Small Coffee Maker | Should You Buy a Cuisinart Coffee Grinder?

Should You Buy a Cuisinart Coffee Grinder?


At Best Small Coffee Maker we’ve always preached about the importance of a quality coffee grinder when it comes to the qualifications for brewing great coffee. If there is one thing that people get wrong more often than not when it comes to making coffee it’s the grinder. While people seem to understand the importance of a quality small coffee maker, they fail to realize that the blade grinder they’ve been using has been ruining the flavor of their coffee. What’s the problem with blade grinders, you ask? The problem with these grinders is that they don’t provide the consistent grind that is required to brew a great cup of coffee. The proper grind size is critical to avoid bitterness in the final cup, which so often happens when using a blade grinder.

The grinder we prefer is the burr grinder, and specifically the conical burr grinder. The other style of burr grinder that’s commonly available is the “wheel burr” grinder, which is louder when operated and also a bit messier. For us, it simply makes sense to pay a bit more for a burr model. As with most things in life, there are a variety of different burr grinders to choose from, each with its own advantages in terms of performance, durability and price. Although we don’t necessarily advocate that consumers spend a fortune on a burr grinder for home use, we do think it’s important not to simply purchase the cheapest model available. For most people, it makes sense to opt for something that falls in the middle.

When researching burr grinders, we quickly noticed that the market is dominated by a couple different brands – Kitchenaid and Cuisinart. While these are obviously big names when it comes to kitchen appliances, we didn’t have much experience with the performance of their coffee grinders. To be honest, we still haven’t actually used one of their grinders in a practical setting, but we have done a bit of research to see what others have to say about them. Before getting into detailed user reviews, however, we wanted to provide a quick breakdown of the most popular Cuisinart coffee grinder models.

• Cuisinart DBM-8 Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill – priced at under $40 online
• Cuisinart CBM-18 Programmable Conical Burr Mill – also priced under $40 online
• Cuisinart DCG 20 Grind Central Coffee Grinder – non-burr model

Although there are many other Cuisinart coffee grinders available for purchase, the models listed above are the most popular in terms of sales volume. In terms of user comments, we found that most people are only somewhat satisfied with their purchase. Most people seem to be somewhat disappointed in the build quality and adjustability of these grinders, though it’s hard to be too picky when paying $40 for a burr grinder. There are certainly fans of these grinders to be found, though on average, most Cuisinart grinders only receive mediocre reviews on sites like Amazon.

In our opinion, the best consumer level burr grinders are produced by Solis, and our preferred model, the Solis Maestro has never let us down after putting hundreds of pounds of coffee through it. Although the Solis costs a bit more at around $80, you also get a grinder that is well built and able to provide nearly any type of grind you might be looking for.


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