Wanting the best coffee made is something we all want, but it comes at a cost.
Unless you have a butler or Alfred to fix you a cup each morning, the Breville BDC650BSS might be something you want.
It has a high entry price of $300, but it boasts high design and premium build quality to match.
When it comes to making quality coffee, the most important things to have on hand are a scale, a grinder, and fresh coffee beans, but purchasing all of these items separately will easily add up.
With this one, you have it all.
Furthermore, it has an integrated burr that can grind your whole coffee beans and brew full pots or single cups of fresh java on demand. Breville also boasts about its almost robotic degree of personal coffee-tweaking skills.
However…
While it has many fantastic features, there are a few pitfalls to be aware of.
So, before you make a final buying decision, please read my full analysis of the Breville BDC650BSS
Breville BDC650BSS – The design
It has a curvy and futuristic appearance that you will either love or despise. But, whatever way you look at it, it appears to be a well-made.
Breville excels at UX design and producing clear and simple buttons and menus. It feels uncluttered, and the buttons are big, each with a friendly glowing ring around it.
Coming in at 8.5 x 12.5 x 16.3 inches, it’s one of the larger drip coffee makers on the market. Much of the coffee makers size is due to its most distinguishing feature, a built-in burr grinder.
But if you’re concerned about finding a space for this, consider the alternative: Burr grinder like Baratza Encore, a pour over coffee maker, and a gooseneck kettle. If you have space for those, i’m sure you can make space for the Breville.
Also, with 16 pounds of weight, you wouldn’t have to worry about inadvertently pushing it off the table. This coffee maker is a hulking hulk that sits rock-solid on your kitchen table.
So choose carefully where you want to put it because carrying the Breville Grind Control coffee maker around is not easy.
Besides the filter basket, the whole coffee maker is encased in brushed metal.
This grants the Breville BDC650BSS Drip Coffee Maker a rather contemporary look.
Brewing options: a cup, a travel mug, or a whole carafe
Personally, I like the variety of options and features that this provides. You can choose the size of the cup you want, from a single cup to an entire carafe, with the coffee maker.
After loading the plastic hopper with up to half a pound of coffee, you must make your first decision.
What amount of coffee would you like to brew? A single cup, a mug, or a whole carafe? And perhaps even anything in the middle?
There are 8 different single-cup size choices ranging from 7.5oz to 21oz, giving you maximum flexibility.
The stainless steel carafe holds up to 12 cups of coffee and can keep it hot for several hours. However, bear in mind that this equates to 12 times 5 ounces. Cups rather than mugs, which usually contain 8 ounces or more.
Emptying the carafe appears to be difficult, you’ll be turning it upside down, resulting in coffee spilled all over the place but not in the cup. it is a thermal carafe after all. Keeping the coffee hot has its pros and cons.
Brew strength: From lite to bold, mild to intense
Following that, you can choose the flavor of your coffee from “Light” to “Bold” from a menu of five options. This is due to the system soaking the ground beans differently at various times during the brewing process.
With the Auto Start function, you can also pre-program it to make coffee at the appropriate time.
Is the coffee overly strong? Let’s tone it down a notch!
Is the coffee in the mug tasteless? Why not amp up the flavor?
Is there not enough coffee in the cup? Increase the volume from 11oz to 12.5 oz the next time.
The best part is that once you’ve found your ideal coffee profile, you can hold it indefinitely. Unless, of course, someone else changes it after you.
The machine remembers your most recent settings, allowing you to enjoy a perfectly adjusted cup of coffee every time. Or before it was modified by someone else.
Another good advantage is that you can see how much water remains in the tank as there is a digital indicator for the water fill level in the display.
Performance and maintenance
Two things happen when you push the start button. The heater begins to heat the water, and the grinder begins to grind the beans you’ve put in the machine’s hopper at the top.
This is a good thing, since the road to great coffee begins with a good grinder. Blade grinders are useless, and buying pre-ground coffee is a no-no because coffee begins to lose its aromatics as soon as it is ground.
And once the ground coffee is automatically delivered to the filter basket, the water starts to drip in.
In other words, no flavors from the beans will evaporate into the air because the water drips down and removes certain flavors within seconds of the beans being ground.
Still not convinced this coffee maker can replace Alfred?
The Breville BDC650BSS has an 1100 Watt engine under the hood that heats the water quickly and keeps it hot during the brewing process.
Although the heated water barely reaches 200°F, it is still within the SCAA’s recommended temperature range of 195° to 205° Fahrenheit.
Hint: By pre-warming the carafe with hot water before the brewing cycle, you can extend the time the coffee stays hot.
Of course, before you press the Start button, you should empty the water.
To maintain The Grind Control coffee maker, all removable parts must be hand washed after each use. The carafe and cap, brew basket, gold-tone filter, grinds catcher, drip tray, grinder lid, and bean hopper are all included. The hand washing was inconvenient, but it probably only took about 5 minutes longer.
Regular cleaning is essential to maintaining peak performance and preventing clogging of the grinder.
So, after each brewing, remove the filter holder, the gold-tone filter basket, and wipe the tunnel between the grinder and the basket.
Furthermore, the grinder chute and burrs must be washed every few weeks. A message will appear on the LCD screen indicating that the coffee chute needs to be cleaned. A cleaning brush is included to assist with this operation.
Check the burrs and discard coffee bean pieces from the grinder every other day, if you can.
That way, you’ll be on the safe side!
So, whats bad about it?
What could possibly go wrong if you end up buying this? Well, I am speaking as an Aquarius, and I love experimenting with coffee, so my preferred choice is a pour-over and using mods like LilyDrip. And I travel a lot. So I have my bias towards coffee makers.
It won’t achieve the subtlety of flavor that manual brewing achieves, but it will get you much closer than a K-cup or cheap Mr. Coffee machine. So if you’re someone in between either of them, this is for you.
Few downfalls:
And even if you aren’t, you’ll need to remember the price of this unit. $300 is a lot to pay for good coffee. You can easily get a great standalone grinder and pour-over rig for less than $300. It will produce superior coffee, and you may experiment with other methods such as the French Press or Aeropress. The catch, of course, you will be longer time to brew, trying to find different techniques and experiment quite a bit.
Just know that the grinder setting is set for “drip coffee”. So if you decided to grind coffee for a French Press and a coarser grind, you won’t be able to. There are 4 different grind settings, and I recommend using the number 3.
You will need to clean the burr grinder at least once a week, but you’ll need to do this for any coffee grinders.
Single cup mode takes a little longer to steep than carafe mode (about 6 minutes for all sizes), but it’s well worth it. To brew the same amount of coffee, it is no slower than a standard drip machine. I’m not really sure this qualifies as a con.
There are other brewer/grinder combinations to consider, all of which are less expensive than the Breville, you can review them on our coffee maker with grinder list.
My Final Thoughts on the Breville BDC650BSS Grind Control Coffee Maker
It is impossible to deny that the Breville Youbrew BDC600XL is a genuinely versatile coffee maker with several customizable choices to choose from.
Breville has developed and expertly crafted a coffee maker with an embedded burr grinder with the BDC650BSS
Is the ease of enjoying freshly ground coffee beans at the touch of a button, however, enough to satisfy your craving?
Will you be able to forgive this machine if you get a good cup of coffee, but the grinding isn’t perfect?
Can you agree that cleaning is necessary and, therefore, should be done after every brewing cycle?
With its built-in grinder, filtering system, pre-programmed settings, and basic control panels, making coffee will be a joyous and simple activity.
If the relatively high price does not deter you, I believe the Breville BDC650BSS with embedded grinder is the product for you.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase using these links. Remember to support us by purchasing through the Amazon/Walmart/Impact Radius links provided. Last update on 2024-04-25 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Disclosure: No compensation or free products were received in exchange for writing this review.
Editorial Staff
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