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99 of 104 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Doesn't Deliver Everything It Claims, October 12, 2006
Briefly, here's how the Cuisinart Burr Mill is supposed to work. With 18 different grind settings, it should produce 18 different grinds, ranging from ultra-course to ultra-fine. Moreover, it is programmed to automatically adjust the volume of grounds up or down, depending on the grind selection: the finer the grind, the smaller the volume. (This is clearly a programmed outcome, and not the natural result of the machine's grinding coffee more finely.) Set the grinder on 10 cups and you'll always get 10 cups' worth of grounds--whether you're making "camp coffee" over a fire pit, using a French press, stovetop percolator, electric percolator, drip coffeemaker, Melitta pour-through cone system, or an espresso machine--provided you've dialed-in the proper grind setting for your system. That's how it's supposed to work.
Actually, despite 18 settings, the Cuisinart Burr Mill produces only 3 grinds: course, less course, and medium. Hence, it doesn't produce grounds fine enough for espresso. It barely produces grounds fine enough for my electric drip coffeemaker. I get finer grounds using my old Krups "fast-touch" grinder for which I paid $10 at Costco ten years ago. To make matters worse--because setting the grind on ultra-fine produces a lower volume of grounds without grinding the coffee commensurately finer than it would on "medium"--I have to set it for 18 cups to make 10 cups' worth of drinkable coffee.
Furthermore, the plastic receptacle into which the Cuisinart Burr Mill shoots the grounds is an electrostatic nightmare. The grounds fight valiantly to stay in that container, and there's no way to get them out of the container's relatively large opening without making a mess, especially if you use a brush to transfer the grounds into your filter basket.
Bottom Line: If you want to make espresso, don't buy this machine. In fact, this machine's only advantage is that you don't have to measure beans every morning, because the machine does that for you. But that only happens if (1) you don't need coffee ground finely, (2) you can, through trial and error, find the right cup selection to match the grind setting you've chosen, and (3) you can get all the grounds out of the receptacle without having a tablespoon's worth fly into your sink or onto your counter.
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