MacGourmet News

When I reviewed the Senseo single serve coffeemaker, I mentioned the Black & Decker Infuze. Now I love coffee. I'm not addicted to it, I can live without it, but it's one of my favorite things, much like chocolate is. At some point, I realized that the automatic drip I was using just wasn't cutting it. "There had to be a better way to make coffee," I thought. Turns out there was.

There are a variety of ways to make coffee. There's the percolator, the automatic drip, the french press, and vacuum coffee makers.

I don't know who uses percolators, which essentially boil the coffee for a long period of time. Yuk.

Automatic drips aren't bad. Bunn makes a great model for instance, and I have used various models for many years, but they tend to not heat the coffee enough, and the water spends too much time in contact with the grounds, which can lead to higher levels of bitterness. That leaves the French press and vacuum makers.

I really like coffee made in a French press. My only problem with the French press is that I often don't make a full pot. Every French press maker I've used works much better when you make a full pot. There's also the matter of having to somehow heat the water, using a kettle, etc. This just proved too inconvenient for me. At some point, I got turned onto the vacuum makers and that's when I found coffee nirvana.

In case you've never seen a vacuum maker, they brew coffee by using pressure from the heating water in a bottom carafe to draw water up from the carafe into the coffee grounds in an upper chamber where the water is mixed with the coffee grounds. The water and grounds are brewed for a set amount of time, after which the pressure equalizes and the coffee rushes back into the carafe to complete the cycle. This all happens very quickly and when all is said and done, the coffee has been brewed to an optimal temperature and brewed for an optimal amount of time. To me, no coffee tastes fresher than the coffee that comes from a vacuum maker. Subtle flavors come out, and there is no bitterness. I've tried coffee from pretty much every style of maker, and to me the vacuum maker is the best.

There are many brands of vacuum makers, but the Black and Decker Infuze is the "automatic drip of vacuum makers." The Infuze heats the water for you, and is completely automatic. You can even program it to brew a pot in the morning if you want, using the built in timer. Cleanup is relatively easy, but to really clean it can be a pain. The column that draws the water up into the upper chamber gets coffee oil build up that can be difficult to remove properly (TIP: twist a paper towel and pull it though the column to clean it). There are also 5 pieces that need to be disassembled for cleaning, and then reassembled. Not a big deal, but this process gets old fast. Overall though, the Black and Decker Infuze is a great product, and it's held up perfectly in the year or so that it's been in use as my primary, every day coffee maker. I highly recommend it.

To import, drag image to your MacGourmet recipe box.

If the Black & Decker VB100 Vacuum Brew 10-Cup Coffeemaker sounds like the coffeemaker for you, order it from Amazon.com and help support MacGourmet.com.

[The Black and Decker has since been discontinued. Please see my write up on a suitable substitute, the Bodum Santos]