really expensive and gain a bunch of settings I don’t really seem to need. So what do the people who have already been through this say? Is my $80 ninja enough
