I’ve always loved great coffee and find myself pretty discriminating with regards to taste. You have to buy the best beans and grind them yourself, as coffee flavors are carried in the oils. Those oils deteriorate faster when they’re ground and exposed to air. But coffeemakers are important too. The drip release of the water through the grounds and into the pot can’t be too fast or the coffee will end up weak. I know. I’ve had large models that seemed designed for speed rather than slow release coffee making.
Recently I purchased a Mr. Coffee Model TF4 mini-coffeemaker and it’s really one of the best kitchen purchases I’ve made in many years. This model can only make 4 cups, so you don’t have a lot of coffee sitting around getting losing flavor. I live by myself now that my son is out of the house. I don’t need or want large appliances–especially a large coffee maker. For people living alone, this coffee maker is sure a great little appliance.
If you have a small grinder, it will grind just enough to fill the coffee filter that fits this model, so there’s no waste there. I’ve even put good cocoa into the grinds and it produced very good coffee with a slight mocha flavor. The model has none of the frills and features that many people don’t need and don’t want to pay for. It’s just a good, little, four-cup coffee maker–no timer on this baby. But it makes four cups of coffee in just about three minutes. Just push the “on” button and you’re ready to drink up.
This model doesn’t cost much, just under $30, as I remember. It’s also easy to clean because you just take the pot and place it in the dishwasher. I don’t have a dishwasher, but I sure can attest that the small size of the pot makes it much easier to handle in the sink and to place in a rack that doesn’t have much room. It’s a great little maker for students who can put it in their dorm rooms. No student should be without coffee! It also packs us easily for storage and moving from dorm to dorm.
There’s a good warranty with this model. Just fill in the card and send it into the Sunbeam Corp. They’re very good about repairs, I hear, though I have never had to use mine. Sunbeam makes reliable products with good motors and this is just one that happens to fit perfectly into my very scaled-down lifestyle.
