WHY I LOVE IT
I typically reserve 5 stars for superstar products, the best of the best, and I have to tell you that this little gem has me very excited. It feels well made and not plasticky and the overall design is a lesson in simplicity yet perfection. The first thing I noticed is that there is a small cutout on the back to store some or all of the power cord in – and by the way it has a 3-prong grounded commercial grade plug. If you have it on your kitchen counter you can pull out only as much cord as you need to reach the outlet and if you travel with it you can easily stow the entire cord safely away. You literally don’t need any instructions, although they are well written, have large color illustrations, and are super easy to understand. After you plug it in you lift a hinged door on the top of the unit and pour water in, and you’re not limited to a fixed amount, you can fill it with anywhere between 6 and 12 ounces to suit your coffee strength taste or to fill a travel mug, and yes it will fill a full size auto mug with ease. After you put the water in you lift the handle, which automatically turns the power on, and insert a K-cup and press the handle back down and then press the very large brew button on top. When you do that the light surrounding the button stops flashing, the water heats up, and brews your coffee. 40 seconds after that, if you don’t do anything else like make another cup, the power turns itself off. I timed it from button press to filled cup and it took just under 1 minute and 18 seconds. And the water is super hot, cup after cup, unlike most similar brewers that get increasingly cooler for each cup.
One thing that interested me is that no water is wasted in the process, when I put exactly one cup into it exactly one cup comes out of it. Most coffee makers don’t do that. AND you don’t have to clean it because there is no holding tank like full-size coffee makers, the water you pour in gets pulled right through, heated, and dispensed. No water sits inside to get moldy.
WHAT REALLY SOLD ME
You can tell I am impressed and excited about this thing. When I saw it I thought it would be nice to have but had no idea I would ever use it at home instead of my big fancy commercial grade brewer. I was so wrong. I actually have the two sitting side by side now and use the mini every time I need a cup of hot water for tea, soup, hot chocolate or anything else. But what I didn’t anticipate is that I would be using the mini for those times when I want to make one single K-cup of coffee during the day and I don’t want to have to wait for the entire tank of water in my full size brewer to heat up or I certainly don’t want to make a pot of traditional coffee. With the mini the entire process of making one cup takes about two minutes and there is zero cleanup or leftover water that can develop a bad taste. Despite some reviewers who didn’t understand what this thing is, in reality it is the FASTEST way to make a cup of coffee from scratch in my kitchen. That means I’m using this thing two or three times every day now and it has become something I can’t be without. You know what that means, I better buy several of them now just in case they ever get discontinued.