Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

What good is it if it cannot brew a decent cup of coffee? When my employer took away free coffee service (boo!) and replaced it with a pay by the cup k-cup service (double-boo!), I decided to explore my options. I wanted something that I could use to quickly brew a travel mug full of coffee before and then head into work. This maker seems to have it all. It can brew at sufficiently hot temps and brew right into a travel mug. The machine looks good and feels like it's built solidly. There's no pot to clean afterwards. But, most importantly, it doesn't require a proprietary "cup" to brew. I refuse to buy into a proprietary cup system since it's overpriced and limits your selection of coffees. I know you can buy refillable cups, but they have their problems (read the reviews). I really wanted to believe that was the ticket to a convenient cup of good coffee in the morning. However, even as I was buying the machine, I had this nagging feeling that a cup of coffee brewed in 90 seconds using the standard drip method would lead to weak coffee.. Conventional wisdom (and experience over the years) tells me that it takes a good 5 minutes of brew time at right temps to properly extract the oils and other compounds from the beans that make for a really tasty cup. I bought the machine anyway, hoping that Hamilton Beach's design team had somehow solved this issue and built a remarkable machine. They didn't, however. Even on the "bold" setting the coffee brewed is weak and tasteless. I see how Hamilton Beach tried to overcome the brewing limitations. The "max" line on the coffee scoop equates to roughly 3 tablespoons of coffee. Typically one uses a tablespoon per 6 oz of water. With 12 oz of water in the machine and 3 tablespoons of coffee you are using roughly 50% more beans. I found this doesn't do much to improve the taste of the coffee. I even experimented with smaller grinds. I went from my standard drip grind down a grind that is about halfway between drip and espresso. The grind I tested with is really at the limits of what this machine's metal filter can do to keep grinds from passing into your cup. The coffee didn't gain flavor, just bitterness. I really tried to make this work, I really did. However, it's not worth it if you're forced to sip on weak, bland coffee. The machine is ggetting returned. I won't be happy with it. Sadly, there aren't many options out there to fit my wants other than the proprietary cup machines. Perhaps I'll just buy an AeroPress, which solves the quick brewing problem with pressure and a heck of a lot of beans. However, it's not nearly as convenient of method of brewing as this machine provides.