Sleek Looks and Good Joe
Written: Feb 24 '03 (Updated Feb 24 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good, very hot, cafe quality coffee, see thru water tank level indicator
Cons: Finicky filter, feet that won't stay on, thermos lid difficult to remove
The Bottom Line: Sleek style, good coffee, clever removable water tank. But be ready to coddle it's filters when what you really want is your morning coffee.
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| libbylou's Full Review: Starbucks Starbucks Aroma Thermal Brewer |
Starbucks and Martha Stewart Omnimedia are two companies with which I have love/hate relationships. Their omnipresence to suburban shoppers gets really annoying, but they really do produce good products on the whole. One exception might be Starbucks' Aroma Thermal Brewer. This would not have been my first choice for a new coffee maker, but since our three year old Capresso Coffee Bar was leaking all over the counter and going without it for a month while it was being serviced was not an option, my husband came home on Valentine's Day with the Thermal Brewer. While we were excited by the delicious first several cups, the Brewer's flaws became immediately apparent.
For one thing, its rubber feet refuse to stay on, and when they are on, it's almost impossible to move the unit across the counter without leaving them behind stuck in position to the counter.
Then there's the silly filter thing. Once in the filter holder, you have to moisten the #4 cone shaped paper filter to sort of weigh it down so that when you put in the coffee, the filter sides won't flare out away from the holder. If this happens, most of the water remains in the filter until you go to pour a cup of the coffee you been anxiously awaiting and find the thermos empty. Once you fix the paper filter, all the coffee backed up in it enters the thermos and you wind up with mud like coffee in your cup.
Pros:
Brew time is extremely fast and the unit has a convenient auto shut-off (great for someone like me who tends to forget why I walked into a room). Along those lines, there's a bobbing float that indicates the water level via a see-thru indicator on the removable water tank. By the time I've filled the tank, I've already forgotten how much water I put in and this float is easy to see.
Removable water tank: Sweet option for me because I've never met a liquid I haven't spilled. You just tip the square tank back, lift it up and out, fill it, stick it in its little house. Press start.
Re: water: We have well water treated only by the WaterPik filter on our kitchen faucet. I highly recommend using bottled water if you're, a. a coffee snob like me, b. in a water situation like ours, or, c. both. Calcium buildup is no doubt what killed our Capresso even though I tried to keep up with a decalcifying "regimen".
Also, this thing brews the hottest coffee of any drip coffeemaker I've ever owned.
We did a little aftermarket research on epinion.com and found that for the price, the Thermal Brewer is sort of in a league of its own in terms of styling (which we really like) and coffee quality (ditto). We'd paid $300 for the Capresso coffee and espresso maker and that died after three years, so I wasn't eager to buy another one of theirs.
I plan to use the programmable timer to make my morning java so I don't have to deal with the bratty filter when I can barely see straight.
So, despite it's flaws, it's ours now and we're dealing with it's finicky-ness. Plus, I really like the counter space I've gained since the demise of my one foot-wide Capresso!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
libbylou
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Location: CT
Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Former professional ice skater, now a Web developer, mom to seven pets.
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