Flash in the Pan

I've seen a lot of coffee makers in my day, and while for non-espresso type I still like vacuum brewing, I'm impressed by the practicality of De’Longhi's new machine. The DCF212T is smart because they designed it for people who live in real kitchens, and who often have to shove an appliance under a cabinet or shelf. A door swings out from the machine and gives you access to both the grounds filter and to a trough that directs water back into the tank. There's no need to slide the unit out any more.

The carafe holds up to 12 cups (six ounces each, I think). When I was running the first two obligatory tanks of water to clean it out before regular use, I found that if I didn't push the glass container back far enough, no water came out - an obvious and hardly innovative feature, but nice to know that it's there. Not only does the filter come out for easy cleaning, but so does the filter basket.

You can set the internal clock and then a timer, to prepare water and grounds the night before and then have it automatically start brewing in the morning. Setting the clock took some time, as you hold one button down and wait for the right time to come by. Keep the button pushed in, and it starts going through the numbers faster and faster, so you're not there all day. Another nice touch is the Aroma button - if you're making less than a full pot, press this and it drips water in more slowly to extract more of the flavor. I liked the results, though you do wait considerably longer for the coffee to be done. The built in warming plate kept liquid warm for hours, though I'd have to have coffee sitting around for that long. But if you don't mind, it won't be cold.

Not all is perfect. Although I filled the tank up to the 4 cup line, using the Aroma button I got more like 3 cups in the carafe. When I ran water straight through, it seemed to come out right, so I'm guessing that the difference is in water retained by the grounds. You might consider testing first, and possibly making a bit "more" than usual so it comes out where you want. Also, they recommend 1 TBS. of grounds per cup, which is a bit weak. Admirably, they also give the amounts suggested by some specialty coffee association, which starts off at 2 TBS. a cup and eventually lessens, so 8 cups of coffee don't need 16 TBS. of grounds. However, given the size of the basket, if you take these recommendations you can only load enough grounds for 10 cups at those recommendations.

However, that's almost to the level of a quibble. Overall, this is a great concept, and at $49.95, reasonably priced as well.

Labels: coffee, opinion, product, review