Gift Guide 2013: Cuisinart CHW-12 Programmable Coffeemaker, Steel/Black, 12-Cup

Update: It has been 6 months now with this coffee maker and it is still going strong. It does almost exactly what we need for our family and I find that I am making pour over coffee using the hot water system instead of making an entire pot in the evening as well as hot chocolate for the boy, etc.. Very flexible for all our needs. Based on our experience, I am including it as part of this years Gift guide, too — Douglas

We have had a combination coffee pot and steam espresso maker for quite a while now. In fact, it has been brought back into everyday use 3 times now, when other pots failed to last very long. Today, though, I came across a coffee maker that better meets our current needs and even takes up a bit less space on the countertop.

I came across the Cusinart CHW-12 Coffee Plus while out on a stroll Saturday evening. We were just walking to walk and chose a busy retail area so we could do a little window-shopping and people watching along the way. I headed into a home store and just decided to take a look at the coffee makers on offer. I had decided I wanted to get a new unit a while ago, but hadn’t really been looking much and was in no great hurry, as our current pot was still working ok.

There are so many coffee makers on the market today with all sorts of features, including the very popular 1-cup “pod” machines. I prefer to choose my own coffee wherever I wish (and also to avoid the relatively large waste generated by a 1-cup machine) so I was looking for something more traditional.

As it happens, my wife switched from coffee to tea drinking a little more than a year ago. She has been using a stovetop kettle to heat her water and I had been looking to buy an electric kettle for here, just to speed things up a bit and make her mornings a little easier. Oddly enough, this coffee maker also comes with a hot water on demand feature which I think will be perfect for her tea making both in the morning and in the evenings. We both tend to like a cup of decaf after dinner. The hot water area holds enough water for about 8 cups of tea, with 2 cups being immediately available when the Hot Water feature is turned on. I am guessing we will warm it up in the morning, turn it off after the morning routine finishes and then fire it back up in the evening, We don’t have a need to keep the hot water active all the time, although for a family get-together or party it would be nice to have available.

The coffee side of the appliance is fairly typical, although this will be the first unit I have ever owned with a timer start feature, which could come in handy without ever-changing schedules.

It will be interesting to see how this unit works out, but as an avid coffee drinker I wanted to share this small bit of our everyday life in hopes it might give you an idea of where to start if you are looking for a new coffeemaker.

Cusinart CHW-12 Coffee Plus

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