My wife and I are true coffee aficionados, so when are old coffee maker it the dust we decided to get a new top-of-the-line coffee maker. We knew Cuisinart was a solid brand, so we decided on their 12-cup grinder & coffee maker combo with the thermal carafe. For $200, we were expecting to be impressed - and we certainly were.

Though this coffee maker makes 12 cups (which is great for those that drink a lot of coffee as you only have to make one pot instead of two), it still manages to be fairly compact and not take up any more room on your countertop than most coffee makers. The burr grinder is on top of the coffee maker for easy access, which helps keep things tidy. It all breaks down easily for cleaning, which you will be doing a lot of if you use the grinder daily. You can use the easy-to-grasp manual, but there is also a handy DVD included that takes you through everything step-by-step, from making coffee to cleaning. You don't have to use the grinder of course, it will make pre-ground coffee just fine - just make sure you turn off the grinder of you will have a double dose of coffee grounds and super strong coffee.

Like most high-end coffee makers these days it comes with an array of bells and whistles, like options to program it to make coffee while you're still in bed and the ability to pour your coffee before the entire pot is done brewing.

I'm only giving this coffee maker 4 out of 5 stars because less than a year after purchasing it, it began to malfunction. Sometimes the coffee would be extremely weak (whereas before it often made the coffee too strong, which we learned ways around), then eventually it wouldn't make coffee at all - we'd just end up with a pot of hot water. It turned out that something had gone wrong with the turntable type thing through which the grinds flow into the filter and only a small amount of grounds - if any - were getting through. Thankfully, it was still under warranty and we got a new one in no time.

Our replacement coffee maker, despite being of the same model seems to have had some adjustments made to it, as I can see some different things in the grinder mechanism which apparently help with any blockage issues (i.e. it doesn't need to be cleaned as often) and it is actually quieter than our previous one. Overall, however, I'd still recommend this excellent coffee maker.