Dark Roast and Automatic Coffee Makers

The automatic coffee makers have tempted buyers with their compactness and built-in grinders. But what if you prefer the dark roast? Let's figure out the possible pitfalls and reasons why operations of an automatic coffee maker can become a headache.

The dark roast produces oily beans. When the oily beans get ground, their particles stick together. Finer coffee ground result in more solid clay-like deposits in the grinder, and on the way to where the coffee is brewing.

Regardless of the type of automatic coffee maker, these stuck particles will produce at least two problems — the dosage control and cemented coffee deposits that lead to machine breakdown. Let's take a look at a review of different automatic coffee makers with a built-in grinder and discuss how they work.

First of all, all such coffee makers grind coffee beans a certain amount of time rather than weight the produced coffee ground. This approach results in the inconsistency of coffee strength. The coffee maker doesn't know how much coffee ground goes in deposits, and how much ground pass the narrower by deposits channels inside the grinder and coffee maker.

Remember. No matter whether you go with an automatic espresso machine or automatic dripper - it will dose the coffee ground by a timer, not by weight.

The solution for consistent coffee strength is a standalone grinder. The measured ground amount goes directly into the paper filter in the brew basket if you have a dripper or its metallic analog in the espresso version.

The second problem is that the consumer-grade automatic coffee makers with built-in grinder have not such solid construction as the well crafted standalone grinders. The typical automatic coffee machine has a grinder block in a plastic case.

At the same time, the stuck-together oily coffee particles from the dark roast may quickly become a coffee cement if the coffee maker is not appropriately maintained. Even more, the oily beans may stick to the bean hopper walls before even reaching the grinder. People contacted the customer support and asked questions like: Why my coffee beans are not going down to the grinder? Well, now you know why.

So, If you like the dark roast, you better stay away from the grind and brew coffee makers and go with a standalone grinder instead. Most of the specialists consider Vario Baratza grinder as the best choice. It proved itself as a long-lasting grinder with excellent grind consistency.