Oh, the pain and turmoil it takes to brew a cup of coffee. Pull out the drawer, grab the measuring device, plunge into the ground coffee canister, and start measuring. If I had to do my taxes as well it would be only incrementally more tedious, but there is a bright spot. Life teaches you that a little effort can go a long way, and the Moccamaster KBGV 10-cup coffeemaker is proof of that.
I went into this test with a jaded attitude. I have tested high-end machines many times and bragged to friends that my test coffeemaker is probably better than what they have at Starbucks. (In reality, that’s not even remotely true or possibly naive on my part.) Testing out the Moccamaster KBGV at first, I had the snobbery dialed up to 11 as I poured in the coffee grounds and water, sat back, and waited.
And waited some more.
I pondered the nature of existence a little in my head.
You see, with other high-end machines, you push a button and out comes the magic elixir. I’m not a patient person. But then again, it should be noted that those high-end brewers can cost north of $2.000. The Moccamaster KBGV is a different beast. Yes, it’s a drip coffee machine that costs $369 instead of $2,000, and you have to work a little. My elbows are getting a real workout!
Also, I really should have done some extended reading or chat sessions with my buddy Google Gemini about this brewer before I judged. People have owned and used this machine for 30 years and they swear the coffee tastes just as good now as it did on day one. With those high-end machines, you have to clean them quite often and swap out the filter. There is always babysitting in life.
I don’t mean to get too philosophical here, but we are talking about my favorite drink: the Moccamaster KBGV is an absolute winner precisely because it makes you measure things and wait a little. Anything real and lasting, like love or the Star Wars films, takes time to develop. I was being sarcastic before in case you didn’t know it, because the benefits of actually having to think instead of just pushing a button to make your coffee means you also can experiment, adjust, and become a better version of yourself.
Growth requires persistence. “No one else can do the push-ups for you” said a wise person who was obviously not wise enough that I can remember his name.
I bought several brands of coffee and tried lighter mixes, but the Moccamaster KBGV consistently impressed me with each cup. Yes, it comes in 20 different colors. (The company actually picks a color of the year and in 2025 it is pistachio, a.k.a light green.) There’s a switch for brewing a half pot or a full pot. It’s a 10-cup system. The options are here in abundance! Again, sarcasm. But I loved it; I prefer unabundance. I don’t want as many options in life. I’d prefer a world where there was one social media platform. It should probably be Instagram, with apologies to Elon Musk. I wish we could only pick from two different car companies, either Volvo or Volvo. I want fewer complexities, not more. I want less nuance.
Another thing that’s a nice little bonus is that the machine stops brewing when you pull out the carafe because, while I would never do this in a million years, some people like to grab a quick cup before the machine is fully ready to let you start your morning the best way possible.
Fewer components means there are fewer points of failure. That is a personal pursuit of mine as well, a life goal. The Moccamaster KBGV is like a physical book compared to a fancy e-reader. It just works. It will likely just keep working. The passing fads will pass. This machine? It will likely outlive the chatbots, the electric cars, the social media apps, and certainly those fancy-nancy high-end brewers.
Really, my elbows don’t mind.
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