Time was when getting a good cup of coffee meant having to go to the neighborhood coffee shop. Now with a large variety of brewing machines available for home use, you can make a great cup of coffee without having to step out of the house. The Breville Bdc550xl is one such fully automatic drip coffee making machine.
The convenience of single-serve,yet having the capacity of a full pot. The BDC550xl from Breville offers significantly more flexibility compared to the average coffee brewing machine. The YouBrew houses all the components needed to customize the different aspects of making coffee just the way you enjoy it, like strength of brew based on quantity of coffee grinds, adjusting the steeping time for flavor along with controlling amount of water and heating.
Features
It is an indisputable fact that a good cup of coffee starts with fresh ground beans. The Youbrew BDC550xl comes equipped with a burr grinder that automatically grinds the correct amount of beans based on the number of cups of coffee you intend to brew. It also offers a variety of strength setting by allowing you to select from five flavor options. The stronger flavored coffee is produced by allowing the water to interact with the beans for a longer duration, more extraction occurs for a more flavorful cup. For lighter flavored coffee the water interacts with grinds for shorter duration.
While ideally a coffee maker, it can be used to brew tea also. Simply place tea bags in the basket reserved for coffee grinds and brew as you would coffee. Furthermore, if you do not wish to use the grinder, just place your favorite pre-ground beans in the basket and proceed to brewing.
Water Tank & Filter
The sixty ounce water tank can be filled from the top and contains a red float to easily view how much water remains in the tank. Additionally, a beep sound goes off when the maximum level is reached. This eliminates the possibility of overflows.
The Gold foil filter ensures consistently great tasting coffee as it efficiently removes all particles that can affect the flavor of the coffee. If however you prefer to use paper filter, that option is also available.
Screen & Control Panel
The LCD display allows you to monitor brewing cycle, brewing countdown, and quantity of water in tank. The graphics are excellent and programing easy to navigate. You can easily pre-program the brewing time so when you wake up your coffee is ready.
Carafe & Basket
The glass carafe sits on the warming plate with automatically shuts off after two hours, or you can turn it off manually. All parts are BPA free so you do not need to worry about any unwarranted chemical reactions or burdening the environment. The basket can be easily detached for cleaning and removal of grounds.
Coffee Selection: The good thing is that any brand of pre-ground coffee or whole beans you desire may be used in this machine. The only thing it will not work with are the pre-measured sealed pods or cups.
Cleaning
For the cup of coffee to be of consistently exceptional quality, maintaining the grinder spotlessly clean is imperative. The Youbrew comes packed with indicators that tell you when cleaning is required. There is also a brush that is positioned under the hopper to remove the grinds from the chute. Furthermore there is a grind catcher for more thorough cleaning. Just remember that being a grinder and a brewer, there will automatically be more parts that need cleaning.
Price
At $230 I’ll admit, it’s a little hard to get excited about this machine. This certainly is not your grandmas coffee maker! But the fact of the matter is, there just aren’t enough features to warrant that kind of a price. While the top loaded grinder / hopper is a nice addition, the performance isn’t where I’d like it to be to justify such a high price tag. Ultimately, you can get much better results and a much lower price by shopping around for a drip machine and a grinder separately.
Conclusion
An excellent coffee maker that offers plenty of flexibility, however there are a few concerns. The major issue with the brewer being that there is only one grind size. For a machine of this caliber, that is a big disappointment. Due to this the coffee comes out either too strong or too weak, depending on the infusion time allowed. Another inconvenience that has to be remembered is that you must either brew a single cup or the full amount of the water in the tank. In the carafe mode you can’t have a full tank of water and brew only say three cups out of that, the full tank will have to be brewed.
