Why I Bought a Coffee Maker

People familiar with my YouTube channel know that my mornings start with Bible reading and prayer, which I call quiet time. This daily routine/ritual has served me well for nearly 15 years. It’s a sacred time that I value deeply. Coffee is a crucial companion to this ritual.

I started using a Keurig coffee maker in the mid-2000s. I’m not sure when they hit the market, but when I first became aware of Keurig, I knew it was a product that could elevate the home coffee experience. When I first started using one, I loved it.

Over time, and several Keurigs later, I eventually fell out of love with Keurig. The Keurig was taking a long time to make a single cup of coffee; it was annoyingly loud and took up so much counter space. Of those reasons, the counter-space issue bothered me the most. I wanted to get my kitchen counter space cleared off!

Manual coffee makers were the best option for solving the counter space issue. The best options were either a French press or a pour-over system.

I had played with the French press, but the cleaning always seemed like a hassle.

So, I opted for the pour-over method and bought a Chemex.

I’ve been making my morning coffee in my Chemex for over three years.

The common misconception is that I’m a coffee snob. Let me set the record straight… I don’t care about coffee that much. I didn’t move to a pour-over for a better cup of coffee; I started using a Chemex to get the Keurig off my kitchen countertop. I use Cafe Bustelo in my pour-over… I’m not grinding exotic beans every morning. I’m a simple guy with simple needs!

Something I didn’t notice at first was that the quality of my coffee improved dramatically from the Keurig, which I found out later when I would drink Keurig coffee while wincing with disappointment. Having coffee that is dialed into my taste and brewed at my ideal temperature every morning has become an important standard for my mornings.

Recently, our family moved from Sarasota, FL (Where we still own a home and would like you to buy…) to Huntsville, AL, to serve at a church. Without going into great detail, it seemed like God was in it, and we walked through the door of opportunity. However, I’ve been out of local church ministry (in the employment sense) for about a decade. Ashleigh and I both work for ourselves (and still do), but I haven’t left my house to go to work since my twenties. It’s a life adjustment and a big one…

As I just mentioned, we haven’t sold our house in Florida yet. We’re trying to keep ourselves from getting overextended, so while we wait for it to sell, we’re committed to living in a very affordable townhouse in Alabama. We’ve squeezed about 2,700 square feet into 1,300. Ashleigh and I both gave up our home offices for this season, which means we don’t have anywhere to escape to. (Being more introverted, this impacts me more deeply than it does her.)

I like to spend my morning Bible reading and prayer in solitude. I mean… it’s called my quiet time for a reason! But the loss of my home office has presented me with an ultimatum… either wake up crazy early or do your morning routine in the mix of the kids getting ready for school. I’ve opted to wake up crazy early!

This is where the pour-over coffee becomes a problem…

In Florida, if I wanted to spend my mornings alone, the only thing I had to do was get to my home office before everyone woke up. While I was usually awake for more than an hour before the rest of my family, I didn’t have to be. All I had to do was get my coffee made before everyone woke up. Realistically, I needed to be up for about 30 minutes before everyone else.

Completing the Chemex brew takes 11 minutes and 22 seconds. (Yes, I timed it…) That time involves me staying with the process and not doing anything else. Because I try to do more than one thing while brewing, it generally takes approximately 15 minutes to complete the Chemex coffee process.

In this townhouse, my morning routine needs to be completed before everyone gets up, so making coffee is no longer something that needs to happen before I start my quiet time; it’s something that takes from that time. Coffee is now something I’m paying for with the currency of time. I’m giving up productive minutes to make coffee… and that’s not working for me.

After three entire months of giving over my time to making coffee manually, I finally bought a coffee maker. And it’s significantly impacted my schedule, which I’ll explain soon.

I knew I didn’t want a Keurig when I started looking for a coffee maker. (Which I had already grown tired of years before.) But I wasn’t going to be able to go from a dialed-in custom brew to a $25 Mr Coffee. I mean… I could… but…like… I can’t.

The two main options I looked at were the Technovorm Mocca Master and the GE Cafe Smart Drip Coffee Maker.

The Mocca Master is straightforward and basically has no more options than an on/off switch. Now, the reviews are incredible; apparently, it’s one of the best coffee makers on the planet. A bonus is that it comes in yellow, a personal brand color I’ve grown fond of. However, the lack of options and (more importantly) auto-brew settings were concerning.

The GE Cafe brewer had a distinct advantage… I have a long history with GE Cafe appliances. Our kitchen in Florida is outfitted entirely with GE Cafe. In fact, I’m writing this in my Alabama kitchen, and I could preheat the oven in Florida from my phone right here!

The GE Cafe Smart Drip Coffee Maker is exactly that… smart! You can set your brew temperature and boldness and set it to auto-brew. To take things even further, you can connect the brewer to WiFi and control it from your phone.

That last feature is my favorite!

I’m not proud of this, but I’m a bit of a snoozer. I rarely ever get out of bed at the time I intended. So when I finally wake up, I go to the bathroom, and right before brushing my teeth, I start brewing my coffee from my phone.

So you might be wondering… is it really worth the time you’ve gotten back? I would answer that with a resounding yes! That little bit of time back has made a big impact on my morning.

With 15 minutes added to my morning, I’m no longer rushing to ensure I’ve completed my morning routine before my family starts coming downstairs.

My typical morning quiet time is around 90-120 minutes. Using this coffee maker has freed up about 12% of that time, allowing me to get started and get the most out of my morning.