For those who do not know how drip based coffee brewing works, let me explain what real coffee is like. The instant coffee that you get in the market is basically the liquid obtained through processing the coffee beans which are insoluble by themselves. The flavours and oils from coffee beans are extracted and the insoluble fibre then disposed of. A lot many people who are unfamiliar with preparation of ‘filter coffee’ made in parts of India misconstrue coffee makers to be machines that can prepare coffee out of the instant coffee powders and later get disappointed. The drip coffee makers more or less use the same set up as a coffee percolator. It comprises of a container with holes at the bottom and a collection flask below it. Coffee bean powder is put into the top portion and then you pour boiling water on top. The water then extracts the flavour and oils from the coffee beans and the decoction gets collected in the flask below. It is more or less identical to tea preparation except that you don’t boil coffee powder in water and filter it. It tends to lose its flavour and the tinier coffee granules tend to seep through the filter if you do that way.
Now the drawbacks of a coffee percolator is that you have to yourself boil water separately and percolation takes quite a lot of time(as much as an hour) to get decoction to serve two people. I was looking up various options for a drip based coffee makers and zeroed in on the Panasonic NC-GF1 for the price as well as the reported speed at which it prepares coffee decoction. True to what the company claims, the speed is fantastic. You can have coffee brew for making two cups of coffee in as little as three minutes.
The overall setup is more or less identical to most other coffee makers with a filter at the top. A container in which you pour water which gets boiled and is made to flow onto the filter on which you add roasted coffee bean powder and then the water percolates through coffee powder and gets collected in the container below. You can make up to ten cups of coffee in ten to fifteen minutes and the decoction is fairly thick. Of course you won’t get the identical thickness as a regular percolator but considering the fact that it is so quick, the little loss of thickness is not at all an issue. I often end up waking barely before rushing to work and going through the ordeal of preparing the percolation coffee in the old fashioned way was difficult. I used to spend a fortune every month on the instant coffee powder because I am a heavy coffee drinker. This coffee maker helps you make filter coffee as fast as instant coffee. Those who prefer chicory mixed coffee will find that the flavour and aroma you get using this is as good as traditional coffee filters.
The product is quite affordably priced online. Considering the fact that the regular steel percolators of bigger capacities cost as high as 800 Rs, paying a few hundred more to get this machine is a far better idea. Look out for an electronics sale day on one of the shopping sites and you may end up buying it at a good bargain. On an average this item sells at around 1600 Rs during deals.
Cleaning isn’t really an issue. The only thing that needs regular cleaning is the filter itself which can easily be removed and washed. Though you may choose to use additional paper filter if you want easily disposable filters to save time on cleaning, it is not really required. The anti-drip valve does its job and prevents excess liquid in the filter from spilling down when the collecting jar is removed. However, it doesn’t drip precisely into the jar. A bit of coffee decoction may tend to drop over the cover of the collecting container which isn’t really an issue because the holes on top of the container seem to be designed to make the spill flow into the beaker.
The product is quite light weight and made of very good quality food grade plastic. It comes with a year’s warranty. I have so far not had any issues while using it over the last one month and hence cannot comment on how it is serviced. You do not even require an instruction manual because everything is quite simple. Pour water into the water tank, put as much coffee powder in the conical filter and switch on the machine. You have two cups of coffee in 2-3 minutes.
One thing to be cautious about is to ensure you do not fill coffee powder till the brim of the filter. When hot water pours over it, the coffee beans may float and overflow into the conical dripper and end up soiling the entire equipment. The anti-drip valve will fail because of the sediments and the liquid will fall on the hot plate below the flask.
To sum up, this is among the best coffee makers you can get at such a price especially considering the speed at which you get pretty thick coffee. All you need is some milk and sugar which you can prepare while the decoction is getting brewed.