Thermal Coffeemakers: Are they Worth It?

by NewsView
(USA)

QUESTION:

I grasp the advertised benefits to a stainless steel thermal coffee carafe: They retain heat for hours sans a power-hungry hot plate, and they are less likely to break than a glass decanter in the event of a mishap.

On the other hand, you can't tell how much coffee remains inside a stainless decanter at a single glance, and the worst of it is that they seem to retain a very strong coffee odor from the very first use onward ? And it's impossible to get rid of the odor using baking soda, dish soap and vinegar simultaneously, in my experience.

Consequently, I'm not entirely convinced, even though there is no hot plate "baking" going on, that the coffee brewed into a thermal carafe will taste all that much fresher than a conventional automatic drip with a glass carafe on a hot plate.

Besides the problem with coffee odors clinging to the stainless steel, thermal automatic drip coffee makers seemingly brew hotter coffee to warm the carafe in the absence of a hot plate. The result, from my unscientific comparison of a KRUPS and a CUISINART thermal coffeemaker, is a considerably more bitter brew than a conventional automatic drip coffeemaker.

All of which brings me to my question: Has there been any evaluation on this website or in the "coffee world" in general of the thermal coffeemaker trend? Is this methodology really an improvement over a glass/hot plate combo, or does the retained heat inside a thermal decanter just go on cooking the coffee by virtue of the fact that the heat has no escape?

Moreover, is that strong coffee odor inside the thermal carafe that develops with the first use of the machine and persists through all attempts to wash it out indicative of the reality that the coffee will taste more and more "off" with continued use when compared to a relatively odor-free glass carafe? In other words, is the coffee brewed into a thermal carafe really the improvement that so many coffeemaker buyers anticipate?


ANSWER:

You make some great points here. We have a Cuisinart thermal carafe coffee maker which we use from time to time – usually when entertaining.

We like it because we can take the carafe to the table and know the coffee will stay hot for a while. I must admit I haven’t noticed the same problem with an enduring coffee odor in the carafe, and certainly haven’t noticed any problem with the taste of the coffee in the carafe.

As for whether using an insulated carafe is the way of the future for coffee makers, I don’t think so. It’s just another option, there for the people who prefer it.