Review Single Serve Coffee

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The Cuisinart SS700 Single Serve Coffee Brewing System is the first Cuisinart coffee brewer to use K-Cups for making tea, hot chocolate, and of course coffee. The Cuisinart SS700 Single Serve Coffee Brewing System features a very large 80 oz water reservoir, iced and regular coffee brewing settings, along with storage of a My K-Cup resusable coffee filter. It also features a very fresh yet angular Cuisinart industrial design, along with a very easy to read blue LCD display. We’ve been looking forward to more options in K-Cup brewers, and it’s really nice to have a brewer from a major brand like Cuisinart.

If you want to compare exhaustively the features of other Keurig Brewers we suggest reading the following Single Serve Coffee reviews, however we’ll do our best to cover all the differences and innovations we find in this review as well.

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The SS700 has an 80 oz water reservoir. Yes – we said 80.

There is also a ton of info and reviews in our Reviews, Keurig & K-Cups, Keurig Reviews, and K-Cup reviews categories of entries. That’s just the prep – now on with the review.

Features of the Cuisinart SS700 Single Serve Coffee Brewing System

  • Five cup sizes, including an iced beverage setting. 4 oz Iced, 6, 8, 10 and 12 oz coffee settings.
  • Travel Mugs fit by removing the drip tray
  • The hot water button is great for instant coffee, soup, tea and hot cocoa.
  • There is a rinse button that cleans the brew chamber
  • The brewer is fully programmable with auto on/off and adjustable temperature control, and the blue backlit LCD display with digital clock is easy to read at a glance.
  • Quiet brew technology, an extra large removable 80-ounce water reservoir
  • Charcoal water filter that only works with the Cuisinart – you can’t use the Keurig Charcoal water filters
  • Includes a 12 K-Cup® portion pack
  • Reusable My K-Cup coffee filter for ground coffee and spoon included with storage area on brewer for My K-Cup only

So this means you have a very large reservoir, the ability to use K-Cups and the coffee of your choice using the My K-Cup filter, and a very nice looking new coffee brewer for your countertops. Okay – seriously besides the lack of storage integration for the spoon used to fill the My K-Cup filter, this brewer for the home has the most features available for $199 in any Keurig brewer.

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Integrated My K-Cup storage – however the spoon
does not store in here.

The brew temperature is also controllable, so you can set it to 187 to 192. We suggest just leaving it at 192 – because if you want hot coffee the brewing process we found knocked 10-15 degrees off the 192 at the brew head to have coffee arrive at 180F or so at the cup.

First Impressions Cuisinart SS700 Single Serve Coffee Brewing System

We published some first impressions in our earlier article, but we thought we’d publish some more as well.

  • The Reservoir is huge – at 80oz if you stick with the 8 oz cup that’s 10 cups without refilling over the the standard Selecct Keurig 60oz water reservoir
  • The My K-Cup storage on the side is novel – but we don’t like the fact the spoon that comes with the Cuisinart has no place for storage. We think this is a big miss on the part of the designers of the brewer because once you move the spoon and don’t store it away (like you can in the Breville brewer) then it’s just going to be missing
  • The controls are nice and the display icons are a bit clearer – showing the ounces in the silhouette of the cup icon
  • It’s very quiet so that’s nice the Quiet Brew technology is throughout all the Keurig models now
  • The metal outer coating wipes up easily and is very solid – but it also feels really industrial
  • The setting menu is a bit confusing – for some reason the flow of the Keurig Select B70 menu is better and easier to setup
  • We love the brew head – it reminds us of again – some Star Trek starship – and it’s slippery coating wipes up easily
  • The hot water option is okay – we just wish you didn’t have to open and close the brew head – but what if there was an old K-Cup in there? Hmmm….

Brewing a Cup of Coffee with the Cuisinart SS700 Single Serve Coffee Brewing System

As we stated earlier you can use the K-Cup portion packs, and the included My K-Cup reusable coffee filter to make coffee with the Cuisinart SS700 Single Serve Coffee Brewing System. There are over 200+ K-Cups coffees, teas, and other hot beverages available, so selection and choice isn’t a problem.

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To make a cup of coffee you do the following:

  1. Turn on the brewer – the brewer has an auto-on and auto-off feature and has timed on and off settings as well
  2. Open the brew head
  3. Insert the K-Cup portion pack
  4. Shut the brew head
  5. Put your coffee under the brew head
  6. Pick your brew size and hit the brew button
  7. In less than 60 seconds you’ll have a steaming hot cup of coffee

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Brew time is the same, and the brewer is very quiet. The My K-Cup has to have the brew chamber removed and then you insert it into the brew chamber area just like any other Keurig model.

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Open brew head.

Questions and Answers from the Single Serve Coffee Community

We asked the Single Serve Coffee community to sound off with questions and in our Cuisinart Questions thread in the Single Serve Coffee Forums. Also we had many comments and questions on our set of articles over the past two weeks and we try to answer them here as well.

Question: How does it compare to Breville. What is the water temp? does it brew a better cup? Quieter? Faster? filter better? Made as well? Anything it has the Breville doesn’t that makes it worth buying?

Answer: This is a great set of questions and we’ll be to the point. How does it compare – besides the scoop storage we think it’s on par, and we love the design of the Cuisinart. Brew temp is 187 to 192 with about 180 at the cup. It’s quiet, it’s the same brew speed, the filter works but is unique to the Cuisinart. It had the larger reservoir and the hot water and rinse features.

Question: Does the SS-700 brew a robust cup of coffee without having to use extra bold coffees?

Answer: No. There isn’t any strength features to make medium or light coffee magically become bold coffee. If you want bold coffee – use extra-bold K-Cups. If you want medium or light coffee – use those K-Cups.

Question: What differentiates this unit from the Keurig and the Breville? Other than aesthetic reasons, why would someone want to buy the Cuisinart over the other two comparable options?

Answer (we think Jim Evans from CoffeeWiz.com answers this best):From a consumer point of view I can answer that in one word .. Cuisinart … They sell way more traditional coffee machines that anyone else and have a huge loyal following. In addition because it’s Cuisinart it screams quality. And we also think the brewer is of high quality and if you have other Cuisinart appliances it will fit right in.

Question:Definitely a compare against B40/B70/OPOD/BUNN in quality of coffee produced.

Answer: The coffee produced from the SS700 is on par with the Keurig B40 and B70 – any of these brewers with the brew temp of 192 produce excellent coffee. Comparing this to a coffee pod brewer like the OPOD or Bunn is more difficult. The different coffees produced and pod size can be a factor in producing bolder coffee in the pod brewers, but you can achieve similar results with the SS700 or other Keurig brewers using the right K-Cups or My K-Cup with the right coffee. Also factoring in the Perfect Pod Holster or the new EZ Cup accessory you can use coffee pods, K-Cups, and ground coffee in any Keurig brewer – allowing for an amazing variety of coffee tastes, strengths, and preference.

Question: Any idea if Cusinart intends to roll out a version of the mini? or maybe some color options – anything leaked about metalic red, blue, gold, black, etc.?

Answer: No other colors or the mini has been brought up. We imagine for this year – this is the only Cuisinart K-Cup brewer you’ll be able to get.

Question: Will I be able to get the Cuisinart at Keurig.com or other retailers besides Bed, Bath, and Beyond?

Answer: We don’t know. Right now Bed, Bath, and Beyond seems to be your only option. We think as the year goes on there will most likely be more availability at other retailers.

Question: Can I use the Keurig charcoal filters in my Cuisinart SS700?

Answer: No. They are indeed different, so you’ll need to use the Cuisinart filters with your brewer.

Question: Is the hot water and rinse options just a gimmick?

Answer: Yes and no. They are indeed useful – the rinse is really great after hot chocolate or something messy. The hot water features allows you to quickly make hot water and once you close the brew head – it’s only 1 minute or so between uses. You can still use any Keurig brewer to make hot water by removing any K-Cups and making a cup without a K-Cup in the brew head. However for people who want more buttons – we think you’ll like have more buttons with dedicated reasons to be.

Conclusions

Pros:

  • Large Water Reservoir at 80 oz – this is the killer features
  • Integrated My K-Cup storage
  • Hot Water and rinse feature – works and we like the dedicated buttons
  • Many brew optionsBrewer is very quietNice industrial designEasy to read LCD screen for brewing options
  • 3 year limited Warranty – most other brewers have a 1 year warranty

Cons:

  • At $199 it’s expensive
  • Lack of storage for the coffee scoop

We think you can’t go wrong with the Cuisinart SS700 Single Serve Coffee Brewing System if you want a top of the line single serve coffee brewer. The large 80 oz reservoir is the thing you’re buying in our opinion, along with a generous 3 year warranty on a very well designed brewer. We love the ease of use, and the fact the Cuisinart SS700 Single Serve Coffee Brewing System works with all K-Cups and the My K-Cup reusable filter gives you as the coffee and hot beverage drinking consumer the most options.

At Cuisinart SS700 Single Serve Coffee Brewing System


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