I have a new coffee maker, a Black & Decker programmable one that was on sale at Target for $39.99. I love it and was going to say so in a post, but then I went to the site to get a photo/link, and the reviews were pretty bad: things like, “The coffee tastes/smells like plastic” and “It leaks.” I’m not having trouble with a plastic taste/smell, and it’s not leaking, but it made me nervous about recommending it. What if I happened to get a non-defective one, but in general this model is very prone to defects? Or what if I recommend it, and then a few weeks later it leaks all over the counter, but by then you’ve already bought one?
ANYWAY. I didn’t think I cared about it being programmable, and I wasn’t planning to use that feature, but I’ve programmed it pretty much every day since I bought it. It is pretty delightful to get out of the shower and smell fresh coffee brewing. And in the morning it’s like, “Urg, I have to make the coffee,” or there are other demands roiling around me that take priority. But in the evening it’s common for me to be puttering in the kitchen, and it doesn’t feel like too much of a burden to get the coffee set up for the next day while I’m there.
But this is a story of how dim I can be, especially before coffee. Because this morning the kids got up earlier than usual, and so I was up earlier than usual, and I went to the kitchen and the coffee maker hadn’t started yet. And I thought, “Aw, I have to wait ten minutes before it starts brewing.” To my credit, it didn’t take longer than a minute before I realized I could just hit the start button myself.
Thanks for the Monday-morning laugh! I would totally have done the same thing of waiting for the machine to start itself, and probably only later would have said, Wait…
I don’t think it says you’re dim but instead speaks to how quickly we form habits. I think a lot if us would have done the same. Incidentally, i just got a moka pot that i love but need to start setting that up the night before as well. then I’d just have to turn on the gas. Getting my brain to remember this at night is a whole different matter though.
Ha, I still do that a lot, usually at night when I’m preparing the coffee maker and considering what time to set it for. “Hm, but what if I get up early…? Oh yeah.” :-|
I am 100% certain that I would have had the same thought about having to wait for it to brew according to the timer.
Oh man, I’m jealous that your coffee maker has a timer. And I definitely wouldn’t have thought to just press the button myself, either!
I have done that too!
Once when I was in a newborn+toddler haze of a morning I set up the coffee maker, turned it on, stood there numbly while it brewed the whole way and ONLY THEN realized that I never put any grounds in it, and essentially just stood there watching hot water fill the pot.
Also, re: online reviews, I just purchased a new washing machine that comes highly rated by consumer reports and consistently gets 4.5 star ratings online, BUT I went around reading all the one star reviews and now am completely suspicious that my washer is going to be awesome until it suddenly breaks/leaks/needs to be adjusted/etc.
My DH and I have done that with our coffee maker too, including not-in-newborn-haze eras, I’m sad to report. Other, yet worse variations: set up coffee maker (and punch “turn on program” button) but do not put filter mechanism back in line, so that water comes out but spills all over the counter; ditto but do not empty still-partly-full-from-today pot, so that pot itself overflows the next morning (ditto); some other variation (leaving lid off coffee pot, maybe? It pushes up on the filter thingy so water doesn’t come out of the bottom unless the pot is under the mechanism — but that doesn’t prevent the whole thing from just, you guessed it, overflowing).
What is it they say? If you make something idiot-proof, they’ll just invent a better idiot? My DH and I are proof of that point, at least when it comes to coffee makers.
Still love the programmable coffee maker, though. Especially as I’ve managed to make it DH’s responsibility to prepare the thing.
I love my progammable coffee maker so so much! I first got one when I was dealing with a 2 year old and a newborn and the thought of having to do one extra thing in the early morning hours made me want to cry but I NEEDED my coffee. That coffee maker worked so well that I only just replaced it after 8 years of daily use and I still set it up the night before and program it to brew 20 minutes before I would usually wake up just so that I can wake up to the smell of hot coffee, which is a seriously good motivator!
I think I’ve had that coffee maker. I never had a problem with it (until I did, which didn’t include the problems you listed…instead I broke the carafe). With that being said, LOVE the programmable part. Makes the mornings SO MUCH easier.
Whenever I read about people being dim before coffee, it always makes me really wish I drank coffee. THE DIM NEVER GOES AWAY FOR ME, PEOPLE.
Ha! That does sound like something I’d do, too.
I did two daft things with my programmable coffee maker:
1. Forgot to add the coffee grounds
2. Forgot to put the pot on
Unfortunately I didn’t do the two daft things on the same occasion, so I awoke to coffee all over the workbench and floor… Well, it did smell great!
Incidentally, I don’t think many other countries do coffee makers like you do in the US…? Not in the UK, at least – nor here in NZ. I wonder why: imagine COFFEE WAITING! Oh, I need to go do some research now.
We certainly do have them in the UK!
It does amuse me how there is such a big deal made about Americans and their coffee in films, television shows, blogs etc etc and yet every. single. time. that I’ve been to the States and had filter coffee from a huge range of places it is basically just exceptionally tasteless hot water! I know artisanal coffee shops where you can pick and choose are significantly better, but the traditional ‘pots of’ are so disappointing!
Ha, this made me laugh because one of the (few bad) things I remember about my last trip to the UK (from the US) was the utterly undrinkable (unworthy of drinking) nature of the coffee. This was in rural B&Bs and such and it was as you describe — hot brown water. So tedious! I am not a fan of Starbucks, considering them to coffee as McDonalds is to burgers, but was tremendously happy to reach a place where I could go to one because, like McDonalds I figured (correctly), I’d get the same stuff I can get in a US Starbucks, which, while not to my taste, does at least have the flavor of coffee to it.
Sally, what I meant is that we don’t do the same types of coffee MAKERS – at least as I recall. We tend to have the barista-style or Nespresso (pod) ones rather than the filter coffee pots. Well, I only ever saw one in 12 years, and that was at my workplace. But in the US they seem to be a household fixture…?
I have to agree with you on the coffee front; I remember our US time as either tasteless-pots-of or average Starbucks – unless we found a new, independent place that was roasting its own beans. Also agree with Alexicographer that in loads of rural UK places you get the waiting-room-coffee-machine rubbish. The trick is definitely to find the small, independent cafes… preferably with NZ-trained baristas ;)