Customers are delighted by the Grind & Brew Smart Coffee Maker's ability to produce high-quality coffee, with many praising its insulated carafe for keeping coffee hot for hours. They also appreciate the large water reservoir, easy setup, and stylish design.
This summary was generated by AI based on customer reviews.
The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.
Page 1 Showing 1-20 of 44 reviews
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Great machine, a couple minor drawback
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Posted . Owned for 1 month when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
This is a great option if you're relatively tech-savvy and want the convenience of a grind/brew machine. I find it really easy to control with the app and set up a daily schedule to have my coffee auto-brew in the morning. I use the Gold setting and it makes a really good cup of coffee. The only minor cons I've found so far are the bean usage and cleaning. It seems to use a LOT of beans on the Gold setting so I may need to experiment a little with manual settings. It's also a little bit of a pain to clean each day. I've found that the brew basket and shower head need to be removed and cleaned after every cycle since the grounds stick to any surface that sees moisture. Overall, these are minor gripes and I'm really happy with the machine. It's also quite tall so measure underneath your upper cabinets to make sure it fits!
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Better than expected!
Great functions, great coffee, easy to operate & clean, and looks awesome on the counter!
Holds 3-4 days worth of beans, several grind and heat options to match your coffee preference, has “non-grind” option if you have grounds as well.
Thank you for choosing Cafe Appliances for your coffee maker appliance purchase! We love to hear you are loving yours so far. We will take into consideration what you said about the maintenance to our product teams so they may review. Your feedback is important to us as we are always looking for ways we can update or make improvements in the future. Dianna@Cafe Appliances
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
Hot Mess
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Posted . Owned for 1 month when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Great cup of coffee. The water container if not put on accurately will leak completely. For such a cool design I feel it should have some sort of latch or maybe indicator letting you know its on properly. While that can be debated the real problem I experienced with this machine was the mess it left every time after brewing a carafe. No matter if I cleaned right after I brewed the coffee it would leak continuously. I literally had to clean the grounds out before removing the carafe or I would have coffee splats all over the machine and even then it was getting all over the place. Do not know if I had a defect but it was brand spanking new and it took about a week to deliver because none were in storage so decided to return and bought a Delonghi instead which I will review shortly. Like I said great coffee and kept it hot with a pretty cool design but man what a hot mess.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend
Brand response from Cafe Appliances
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Thanks for sharing your concerns. If it is leaking water, make sure the water tank is placed all the way down, push down on the tank to make sure it is fully seated. If it is leaking coffee, make sure the carafe is properly in place and the top of the carafe is in contact with the brew basket. Your feedback is important, and we appreciate you. We hope you look to our Café brand in the future.
Pros mentioned:
Easy to use, Stylish
Cons mentioned:
App connectivity
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
The ⭐️ of the kitchen!
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Ok well this is one stylish coffee maker. It’s absolutely stunning and it matches our GE Café air fryer to a T. We thought we were getting black but it arrived in silver which was actually perfect, since our fryer was the same color. I was so impressed to see how simplistic it is but how advanced it is also. I was immediately excited to remove our giant land mass of an espresso machine to replace it with this.
The simplest reason that we love the GE café coffee machine….The espresso machine had become such a cumbersome over complicated machine that it had become a place holder on our countertop. The excitement had definitely wore off bc when you are a family that’s always on the go, you quickly realize that you don’t have all the extra time to fine tune, dial in and train like the Olympics to be a perfect barista every day. The GE café coffee maker was made to make life simple again but in a beautiful, more compact and smart way.
It was so easy to set up, and the most difficult part was just figuring out how much ground coffee to place into the basket, haha. It’s easy to set it and forget it, with the app where you can set it to make your coffee any way you like it at any time of the day and all week long if you prefer. There are a few extra settings that can be done through the app as well, like “extra bold”. You can also set up to 3 favorites to cycle through so that’s perfect if you have multiple people who like to enjoy their coffees differently.
There’s one issue that I found, and I hope it’s fixed quickly with an update. When trying to save a “favorite” that has the “extra bold” brew with the temp of 185*, specifically for iced coffee, it fails to save those settings. We will go check to see if it’s saved, and it resets back to factory “Gold” settings, so on and so forth. It only refuses to save the settings when we switch it to “extra bold”. It has gotten stuck “loading” to which we would have to restart the app when trying to save that specific setting as well. But we have saved other favorites under other brew strengths and those saved just fine.
You absolutely dont need the app if you aren’t concerned with setting up schedules, having favorites, making small customizations, knowing about your filter, descaling times, notifications displayed on your phone, etc. You can set the coffee machine directly and it will remember your last settings until you change them manually. It makes a whole huge carafe of coffee with multiple cup size options that stays warm for hours, or you can make a personal size cup with multiple oz. options.
It handles ground and whole coffee beans. To me it’s quiet 🤫 which compared to the espresso machine is a dream. It also counts down the brew time so you know when your brew will be ready and it will also let you know how long the coffee has been sitting. The parts are easy to clean, but it has to be done by hand. I don’t think any of the parts are dishwasher safe.
Well here’s the most important part…The coffee tastes absolutely delicious. I’m the member who isn’t a huge coffee fan. I don’t need it or drink it daily but wow it made such a delicious tasting cup, even I was excited to wake up to a few cups in the past two weeks. My husband has had his daily and it’s been a joy to try all the different settings to see what’s our perfect cup. And my mom who is at our house all of the time, and drinks coffee morning and night, has enjoyed every cup. She can get quite frustrated with new tech, all the fancy buttons, dials, gadgets, etc. but It’s easy enough for her to understand and make it herself and she has loved it too. I highly recommend this coffee machine to everyone. And if you have a couple GE café appliances this will definitely hit the mark in your kitchen.
I would’ve given 4 stars because of the one issue currently with the app, but it hasn’t affected us enough to remove the star if it’s based solely on the machines performance. It makes great coffee and it’s easy to use. So it gets a full 5 stars from us.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Could be five stars if actual features (blooming, scheduling) wasn’t locked behind a buggy app.
First things first, this coffee maker makes excellent coffee. I have not run into leaky water tanks after a week of refilling and cleaning has been easy. I’m impressed that the grounds go into the basket and essentially nowhere else. You know how grounds can fly everywhere. Aesthetically the machine is a marvel and it seems to built decently well though that remains to be seen. The built in grinder works great with the grounds taking a uniform appearance throughout. The machine is definitely a bean eater but when you’re making an entire carafe what do you expect? I am very pleased with the machine for what it is made to do — make a bean to carafe cup of coffee.
What I am not pleased about is functions such as favorites settings, blooming feature, and scheduled brews are locked behind a glitchy app. Blooming should not be optional as you must bloom freshly ground coffee to release CO2 and remove the sour flavor before completing the brew cycle and seeing how this is a bean to carafe machine, it should be an option selectable on the brewer itself. This wouldn’t be an issue if the app was not so glitchy and constantly disconnecting. I spent an entire week fighting with it. The WiFi module on the brewer is poor and has zero range so you may have to move your router or mesh hubs around to get it just right. It’s a frustrating experience that doesn’t and shouldn’t be this asinine.
I brew using the mesh filter with a paper filter over it. I have not tried the single cup function of the brewer but it comes with a separate filter for that and it seems easy enough.
If you value good tasting coffee that picks up all the notes and will allow you to have a smooth cup without creamer or sweetener, or if you just want to save counter space by eliminating your burr grinder, this is the one.
While we're delighted to hear how pleased you are overall, we regret to hear about your experience with the app. We encourage you to reach out to our Connected Home Support Line by calling 1-800-220-6899, Monday -Friday 9am - 11pm ET, Saturday - Sunday 9am - 3pm ET.
Pros mentioned:
Easy to use
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Café Level Coffee at Home!
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I’ll start by (shamefully) admitting it, I’ve been using a Keurig for the past several years. When I feel fancy, I grab my French press, my AeroPress, or make cold brew overnight. But day to day, it’s going to be the Keurig because that’s the path of least resistance.
That ended last week. Well, the Keurig part did; I’m keeping the fancy makers still. This coffee maker makes some of the best coffee of all my sets with the absolute least amount of hassle.
Using it is trivially easy – pour fresh beans in the top (or ground directly in the drip basket if you desire), fill the fancy decanter with water, hit brew. Come back in around eight minutes, conveniently shown on the screen for the impatient. The result is what GE calls the “Gold Cup Standard,” around 200° F and with enough strength that I was wired all day. Or come back in a bit! The carafe is great at holding temperature. After an hour and it was still just like it had been fresh brewed.
I like that this came with extra seals and a special brew basket for individual sized brews. Speaking of which, you can totally use this like a Keurig (ignoring the plastic waste). All you do is switch basket filters, flip a switch on the bottom of the drip basket and place a cup under it. Press the “cup” button on the panel and pick your size. Admittedly it does splatter a bit on the maker itself, but cleanup is quick. Splatter shouldn’t be a problem if you were to use a thermos instead (a 20oz Yeti fits nicely under the basket).
A few things I don’t like though… First off, the cup measurement for carafe brewing seems to be off for what a normal mug would consist of. For four “cups” of coffee brewed, I can only enjoy two cups from a standard size mug. Changing the temperature is a practice of patience as you must tap the touch sensitive button for every degree from 185 to 205 and if you hold it, it will only switch from Celsius to Fahrenheit. When you switch to “gold” brewing mode, it automatically goes to ~200° F.
Finally, the bottom of the water fill is to contain a filter. When I got ours, I found the screw on holder impossible to get off due to how small of a space you need to place your hand in and how tight it was placed on at the factory. To the extent that one of the tiny fins broke off in my struggle. As a result, I’ve been using filtered water from our fridge. It’s nice, but I’d rather be able to just add water directly from the tap.
One note to buyers that had no impact on this review, this thing is big. Make sure you take a look at the sizes before you click order, it makes our newer kitchen countertop space look tiny.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
So excited at the prospects of replacing wasteful single serve pod machine with a fresh ground and brewed coffee machine.
My biggest gripe (especially with the white) is not having an elevated tray for your mug. It’s a good 6 or 7” drop meaning significant amounts of splatter.
Secondly, the grounds DO get everywhere. And if you’ve adjusted to single serve units, having to rinse the basket and basket holder out every time is annoying. Which is why I’ll probably get the more fully auto true brew machine and return this one.
Also, the carafe is only insulated, not heated.
This does brew to a 205° temp which is awesome for the lighter roast coffees. And I will say the gold cup brew makes an excellent cup.
Almost the perfect machine here but honestly it doesn’t do anything buying a $40 grinder wouldn’t accomplish. No espresso mode no iced coffee mode, etc.
Thanks for taking the time to share your insight. We'll be sure to forward your feedback about the elevated tray and grounds to our product development team. We appreciate you choosing Café for your home.
Pros mentioned:
Large water reservoir
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Among the best coffee makers in the market
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
The Café - Grind & Brew Smart Coffee Maker looks great on my countertop. It stands tall at a little over 17 inches high and takes ample space in any kitchen. It comes in three different finishes; I have the stainless steel finish with copper accents which looks modern and high end. According to the manufacturer, it ‘is the first drip coffee maker to…be certified by the Specialty Coffee Association as a Gold Cup Brewer’; which raised my expectations.
Setting up the coffee maker is straightforward and fairly easy as long as you follow the instructions manual. It has two different filters; one to use with the carafe and a smaller one for single serve use. There’s an LED screen with control buttons to set up the time, turn off the grinder and to customize your brewing preferences such as temperature, strength and volume size. To take full advantage of this machine, it should be connected to the SmartHQ app and set up through Wi-Fi. That was the only issue I had while setting it up; it would not pair with the app and after a few minutes, I almost gave up and turned off the app and opened it again and it finally detected the coffee maker. Once connected, the app is intuitive and easy to use; You can program up to three favorite brews and also delay brews for the whole week. The app lets you set up all kinds of notifications and, very important to me, it lets you turn off the loud beeping at each press of a button. I was able to connect it to my Google Home app and control it by voice.
This machine makes great coffee and makes the process so much easier. I use both ground coffee and coffee beans and I really like the fact that I don’t need a separate grinder as one is included. The grinder has a knob to adjust the grind size from coarse to fine and in between; this is very important depending on the coffee beans and desired results. As it grinds, the noise is moderate and muffled from its emplacement. The grinder can be turned off for ground coffee use. This coffee maker comes with a giant 75-ounce water reservoir that you can fill up and it uses the water as you go. At the bottom of the reservoir there’s a filter to deliver clean water for brewing. I’ve made several different kinds of coffee beans both flavored and natural. I tinkered with the settings to suit each different flavors and it’s been a complete success. I enjoy the quality of the coffee that I drink and this machine has been a revelation. There’s even a bloom time option, which is customizable in the app, to help keep the maximum taste with freshly ground coffee; coffee connoisseurs will love that feature.
The Café - Grind & Brew Smart Coffee Maker is the best coffee maker I’ve ever owned. It is simple to use for the regular coffee drinker and sophisticated enough for the coffee lover. It comes with many features and has a stunning look and feel of great quality craftsmanship. The only drawback is the size that is not suitable in a small kitchen but other than that, it stands among the best coffee makers in the market.
The Cafe Grind and Brew Looks As Good As It Brews!
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
The Cafe Grind and Brew Smart Coffee Maker is a great piece of equipment for your kitchen or office. I will state that I was not sent the black on as pictured, I received the all stainless version in the box, so I cannot state how the black surfaces hold up to scratches, staining or how it cleans, I was hoping to receive the black to match the rest of the current redesign of my kitchen.
To stay on the subject, the stainless version looks great and is super easy to clean, but, it does scratch very easily, so scrub lighting with a soapy towel, do not use a scrub pad or the back of a sponge, I found out real fast it dulls it up. The water container is plastic, not glass, but is very thick and has a glass like feel and look without the weight. The carafe is nicely built with plenty of girth to keep your brew warm for hours and the lid is very tightly sealed with a small turn of your wrist.
Now, on top the brewing, there is only one setting we use and that is the Gold setting, which produces the smoothest coffee I have ever had in my life. We use a very common brand of coffee and our other pot in one that has great reviews and I even gave it a great review but the Cafe Grind & Brew simply beats it with ease. There are 3 other settings as well, light, medium and bold. The coffee maker also has brew sizes from small ounces to full 10 cup pots, you pick the size. Now, you have picked the level and size of your brew, lets not forget how hot, and you get 20 degrees of adjustment, we put it on the 205 degrees and leave it, we love super hot coffee.
The grinding works great, if you are not using it, make sure to turn the grind feature off or you will be waiting longer for your coffee. The grinding is adjustable and goes from fine to more grannual size, we left it in the middle and it seems to be perfect, like normal coffee. It is loud when it grinds, it is not something we can use at 430 am, kids need to sleep. The coffee maker using pre-ground coffee, it is whisper quiet until it gives a little beep when it is all done.
We have moved our old pot out of the way for this one, we love it, looks great(even though the black looks way better) and makes one heck of a great pot of hot coffee.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
This is a really nice looking and working machine. The look is very high end and will fit into any kitchen and look great! The base, handle, and carafe/mug slider are in a very nice copper with a hint of rose color. It looks nice, even though I wish it was just a true copper color without the rose in it. This machine does have a built in grinder, so you just need to load in your favorite whole bean coffee and it will do the rest. You can also adjust the coarseness of the coffee, I just left it in middle. The grinder itself is actually pretty quiet, you can hear it running but its more motor noise then actual grinding. The water tank can hold up to 75 ounces.
The keypad is very simple to use without any frustrating or complications. I was able to setup the machine in only a few minutes and have it working. Playing with the keypad you can adjust the Temp, strength, and brew delay. You also have the choice of a mug or using the carafe. I use portable long skinnny mugs that do not fit under this machine. You can set the machine to do a mug of coffee based on ounces and still have it pour into the carafe. I had brewed a pot in the morning around 9am drank some and forgot about it until about noon. The coffee that came out was still pipping hot and good to drink.
I stopped using the included coffee grind basket as it is a pain to clean. The grounds stick to the inside and you have to wipe or rinse to get them out. I just use paper filters and now it’s no longer a problem. My biggest problem with this machine is the water tank. While it looks nice, it did leak water onto the base. Other reviewers have experienced this same problem, so it’s not a one off. If you do not put the filter into the water tank correctly the gasket doesn’t sit right and just lets water run. It took me about 10 minutes to get it to seat correctly hopefully fixing this issue.
I’m using a dark roast Starbucks winter whole bean coffee. I was really surprised as the coffee that came out tasted amazing. This machine really does make a great cup of coffee, no bitterness, burnt, or anything just a clean cup of coffee. I think it helps you can adjust the strength, temp, and grind size, most machine do not offer these important customizations.
Overall this is a great all in one machine that makes a great cup of coffee. I’m excited to have people over for the holidays and be able to serve them a proper cup of coffee.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Café - Grind & Brew Smart Coffee Maker with Gold Cup Standard
Café’s approach to this complete coffee experience starts with eye-catching style, continues with tech that adds convenience to the tedious, and finishes up with perfectly brewed coffee. My wife has experimented with the more elaborate coffee systems and has no problem firing up the simplest office machine. Her conclusion regarding Café’s exciting looking coffee maker is that it’s possible to impress the most meticulous coffee snob (her included) while keeping the effort surprisingly simple. It’s now her choice to keep the process “office machine“ simple or spend a few minutes more to tailor the coffee preparation to achieve her ideal cup or carafe. The Café is very pretty, in a modernist way. And, yet it does not sacrifice simplicity and function to convince you of how special it is. It makes great coffee.
SETUP: Kudos for Café for their very useful, complete, easy-to-read, and accessible instruction booklet. The machine is very intuitive so that helps. There is even a cheat sheet which we’re going to laminate. (Psst, GE, you could do that, too.)
Every step can be modified from the control panel, but the Café starts you off with setting that get you close.You will need to set the clock, and if set up Wi-Fi the time will stay accurate and you can save your preferred settings. (Hold HOUR + MINUTE to initiate WiFi setup.)
The Default setting are a the starting point,, but from there you find the button on the CONTROL PANEL to pick your TEMPERATURE, pick your brew size (volume), pick your STRENGTH, start BREW, or the next button over DELAYS the start, and start GRINDER action or CLEANING with the final button. The instruction booklet contributes immensely to your understanding of the machine, the adjustments that will improve your coffee to your taste and some art and science behind the brewing process..
SUMMARY: After you get past the distinctive design, the imposing size, and the very complete-while-staying-simple coffee making process you have to marvel at the thoughtful engineering. Café has managed to create a coffee machine that manages to compete with more complex and fussy machines and pleasantly satisfy serious coffee lovers.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
This coffee pot is less than a year old & has been lightly used, since I mostly do single cup pour overs. It made very good coffee at the beginning but there are worsening problems with the way it moves water into the grounds. It is leaking & the necessary water quantity doesn't get to the beans, making coffee that is twice as strong as ut should be. I plan to return it tomorrow!
We appreciate you sharing your feedback and regret to hear you ended up returning your new unit. Know this is not what we would normally expect from our appliances and hope we can earn your trust back in the future. We will let our product team know about your feedback as it helps us to identify what changes or updates need to be made.Dianna@Cafe
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Good Machine - Not Great
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Posted . Owned for 1 month when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I was looking for a coffee maker that had a removable water tank for easy filling, a thermal carafe to keep the pot warm in case I slept in or for my work from home, all morning coffee drinking days, and had a built in grinder. The Cafe Grind & Brew seemed to check all those boxes. This machine makes a good pot of coffee. It’s relatively quiet during operation.
I have a few notes. The construction is a bit cheap for the price point. The parts don’t snap together firmly and the pause and serve feature can easily go astray and spill because of a loose connection. The machine uses way too many grounds. It’s not a matter of strength of coffee, it over fills the filter basket and makes a mess (for paper and copper filters alike). The bean hopper is way too small for the amount of beans the machine automatically selects to grind.
We’re so glad to hear that this coffee maker has helped you enjoy some of the best coffee you’ve ever tasted! A great cup of coffee can really set the tone for the day, and we’re thrilled that it’s making your mornings even better. Lauren@CaféAppliances
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Grind n brew
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Posted . Owned for 4 months when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
This is the best coffee machine hands down, I read the reviews about how it leaks so much. I haven’t had that problem yet. But other than that coffee at home is great
We appreciate you choosing us for your purchase and being a valued Cafe customer. We are happy to hear you are enjoying and impressed with the amazing quality of coffee from your new Grind and brew unit. It’s sure to be a fast favorite in your home for a very long time! Dianna@Cafe Appliances
Cons mentioned:
Price
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
Overpriced beautiful looking device
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Posted . Owned for 7 months when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
This is purely a splurge item and nothing more. I found out I really didnt need this, aside from my habit of spending and buying new stuff. It has a lot of cool features, built in grinder and you can use an app to brew and setup brew times.
But... at the end of the day, it doesnt make coffee better than a 20 dollar drip coffee maker. Buying an expensive machine wont make coffee better. I would argue that its the illusion of a 200 dollar machine and you convincing yourself it does. The reality is that the amount of grams you use for the grounds and ounces of water you use are more important.
Save yourself the money and dont buy this.
We appreciate your feedback. Overall, you can truly experience a barista quality cup of coffee right in your own kitchen. Imagine the money you will save! Specialty Grind and Brew Coffeemakers with Thermal Carafe from Café, which are as intelligent as they are beautiful. All Café coffee makers are WiFi enabled and feature voice-controlled capabilities, connected through the SmartHQ app and compatible with Alexa and Google Home. This has flexible temperature controls, and a variety of brew settings allow even the most discriminating coffee connoisseur to enjoy the ideal amount of coffee at the ideal brew, without ever sacrificing flavor or performance. The modern, clean look pairs perfectly with the signature Café copper accents that truly mark these as the world's most stylish appliances. It is our hope the more you use it the more you will like it.
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
GET ONE
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Posted . Owned for 2 weeks when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Purchased to replace a Krups Grind & Brew and so-far-so-good. There are some really great features on this machine: the app, the ability to change the water temperature, being able to use whole beans or pre ground coffee, being able to adjust from single use to a full carafe……..
Also, the quality made me want to research more products by this brand
I would recommend this to a friend
Brand response from Cafe Appliances
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We're delighted to welcome you to our Café family!
Pros mentioned:
Easy to use
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Kitchen coffe maker
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Posted . Owned for 1 month when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
This is the best coffee maker ... So easy to use and so cute
We're glad to hear that you're enjoying your beautiful new coffee maker! We strive to make sure our products are user friendly to ensure that our consumers have the best experience possible.Thanks for being part of the Café family!