I love my Capresso coffee maker, Beth. I just use my instincts when setting it up. I usually use a medium grind and it works very well. So far, it's the best I've owned outiside an old fashioned top of the stove percolator.
After brewing a couple of more pots, the grounds left in the cup thing was annoying. I don't usually like to chew my coffee. I noticed that the lid for the coffee basket didn't seem to stay in place during percolation, and the grounds were spilling over into the pot. I could see them through the glass top of the pot as it perked. (The basket was only half full so not a "fill" problem). So I cleaned the pot, boxed it up, and returned it to Amazon. Then I ordered a Farberware 8-cup machine from Bed, Bath and Beyond since Amazon only had the 4 or 12 cup sizes. Now I wait.
Good heavens; the Coffee thread has dropped to Page 2... what the hell. I have nothing to report on the Coffee Front; we are in a rut with McCafe k-cups. I used the percolator about 3 times before banishing it to the What Was I Thinking area. I wonder how @Ken Anderson is liking his.
I'm getting behind. With my regular job, my side job, and all of the regular things that I have to do around the house, I haven't been drinking a lot of coffee so I haven't even opened the last four bags of Black Rifle Coffee yet. Winter is coming, though.
I've still not re-tried that Bonavita I bought since it trashed my coffee taste buds. The quality coffees I bought have since turned rancid. I did buy a Ninja for brewing regular coffees when my Mister Coffee took a poop. I like having a separate water reservoir off to the side where the coffee grounds will never contaminate it, and that I can remove and run through the dishwasher. The demarcations on the reservoir are also easier to read than that little thermometer-like tubes in Mr. Coffees that get so cloudy you cannot see through them. The Ninja is a little odd because the machine has an On/Off switch. I'm not sure what exactly is turned off, since all machines only start brewing when you push the Brew button (and there's water in the reservoir), and the warming plates shut off automatically. When it's turned Off, the clock & all the other settings are retained.
I forgot. I've been buying whole bean Peruvian and Honduran coffee at Aldi. A 12 oz. bag is the same per-ounce price as a 3# bag of whole bean 8 O'Clock at Walmart...it's "fair trade certified" AND it's "organic"!!! I have no idea if I'm being responsible or I'm being played.
On my recent trip to Oklahoma we had some Community Dark Roast that was great stuff ans another pot of Folgers the Community won hands down.
LOL. Same here with the Bunn, the Capresso grinder and the Capresso percolator. We still use the Keurig almost exclusively, but I had fun shopping.
When we first got a Keurig, I enjoyed being able to drink a different flavor of coffee each cup, and I still use it sometimes when I am upstairs, but I have come to find the K-cup coffees to be less than satisfactory, and prefer real, fresh-ground coffee. I have started to drink more coffee again, making a point of making at least one pot of coffee a day. I don't like opening a lot of bags up at the same time so I still haven't worked my way over to any of the coffees that I haven't yet reported on, however.
I bought far too much coffee and coffee beans after getting the Bunn and grinder. Considering that was about a year ago, I seriously need to clean out my coffee bean stash. As for the Keurig, I guess a person just gets accustomed to what they are drinking and it tastes good. We like Kirkland k-cups, McCafe French roast, and Peets. Always a consistent cup.
I recently replaced my broken Mr. Coffee with a Ninja from Walmart: The water reservoir is removable, and has a connecting valve assembly...meant to be taken over to the faucet to be filled for each pot. Since some Amazon reviewers said the valve in the bottom tends to wear out with repeated use, I leave the reservoir on the machine and fill it from another container. I take the reservoir off and run it through the dishwasher every once in a while, and really like the clear #Cup markings on it (as opposed to those hard-to-see water level tubes on other machines that get frosted over.) I mentioned before that I like this set up specifically because it keeps the coffee grounds away from the reservoir, so the water supply tube does not get clogged. The warmer (obviously) turns on when you brew a pot, and has a dedicated button to turn it On/Off without having to initiate another Brew Cycle to restart the warmer after it times out, as some Mr. Coffees require. It has other specialty settings & features (pre-wets the grounds), but the dedicated reservoir setup is the main reason I like it. The main downside to the Ninjas is they are not made in the same quantities as Mr. Coffee machines, so replacement parts (like the carafe and the filter basket) are not as cheap and are only available thorough a limited number of sources.
I bought a variety of coffees and would seal them in vacuum seal bags, but the original bags coffees come in have outgassing valves on them that can't really be duplicated by any other means of storage. (Having said that, I bet a quick Amazon search would prove me wrong, huh?)
As a 50 year resident of the Northwest where coffee and mutations thereof are a way of life and coffee places from chains to small shacks, trailers, or trucks are everywhere with long lines from opening to closing and smoke from coffee beans roasters is pouring out of at least one garage on every block and nearly ever doctors office and medical center has a Keurig with a selection with the Northwest blend being the most popular, I still prefer Folgers instant. Roasters, toasters, hosters, and boasters surround me, but I have become callous to their intimidation.