I was raised on hot tea with lemon, but somehow ended over on the dark side with all the flavored coffees and tempting gourmet beans available. It was just too easy to buy specialty coffees sold in local stores, cafes, or other specialty retailers. It started out innocent enough. Now there is just one rule, no Kopi Luwak, ever!

Cuisinart

Our old coffeepot is a 10-cup Cuisinart coffee maker that automatically grinds and brews fresh coffee at a pre-set time. I was thrilled with that for a while, but the novelty wore off rather quickly due to the extra cleaning and extra time it takes to dry it when you want another batch quickly.

Mr. Coffee

My online stealth shopping located a no frills Mr. Coffee 12-cup coffee maker for under $30. We have a bean grinder, so that is not a problem. Since capacity is a little bigger, it will serve more holiday guests per pot. That is a big plus in its favor; however, only white is available and would look out of place. Sometimes you just want to go back to basics on appliances and this model in black would work. Another downside is that we would not be able to wake up and smell the coffee brewing.

Back to online shopping now, a water purifier would be a terrific addition to help make the perfect choice of coffee beans taste even better.