If you want the BEST coffee available without regard to a high level of kitchen aesthetics, and at a high price buy the Technivorm KBTS; its terrific.
Positive Product Points
- Quality of the resulting coffee - Operating it is simple yet allows for some creativity in brewing - Brewing temperature of the water is correct
Negative Product Points
- Overall design aesthetics are amateurish - The 34 ounce round carafe does not pour well due to a design flaw in the lip/lid that causes it to splash. - The company included a small tray/plastic area for seating the carafe that is useless. - Hard to believe that we must spend $200 to get a coffee maker that brew water at 200 degrees!
Detailed Commentary
The Moccamaster KBTS is a superb vehicle for brewing excellent coffee, but beware while delivering a superb cup of coffee it also will embarrass you if you try to use old or poor quality coffee as it will highlight these weaknesses as well! The enclosed pamphlet suggests a brewing method that works very well with this unit where you set the release to hold rather than to drip while brewing, let it fill, and then after about a minute re-set it to 'slow drip' and this will render superb coffee. Initially I tried to measure the coffee temperature and the water with a digital thermometer when I got results that tasted poor. Whereas the temperatures were lower than I would have liked, after some correspondence with Sweet Maria's I tried varying the size of the grounds to medium and this still did not solve the problem. Exasperated I bought some new coffee and re-tried the experiment. WOW! Terrific! My problem was 3-week old coffee beans due to a Christmas holiday away. I had re-vacuumed them but that apparently was not adequate. Lesson learned. I have had no poor results since. The Technivorm KBTS is a terrific unit, and I would buy it again but it is terribly overpriced based on how little time and effort they gave to product design aesthetics. How can they justify this price when they spend next to nothing on marketing? This niche market is simply too empty of high quality coffee brewing machines. Is it really that hard to make a machine that actually delivers hot water? Guess so. Well, until someone else comes along I have to say that this unit has delivered the best coffee of any machine that I have tried in the past 10 years.
Buying Experience
Sweet Maria's is terrific. They answered any and all questions quickly and the unit was shipped on the first available business day.
