I’m a huge coffee fan, and I’ve been using a pod coffee maker since it first came out. I like how easy it is to pop a pod in, make a single cup of coffee, and there’s nothing to clean up but my cup. But while I love my pod coffee maker, there are a lot of times I’ve thought it would be good to have a drip coffee maker too. Now that I’ve tested out the Cuisinart automatic drip coffee maker, I know I have the option of choosing a coffee maker that gives you the best of both worlds. It can make 12 cups of drip coffee on one side and up to 12 ounces of pod coffee on the other. As a bonus feature, it can even make coffee over ice.
Features of the Cuisinart automatic drip coffee maker
The Cuisinart automatic drip coffee maker is a drip and pod hybrid machine. It’s very light as it’s made of black plastic with chrome accents. The coffee maker includes a few paper coffee filters, a reusable Home Barista pod filter, and a scoop.
- Makes up to 12 cups of drip coffee and has 5-cup sizes for pod coffee
- Can brew a full pot of coffee up to 25% faster thanks to extreme brew technology
- Auto on and auto off mode let you time your brewing
- Temperature control, pause, and bold flavour settings
- Pod coffee maker has a platform so you can brew into small cups, or you can fold it up for travel mugs
- Brew over ice setting lets you make iced coffee
Setting up the Cuisinart automatic drip coffee maker
The Cuisinart automatic drip coffee maker comes with everything you need to begin brewing and there is no complicated set up required. Just unbox the coffee maker, plug it in, and you can brew drip coffee or pod coffee. I like how Cuisinart included paper filters so you have a few to tide you over until you can pick more up. I also like the included HomeBarista filter for pod coffee. You can use it with ground coffee so you don’t have to buy pods.
Using the Cuisinart automatic drip coffee maker
It’s always a lot of fun testing out a coffee maker like the Cuisinart automatic drip coffee maker, and I could immediately see the appeal of having one in my kitchen. It gives you the best of both drip and pod coffee, so you can make both whenever you need to.
I like the design of this coffee maker. I would have thought it would be a lot bigger but it was very small and lightweight. It’s not fingerprint-resistant but it does buff up nicely if you smudge it. The menu is easy to use and there are buttons for all your custom options. You can turn the dial from auto-on to brew to auto-off. Auto-on sets a delay so your coffee maker starts up in the morning before you wake up and auto-off will turn your coffee maker off at a certain time.
Drip coffee with temperature control
I was intrigued by the carafe temperature control button on the Cuisinart automatic drip coffee maker. Most drip coffee makers don’t let you adjust the temperature, but you can make extremely hot coffee with this coffee maker. I tapped the button to choose between low, medium, and high, and opted for the high setting to see how hot it could get. I added the water and the coffee began brewing, and the carafe immediately steamed up because of the temperature difference between the hot coffee and the carafe.
The Cuisinart automatic drip coffee maker will pause your brewing if you pull the pot out to pour a cup while you’re waiting for 12 cups to brew. It works very fast though. I had a full 12-cup pot in less than 10 minutes, and I chose the bold setting for the strongest flavour. It was delicious and it was very hot.
Pod coffee up to 12 ounces
I’ve used a pod coffee maker for quite a few years now and I always thought it was wasteful to make a small 5 or 8 ounce cup of coffee from a single pod. I like to brew 12 ounces, but not every pod coffee maker can brew 12 ounces at a time. That’s one of the reasons why I really liked the Cuisinart automatic drip coffee maker. It offers multiple brew sizes, and with a 12 ounce option you can brew up a travel size mug of coffee to go.
If you use a small mug you can fold down the tray and it will keep your mug right under the pod. To use a larger travel mug you can just fold up the tray and you’ve got more room. It’s a nice addition to the coffee maker, and it prevents any splatter from having your mug sitting too far below the pod.
Pod coffee brews very quickly in this coffee maker too, and I really like the large water reservoir so you don’t have to refill that often.
Brew over ice
My daughter loves iced coffee so I had to try brew over ice option. To use it you’ll fill up a heat-safe glass with ice and put in a pod. You’ll tap brew over ice and the coffee maker will start. Although you can see a bit of steam coming out, the glass didn’t get too warm and the ice didn’t immediately melt. The coffee maker brews at such a low temperature that you still get the flavour of brewed coffee but it’s not so hot that the ice can’t cool it quickly. I added a shot of vanilla syrup and some milk and enjoyed a delicious beverage on a hot summer day.
Should you choose the Cuisinart automatic drip coffee maker?
There are no downsides when you have the Cuisinart automatic drip coffee maker. I love how you can make both pod and drip coffee, and it’s a bonus to be able to make iced coffee so easily too. I never seem to want to drink hot coffee in the summer so I made quite a few iced lattes with this coffee maker.
This would be a great coffee maker for a student in a dorm, especially if you have roommates and you both want a different type of coffee maker. You get to have the best of both worlds, and you can even choose how hot you’d like your coffee to be. It’s great for those early mornings because it brews quickly too.
You can find the Cuisinart automatic drip coffee maker at Best Buy right now.
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