Melitta® Aroma Fresh™ Plus 10-Cup Automatic Drip, Programmable Coffee Maker with built in Burr Coffee Grinder

Coffee maker sucks. That was my thought one second ago as I poured another "freshly ground" cup of crappy coffee. Three beans, two beans, one bean, 6 cups, 10 cups, four cups...these are the settings but, so what, setting them does not work as advertised. Not worth the money. Coffee maker is fine if you use ground.

Very easy to clean on a daily basis. Great coffee! Much better than my old breville grind and Brew.

Overall I like this coffeemaker. This is my fourth coffeemaker on a quest to find one that is of decent quality and makes a good cup of coffee and I think I have finally landed on this one as a keeper. That being said, it's not perfect. It definitely has some quirks and a few drawbacks but it is not enough for me to return it. Buckle up because this is a long but thorough review of the Melitta Aroma Fresh Plus grind & brew coffeemaker. CONSTRUCTION/BUILD QUALITY: What I liked: - I am pretty happy with the build quality overall. It feels more solid than a couple other coffeemakers I purchased, including a Cuisinart. The swivel-open filter door is very smooth and clicks into place with a nice tactile feel. Nothing about it feels janky or cheaply made. - The plastic bean hopper stood out to me as well. I was expecting more of a rigid plastic but to my pleasant surprise it was a softer and more flexible plastic. Think Tupperware from yesteryear. The top has a nice snug fit and a rubber/silicone seal to keep the beans fresh. - The integrated burr grinder is obviously a big feature. More on that in the next section - Melitta has engineered a mechanically controlled steel plate that covers the opening from the grinder to the filter basket when it's done grinding. This is no doubt to prevent steam from the brewing process making its way into the grinder compartment where it would likely degrade those parts over time and gum up residual coffee oils on the burrs. This is the engineering you're paying for with this machine. What I didn't like: - I am not a huge fan of the glass carafe. The glass is a bit on the thin side and I have granite countertops so I'm afraid I'm going to place it down too hard and break the carafe. I will keep a hot pad near the coffeemaker to place it on when not on the heating plate. FEATURES, DESIGN & AESTHETICS: What I liked: - The burr grinder. The heart and soul of this coffeemaker and one of the main selling points for me. There aren't a ton of grind & brew coffeemakers on the market and of those, even less feature a burr grinder so this one really stood out to me. Yes, you pay more for it but it's a worthy upgrade in my opinion. I was planning on grinding my beans in a separate grinder and putting them in the filter before I set the timer to go off the next morning but this eliminates the need for my grinder all together. I'd rather pay more for a feature like this than some gimmicky K-cup single serving or iced "espresso" shot option on a Ninja that I’ll never use. Additionally, this grinder is QUIET compared to most other burr grinders I've used. I think this grinder grinds slower than most burr grinders as well and I believe this was by design as to not spit out the grounds into the filter all haphazardly in a messy pile. It grinds it much more gently and neatly dispenses them into the filter. The result is a less noisy grinder and a better cup of coffee. This also results in a bit longer grind time. Eight cups worth of beans takes about 30 seconds to grind. This could be viewed as a drawback to some due to the noise. It doesn't bother me. - The simple, clean look. The stainless steel exterior and the touchscreen buttons offer a sleek, modern look. - Its low profile bean hopper ensures it fits underneath most kitchen cabinets. - The touchscreen buttons are responsive. - The size of the carafe is perfect. 10 cups is the sweet spot for my needs. 8 cups is enough to fill two 20oz. to-go Yetis. 6 cups fills two mugs on the weekend. - The steam vent on the top right corner is a thoughtful design. It does a good job directing the steam inside the filter compartment away from the burr grinder compartment so it doesn't end up degrading the metal parts. It also doubles as a way to emit that enticing coffee aroma. - The 24-hour programmability was another one of my must-haves because I got tired of the manual process of pour-over every morning at 6am. What I didn't like: - The water reservoir is in the back and the opening is narrow so filling with water can sometimes be messy if you pour too fast or have bad aim. I also have to pull the coffeemaker all the way out from the wall and turn it more than 90 degrees to fill it up. This causes many fingerprints all over the machine that I need to wipe once a week. Once it's full, the machine is considerably heavier and putting it back in the corner of my countertop is cumbersome, especially since the rubber feet on the bottom are very grippy. So have to lift it back into place more than slide. I wish removable water reservoirs were more common. - The cup selection (which only controls how much coffee the grinder grinds) grinds in 2-up increments from there. Considering this is just a matter of computer timing, there's no reason why they couldn't do 1-cup increments. So tough luck if you want an odd number of cups like 3 or 5. It should be noted that you can can put as much or as little water in it as you want and the machine will brew it until the reservoir is depleted. Like I said, the cups option only matters if you plan on grinding your coffee in the machine. But you can grind three cups worth of beans yourself in an external grinder and brew it in this machine after you select the grind off button to circumvent this, but that's counterproductive in my opinion. This coffeemaker should just be able to grind in 1-cup increments. - At this price point, I was disappointed this machine didn't include three things; a charcoal water filter, a permanent coffee filter, and a thermal carafe option. Even $100 machines have water filters and permanent gold tone coffee filters nowadays. I get that Melitta also makes the most widely available paper filter in the world but at $300+, this should include an integrated water filter and a reusable gold tone filter. Period. I ended up buying a stainless steel filter for this. The less paper waste, the better. But I shouldn't have to is my point. And as far as the thermal pot is concerned, it would've been nice to have that option. If someone is spending $300+ on a coffeemaker, they likely take their coffee little more seriously and would appreciate the option for a thermal pot instead of a glass carafe. - This is more of a quirk for me but the 24-hour time display is puzzling. I understand this is a European based company and many people there tell time on a 24-hour format but Americans do not. We do 12-hour AM and PM format. If Melitta is going to sell products in the USA, they should really tailor the display for the American consumer. I say this is a quirk because it's really not that big of a deal to me. I have three other clocks in my kitchen between the microwave, oven, and a wall clock, so I do not need to rely on the coffeemaker for the time. I just thought it was strange. I never see 24-hour clocks on coffeemakers. - Another quirk is the fact that setting the grind size should only be done while the grinder is actively grinding. It explicitly says in the manual not to adjust the grind size while the machine is off or idle, as it can damage the grinder. This is problematic because that means you will have to grind at least some of beans at a setting you don't want. - There is no access to the grinder itself. I like clean the burrs every once in a while, especially between bean roasts, but there isn't a way to do this on this coffeemaker. I can't imagine over years of grinding beans daily that the burrs will perform their best without regular cleaning. Oils from the beans will undoubtedly cake up on the burrs and affect performance and flavor. This is a design flaw by Melitta. - There isn't a way to manually turn off the hot plate apart form unplugging the machine, which I won’t do because it will wipe out my programmed brew settings. We are a one cup of coffee in the morning household so we don't need the hot plate on for two hours. It's a waste of energy and having it on for two hours every day unnecessarily will undoubtedly wear the heating element out. - I'll never understand why most coffeemaker manufacturers choose to put the water reservoir window on the right side of the machine. Considering most of the population are right-handed, it would make more sense to put this on the left side so we can view the gauge on the left side as we pour with our right. -The instructions kind of suck. In multiple spots, It instructs you to hit the brew button, followed by cup selection and brew strength. Don't do this. Select those things first and then hit brew. - Lastly, it's a small thing but I don't really like the icons on the buttons instead of words. The M and the H obviously mean minute and hour but the cup size and brew strength icons aren't immediately obvious. Why not just implement both icons and words? BOTTOM LINE: I know the things I didn't like seem to be much more extensive than the things I did like but I think the the value of the things I did like outweigh the things I didn't. It's a good coffeemaker. As I stated, I purchased and returned three other coffeemakers before I found this one and this one is still the best of all of them by a long shot. It's feature rich without being gimmicky, it has a quality, low noise burr grinder, cone shaped filter for better coffee extraction, and it brews an excellent cup of coffee. No bitterness or unpleasant tastes due to poor brewing. All wrapped up in a sleek stainless steel exterior. You have to take the bad with the good and I think this machine is mostly good.

This Melitta Aroma Fresh Coffeemaker was purchased from Amazon on 10/8/24 for use at a PART-TIME residence. Therefore, it was not used very frequently - for several days about every couple months. Soon after the 1 year warranty expired, the coffeemaker stopped working. It would grind beans and the hotplate would come on, but it wouldn't pump the water to brew. After contacting Melitta, they apologized or the inconvenience(!) and offered 10% off a new coffeemaker...SERIOUSLY?!!! At a cost of $230(!!) and minimal use, I would expect a coffeemaker to last longer than that!! VERY disappointed in the product - AND the customer service. Don't buy! You'll likely be disappointed too.

UPDATE - It's just too complicated. There are too many button presses required to get started with fresh grind brew. One glaringly missing button is a CANCEL button. If you make a mistake with the ON button, then there is no simple way to cancel the process. The only way I have found to quickly end a mistaken button press is to unplug it. I really want to like this machine, but I just can't. I'm better off grinding my coffee in my other machine and using my other coffee maker to brew it. This machine is a great idea, but it is poorly executed. What a shame. This is a very nice coffee maker. The grinder is easy to access and fill. The programming is straight forward. The design will fit most coffee stations without taking up too much room. There is only one issue so far - the carafe. Let’s start with the upside. The grinder is very easy to access, fill, and set the grind size. It is rather noisy, but that just seems to go with the territory. The water fill is straight forward with a window to confirm how much is added to the tank. The settings are easy to master with the help of the well written instructions. Filter access is straight forward with a swing out door that makes it easy to add and remove the filters. The overall build quality is excellent. But… and there’s always a but, the carafe design is poorly thought out. The container is short and wide. It is easy to poor from when the pot is full. But trying to get the last cup of coffee leads to a spilling disaster. The lip of the carafe isn’t tapered towards the pour spout to direct the coffee that way. The result is that when you tilt the carafe to pour the last cup of coffee out it can overflow the rim and spill everywhere. You must lift it slowly and deliberately to direct the flow of the coffee to the cup. That is the reason for the three star rating. I’m of the opinion that had anyone even tried to use the carafe, then this design flaw would have been evident immediately. With a better carafe design this is easily a five-star product. As it is though, I do not think it is worth the price with such a poorly designed carafe. UPDATE - It's just too complicated. There are too many button presses required to get started with fresh grind brew. One glaringly missing button is a CANCEL button. If you make a mistake with the ON button, then there is no simple way to cancel the process. The only way I have found to quickly end a mistaken button press is to unplug it.

We bought this coffee maker in December, and it was in the trash on June 1. There were multiple problems that made no sense. It would not bring the coffee beans into the grinder without stirring with a spoon. It constantly needed to be be descaled, but there are no instructions online how to do so. The only thing you can do is download the owners manual PDF, find the descaling section, and learn how to do it by pressing buttons that make no sense... Then it starting leaking A LOT. It would leak almost a full cup of water to make 1 mot of coffee.

I am quite happy with this grind and brew machine. It replaced a Capresso unit that was far less satisfying. The coffee tastes smooth and delicious (set at medium grind and first level of strength) and the touch pad is extremely easy to operate. I want to correct a comment made about the number of cups being stuck at 10. Not true. The selector allows for 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10 cups, but it is important to use the same amount of water. The only odd thing is that the markings on the water tank and on the carafe only start at 4, so trying to make just 2 cups would require a bit of estimation and inconsistency (I decided to make 4 my personal minimum instead).

I have been fresh grinding my coffee for years. And it really does make a difference. Having this all-in-one unit is very convenient and replaces two appliances (grinder and coffee maker) with this one on my counter. I have two issues with this machine: 1. This unit is 16.61"H. Turns out, it does NOT fit under the cabinets above my kitchen counter--by a fraction of an inch. I had to find a place without an upper cabinet to position this. Now, granted, Im in an older home when kitchens werent as spacious as they are today. Your cabinets may differ. Just keep in mind the height clearance of this maker for your specific situation. 2. You can adjust the coffee brew strength (light, med, strong) and the amount of ground coffee in servings (2,4,6,8,10). But you CANNOT adjust the AMOUNT OF WATER. It will ALWAYS use the ENTIRE amount of water in the reservoir. This means you cannot brew for 2 cups and it only uses 2 cups out of the full 10 cup reservoir. Well, you *could but you would get ground coffee for 2 cups and water for 10 cups (assuming it was full), making a very dilute pot of coffee. This is a huge inconvenience as I dont always need a full 10 cups brewed. It would be nice to fill the machine reservoir up once (10 cups) and be able to brew up to 5 times 2 cups each before having to refill the machine with water. For what it does, the $250 price point feels pretty overpriced. But it does make a good pot of coffee. And being able to replace two machines with one, may be worth the extra expense.