Product Description

Enjoy the convenience of having the corner coffee shop in your own kitchen. Home Café brews 7, 9 and 14 ounce beverages as well as creamy specialty coffees and a variety of teas in one minute. The removable cup booster / drip tray minimizes spatters and is easy to clean.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5649 in Kitchen & Housewares
• Color: Black
• Brand: Black & Decker
• Model: GT300
• Dimensions: 14.00" h x 6.00" w x 13.00" l, 7.00 pounds

Features

• Brew 7, 9 and 14 ounce beverages, tea and creamy beverages
• Easy to use push-button controls
• Cleaning Cycle
• Removable Cup Booster / Drip Tray
• Robust Design

Customer Reviews

First single-serve pod coffemaker, impressed!
UPDATE AFTER A YEAR (1/2/06): I have been using this coffee maker for a year now. No problems with the machine. It has performed flawlessly. I follow the maintenance schedule which basically entails running a 50/50 white vinegar/water solution through the maker roughly every 30 cups. This is to prevent scale build-up. I didn't do it every 30 cups. I've run over 200 cups of coffee through this and have done the maintenance 3 times.

The primary reason I prefer this maker over the Senseo maker is the fact that it was almost designed for my Black and Decker 14 oz travel mug which fits nicely underneath; the Senseo is too short.

I have narrowed my preferences for coffee down to the Senseo brand of coffee. The medium roast is my favorite.

For those people who did not like this coffee maker because of a plastic taste in there coffee, I can say that 2 things could cause this:

1. Leaving water in the plastic water tank for an extended period of time. I always use fresh cold water straight from the water filter.

2. Make sure you are using a fresh coffee pod or pods (for 14 oz mugs). Reusing a pod, or trying to use just one pod for 14oz will water down the taste considerably.

ORIGINAL REVIEW (12/28/05): Received this for Christmas from my wife. I upgraded from a B&D "Brew N' Go" single serve coffeemaker, and can use the same travel mug with the Home Cafe. The main reason my wife chose the B&D over the Senseo was the fact that my travel mug fits easily in the B&D model. I understand this particular model is a redesign of another B&D model which received horrible reviews. In my opinion it's always a good thing to get the "2nd generation" as all the bugs have been worked out.

I am impressed with the ease of use, including how fast it makes a cup of coffee, and how easily it cleans up. I also prefer the taste of the coffee over my old maker. The coffeemaker itself is not too big, and the water reservoir holds enough water to last me a couple days.

If you're like me, you need more than just a cup of coffee in the morning, you have to have a GOOD cup of coffee. At some point I'll know which pods I like best as there are a number of different pod brands out there. The manual says only to use Folgers or Millstone brand (don't like the taste of either), but from what I've read elsewhere it doesn't make a difference which brand you use as long as the pods are the correct size.

The cheapest pods I've found online are the Senseo brand which run roughly 20 cents per pod. Ultimately you weigh taste with price, and you decide which is more important.

Overall I am very happy with the B&D Home Cafe.

Works for me
I have this machine, I've used it fairly heavily for a couple of weeks now, and so far, I love it!

Granted, I woudn't replace my high-quality bean grinder and drip coffee maker at home for any pod brewer. However, I have discovered that the single-serve pod brewer, like this Black & Decker, occupies a niche for me--on my desk at work (further discussion on this at the end) For that purpose, this machine has peformed admirably so far, as long as you use the proper pods.

The coffee is reasonably hot; the sizes produced have been consistent; the machine hasn't leaked at all; and it works quickly. It's a teensy bit on the loud side, but since it works for only a minute or so, this hasn't been any problem.

Perhaps one of its greatest bragging points over similar machines is that it's designed to accomodate tall vessels, like travel mugs. This is truly a great feature. Other machines accomodate nothing taller than a standard mug or coffee cup.

There are some general considerations, however about this, and in fact, any, pod brewer. To those who have tried pod machines and soon or immediately dismissed them because of poor coffee quality, I say this: It is possible to get passable, if not even decent, coffee out of these machines, but I have discovered that it takes some experimentation, and it is of the utmost inmportance to find the best pods for your particular brand of machine. Coffee quality varies wildly by the brand of pods/machine model combination, and I think it'e more due to pod and pod holder size/shape/construct than to the actual coffee inside.

Case in point with the Black & Decker GT300 system: I have found that using the Millstone pods, especially the Columbian Supremo Medium roast, Makes a pretty darn good cup of coffee. The Folger's pods work pretty well too, though the Millstone is better.

But I recently tried the Maxwell House Cafe Collection French Roast pods in the machine, and though I used two pods, I got back what looked like slightly tan water, rather than coffee.

I tried again with two pods, same result. Hoping the problem was with the pods and not the machine, I switched back to the Millstone pods, and everyting was great again.

I examined the situation, and came to the conjclusion that the Maxwell house pods are of a mildly different shape, the pouch having a slightly smaller diameter, and at least for this machine, this allows the water to mostly run around the outside of the pod and out, unsteeped, into the cup.

(Therefore I can't comment on the quality of the Maxwell House coffee, since I didn't get a proper brew sample in the first place.)

The Maxwell House pod problem notwithstanding, given the proper pods, and the proper niche, I'm enjoying the heck out of this machine.

More about the niche thing: I am a long-time lover of good coffee, but I don't have many reasonable options at work. We have a coffee club here, with a drip maker, but they always buy the cheapest canned store brand, and they leave it on the burner all day. Plus, there's the usual silent tussle about making the next pot if you finish it. How many coffee clubs have the problem of a half-cup sitting in the pot all day because no one wants to have to make the next pot?

That was one of three options I had available to me. The two were the local restaurant/cafe, which had inconvenient hours and unpredictable coffee quality/availability even when open, or climbing into my car and driving to the local Starbucks (no comments either way on Starbucks here.) Having my own drip machine or French press at my desk is way too much of a hassle and mess.

Given those options, I have found a pod machine, and specifically this Black & Decker, to be a more than satisfactory product for my needs. As long as I have the right pods :-]

Will

very convenient coffeemaker coffee
Like another reviewer, I received this coffeemaker free from bzzangent.com for the purpose of trying it out and giving feedback. This and one of those cute scrubbing bubbles automatic shower sprayers were my first products from them, and I've had them about a month.

I've tried three kinds of Folgers pods with the coffeemaker. Coffeehouse quality? Not really, but it is comparable to the kinds of coffee you dispense and grind in the grocery store kiosks (i.e. better than canned). In addition, it does have capability for creamy coffees (I've tried Skinny Vanilla Latte and Cappuccino, which are both pretty yummy). These don't foam up like they should for true coffeehouse style, but they are better than instant, and a better option for me, who can't afford a very fancy coffee machine or the counter space it would require. I actually really like the shape and size of this. Not very wide or imposing. About 1.5 large coffee cups wide, actually. And it's quite sturdy, not at a

I prefer pretty strong coffee (on the level of European espresso), and was a bit disappointed after reading the product info and then getting coffee pot appliance-style. Even on the 7 oz setting, it's not quite what I'd like. On the other hand, the strength of the 7 oz would be overwhelming for the other coffee drinkers in my house, so that's going to depend on your preference.

Convenience is the keyword with this, and since I like flavored coffees and the others in my household don't, this is really an ideal appliance for what it does.

I love the speed of setup, brewing, and clean up. Seriously, the process is
- fill removable container with water
- open pod area lid, put in pod, close lid
- push button
...and a minute later I have a cup of coffee as good as I would get with a full coffee maker.
Cleanup: grab pod holder and fling the pod into the trash.
It's only suggested that you clean the pod holder and splashguard after using creamy pods, but I rinse 'em every time anyway. Still, altogether I think this is less effort than even instant coffees. Even though I have a bag of ground stuff in the fridge and cans of instant international coffees in the pantry, I've been using this machine 3-5 times a week since I received it.

I don't like insanely hot coffee that burns my tastebuds off, so the fact that it's perfect drinking temperature after adding a splash of milk is a good thing for me. If you like lap-burning temp coffee, you may not be happy with this incarnation of the single-serve maker.

The machine is a little bit loud for the minute it's on. If a light sleeper is asleep nearby (it just woke up my puppy that was sleeping under the countertop on which it was sitting), it could be a problem, but it makes the noise for only about a minute, so I haven't had any real problem. I don't have any problem with the plastic taste/smell that others mentioned either.

Hopefully, from reading the comments here, you can decide if this is the best product for you. I really like mine. Overall, it's a convenient, good-quality, single-serve appliance to make a fast cup of coffeemaker-style coffee.